Saturday, August 27, 2016

Alex's Bar Mitzvah

Alex has been working hard for the past year on learning to read and write Hebrew to prepare for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah at Chabad San Jose.

He spent many Monday afternoons with Rabbi Aaron Cunin, Sipi, Jonathan, and his fellow students on learning the portion of the Torah he would be reading. He also had to learn to read ancient Hebrew.



Alex wrote and delivered the following speech during his Bar Mitzvah:
August 27, 2016 
Hi everyone! Thank you for joining me for my Bar Mitzvah! I would like to thank a couple of people who helped me along the way to achieve this goal. 
I would like to thank my Dad because I wouldn’t have this bar Mitzvah without him. He paid for everything for me to have this Bar Mitzvah. 
I would also like to thank my Mom for spending sometime driving me here. For the next set of people teaching me Hebrew, I would like to thank Sipi, Rabbi Aaron, Jonathan, for teaching me Hebrew. I would have never been able to speak without them so I appreciate it a lot. I want to also thank my grandma, uncle, and everyone in my class who supported me. It makes me feel confident when I become supported. Without Rabbi Aaron’s help, I wouldn’t have gotten this Bar Mitzvah. 
Now let me talk a little about my Torah portion. Moses addresses all children that if they fulfill the commandments of the Torah, they will conquer and settle in Israel keeping with God’s promise. Moses describes the land ahead of them with all kinds of food. During their 40 years in the desert, Moses mentions that man does not live on bread alone, but by the utterance of God’s mouth does a man live. Thank you for being here celebrating my Bar Mitzvah and I hope you have a great Shabbat!






I ordered a beautiful Talis for Alex to wear to his Bar Mitzvah, which fits him well.

For post-Bar Mitzvah lunch celebration/party, the Rabbi helped me to select the following items from Izzy's Bagels (one of the few Kosher restaurants in Palo Alto):
  • 3 Gourmet Lox Platters "Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Capers, Red Onions"
  • 7 lbs Israeli Salad
  • 6 lbs Hummus
  • 5 lbs Egg Salad
  • 13 Bags of Challah Rolls
  • 55 Hamentaschen (Cookies)
  • 4 Dozen Bagels
All of the food at Izzy's was quite delicious.


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