Lickety-Split Bar Mitzvah Miracles

Posted by JewishMom on May 24, 2020 in Current Events, Inspiration, Israel, Jewish Moms, Motherhood, My life | 21 comments

Yoel’s lickety-split aliya l’Torah this past Shabbat was beautiful. Yoel read his aliya nicely and we were all so happy to be able to celebrate afterward at a small kiddush with friends and neighbors. In my eyes, on the continuum between boy and man, this Shabbat seems to have moved Yoel a notch man-ward, b”H.
But preparing a Shabbat bar mitzvah in 58 hours, from when we found out late Wednesday night that the shul next door would be allowed to open until Yoel actually read from the Torah Shabbat morning, wasn’t a simple feat for this Jewish Mom.
I had already been feeling run-down before this lickety-split aliya l’Torah marathon. And I knew that there would be things I wouldn’t be able to get to since I had so little time and wasn’t operating on a full tank.
Thursday morning I spent a few hours designing a digital invitation and sending it out. And I spent Thursday afternoon doing a colossal 2-shopping-cart trip at the supermarket. I was feeling faint by the time I reached “cake ingredients” and “treat bags for kids” at the end of my shopping list. I felt sad, guilty even, but I would not be able to take care of those. Maybe I could order a cake and royal-icing cookies from my neighbor who sells? And put one of my kids in charge of buying ready-made treat bags?
I went to sleep as soon as I got home from the supermarket at 6 PM and only woke up at 6 AM Friday morning. In my lickety-split aliya l’Torah fog, I forgot about all my cake, cookie, and treat bags plans.
Then, around noon on Friday, I got a call from my dear friend Chaya. She told me that she had made a cake for Yoel. And she would be sending it over in a taxi.
And a few hours later, her breathtaking cake (see below) arrived. I was almost moved to tears, I felt so grateful and loved. In addition, she had sent along treat bags, and personalized Yoel/tefillin royal-icing cookies made by her daughter!

But that wasn’t the last of our lickety-split aliya l’Torah wonders.
Half an hour before Shabbat started, I realized that I’d forgotten to make rice, so I only had schnitzel to serve for the main course that night! I was exhausted after pushing myself the whole day, and the kitchen was upside down. There was no way I would be making rice…
And then there was a knock on the door. It was my Tehran-born neighbor, Gitty, with a pot full of her delicious Persian rice, with the fried potatoes on the bottom. We wouldn’t only be having rice that night in the end, we would be eating some of the best rice in the world!
I felt then, and again and again over the course of the Shabbat, like Hashem had seen me working so hard to pull everything together to make this aliya l’Torah a special event for Yoel. And on such short notice. And even though I wasn’t feeling well. And even though it was so disappointing that our parents would be missing the bar mitzvah of their oldest grandson. And He was telling me, “Chana’le, My dear daughter, you’ve done enough. I’ll take it from here.”

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