Bar Mitzvah by the Brethren Sister of the Bar Mitzvah Boy… Phew

Hi! Boy, am I tired. Today is the day after Asher’s Bar Mitzvah, but I’ll get into that later. We arrived at the airport in Israel at around six in the morning on Friday from Cape Town, South Africa and went to my grandmother’s, Savta’s, house. That night, we went for Shabbat dinner at my uncle Oved and my aunt Michelle’s house and met their new puppy, Chloe. 

She is very sweet, licks a lot, and is quite tiny and fluffy. On Saturday, we did homework and then met our friend from New York for dinner, Merrill. Then, on Sunday, I went to my first voice lesson with my new teacher, Tamar, and worked on a song I was practicing for Asher’s Bar Mitzvah. Then, Asher joined us and we had a Hebrew lesson to improve our Hebrew. Troy came for his lesson, so Asher and I walked back to Savta’s house and did homework. On Monday, I had another voice lesson and worked on my Bat Mitzvah song and speech, and of course, did homework. I also continued working on Asher’s Bar Mitzvah present… Tuesday was the big day: Asher’s Bar Mitzvah! We woke up early to do the most important task of the day… Homework and a math exam! No, I’m kidding, it wasn’t the most important part of the day (duh), but we did do it. Then, after Troy did his Hebrew lesson, I went to Tamar’s house for another voice lesson. I came back and Ofer drove me to my Aunt Ronit’s house. We drove to a hair salon and met my cousin Ariel there. We hadn’t seen her yet because she was in the army when we landed. We got our hair done and dropped Ariel off at the mall, then Ronit and I went to her house to take showers, careful to keep our hair dry of course, and laid out our clothes. We got dressed, I wore my black satin skirt with the gold top and drove to the setting of the Bar Mitzvah, a very nice restaurant called Par Derriere. There, Asher, Ofer, and Troy were getting ready. The first people to arrive were my cousins, and Ronit’s two sons, Imri and Oran (if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, yes, this is the Imri who visited us in Cape Town, see Goodbye To Africa From Ella and An Ecstatic Safari Told by Ella for more details). People slowly started to trickle in until my other cousins (Oved and Michelle’s kids) came, of course, the last to arrive :-). Before the ceremony started, I changed into long black pants and my sequined pinkish-gold top.

Asher went through the movements wonderfully and said the Hebrew prayers expertly until we all got to throw candy at him and Savta stood up front to give her speech. It was beautiful. Then, Troy gave a speech about how good of a friend Asher is which was also very nice. Aba was next. I wish I could say that his speech started out the same as any other, but his speech left me speechless and crying from the beginning to the end. This, you see, was a problem because my speech was next. Previous to this speech, I had thought of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs as fun family traditions and good times to socialize, but this now changed. I stood next to Asher, still crying, and recited my speech. Then, I sang him a song called I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack. However, I was still crying, so it probably wasn’t my best performance. This, though, taught me a very important lesson. I am a perfectionist. For days and weeks, I had practiced this song so that it would be perfect. When I sang it that night it was not perfect, but it was real. Looking back on it I see that becoming so emotional really enhanced my performance, and everyone still said that I sounded amazing. I know what you’re thinking, “they’re just saying that to make you feel better about yourself”, but these are Israelis. They are harsh, though truthful, critics, so I’m happy. We ate, and then Asher and I handed out signed copies of his book to the guests (he’ll say more about that in his post). We got home at 11:50 pm and I gave Asher my Bar Mitzvah present. I’ll give you some background information first: one night in Cape Town, Asher had told me a riddle about Trixie, so, I decided to write it down and come up with the solution. I also drew illustrations to go with it. I have the link here if anyone wants to see the outcome. We went to sleep at midnight, and I woke up this morning for another voice lesson while Asher stayed asleep. When I got back, I started writing this post and then we went to eat Falafel, a deep-fried ball made of chickpeas that many Israelis enjoy. We then went to the dentist at our friend Lior’s. We just came back, and now I’m wrapping up this post. Early next week, Asher and I are flying by ourselves for the first time to Paris to visit our dad, Greg. It’s been great writing, but now I have to go. Bye!

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Ella