The Best Two Sentences In The Book

(Picture courtesy of soferoftzfat.com)

"Hard to say which came first, the spiritual void or capitalism's rush into it. Did the bar mitzvah party industry arise to warm up an event that had already gone spiritually cold, or did the party planners and souvenir merchants corrode what had been a simpler, more earnest affair?"

Mark Oppenheimer's book "Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America" provides insight into the observance of this ritual in 21st Century America. After reading it, however, I realized how out of touch I was with the majority of American Jewry.

My thought about bar mitzvahs today can be found here.

Chabakuk Elisha's reflections on his son's bar mitzvah can be found here.

For a pair of superior quality tefillin see Sofer of Tzfat's website here.