Rabbi Yaakov Naman from Kiryat Ono shared two special occasions that were celebrated last Shabbat in his synagogue.
The first was the bar mitzvah of Ben Amar, brother of the observation soldier, Shirat Yam Amar, who was murdered on Simchat Torah at her post in Nachal Oz. The family needed to muster extra strength in order to emerge from their grief and celebrate Ben's bar mitzvah. "In the end, they were all able to rejoice," said Rabbi Naman. "We felt Ben's sister was with us, and even the tallitot commemorated her!" (See the photos, which were taken before Shabbat.)
The second bar mitzvah "boy," Menashe Hakak Halevi, is the Amar's neighbor, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday. No, that's not a typo. When Menashe turned 13, his father was very ill and passed away soon afterward, so he never had a bar mitzvah. Now, for the first time in his life, he learned to read from the Torah.
During the shiva for Shirat Yam, Menashe helped the Amars in many ways. At the time, no one knew that they would yet celebrate together, transmitting a message of triumph of the Jewish spirit and of connection to eternal values.
You can listen to Sivan’s latest podcast episode on Shavuot here: https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/sivan-says/sivan-says-naso-shavuot
