Blog Post #1500! Avivah's Bat Mitzvah

Today was a very special day indeed.

A young friend, Avivah, had her Bat Mitzvah.

The ceremony of a young Jewish girl that is her transitioning from childhood to adulthood at age

thirteen

in the Jewish Community.

I first met Avivah eight or nine years ago. She was just a tiny little thing, but she

impressed me even then.

She would attend the three hour Saturday religious services in the synagogue with her mom and she knew all the Hebrew chants/songs/blessings by heart and sang them from her heart. She sat still and paid rapt attention.

I remember thinking then that I wanted to be around for this child's Bat Mitzvah!

 Avivah has grown into a lovely young woman. Thirteen is such a beginning of huge changes in ones life. She led the services today with all the dignity of someone much older; mature. She had studied long and arduously and it showed in her ability to chant from the readings of the Torah. She gave her end of the Bat Mitzvah speech about Equality and Racism. It was a very grown up subject and she made us all listen closely.

 She made her mom proud along with many visiting relatives, and friends who came from near and far.

 And as if that was not enough she gave a cello recital after the religious service as we ate lunch in the large community room adjacent to the temple.

 She is also an accomplished musician.

 I was met there by friends I had not seen in a while and it gave me great joy to be surrounded by friendship and love.

 Here I am with Janet and Karen, the two women who I met when I first came to this synagogue probably... could it be almost 15 yrs ago? We used to go to lunch after services together each week.
And here we were again sitting together enjoying the joy of Avivah's Bat Mitzvah, this little girl they used to baby sit for and for whom I crocheted a huge "Doggie Blanket" that she still has!

Memories! What a good day it was.