Bar Mitzvah Abroad Sparks Idea For Back Home

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Baruch Ezagui

When Shluchim Danny and Batsheva Cohen were planning their son Yisroel‘s Bar Mitzvah, they decided to come back to their roots, where they gain inspiration for their Shlichus in Chevron, Israel.

“Everyone comes to Chevron to celebrate Bar Mitzvahs,” Rabbi Cohen told COLlive. “And while we thank G-d made our other sons’ Bar Mitzvahs in Chevron, for our youngest son we thought it would be really special to come to New York to 770 and the Rebbe’s Ohel for a meaningful celebration.”

Yisroel’s Bar Mitzvah celebration included a special Kiddush at Bais Shmuel Chabad Shul in Crown Heights and the sponsorship of the Shul’s annual Shavuos Ice Cream party.

It was followed by a formal Bar Mitzvah celebration joined by family, friends, and fellow Shluchim, a week later at the Jewish Children’s Museum.

But the celebration didn’t end there, with a special initiative launched at the kiddush farbrengen.

It was during the Kiddush at Bais Shmuel that an idea was born, to create a Shabbos Mevorchim Tehillim Minyan at the Me’aras Hamachpela in Chevron, Rabbi Cohen told COLlive.

“We made a Hachlata to start a Minyan for Tehillim each Shabbos Mevorchim, beginning with the upcoming month of Tammuz, to mark the 25th year of Gimmel Tammuz,” Rabbi Cohen said.

Rabbi Cohen says the whole experience of making a Bar Mitzvah in New York was very special for his entire family.

“Sometimes, we in Chevron take it for granted how lucky we are to be so close we are to the holy site, and here we feel so fortunate to be so close to the place that we all take our Kochos and inspiration from,” he said.