MAZAL TOV, MINI BELOVED SIBLING!

This is post number eight hundred on this blog - honestly, wow!  

As per established tradition, I dedicate this entry to something - or, rather, someone - special; in this case, my wonderful niece, my Beloved Sibling's oldest, to whom, if the memory serves me right, I have been referring as Mini Beloved Sibling. The following is the speech that I gave at her Bat Mitzvah; granted, three years passes since, but who is counting?  Also, after delivering the said speech I was advised to become a motivational speaker - laughs galore.

Good Evening, Everyone

My apologies – as any self-respecting American, I will speak in English.

Mazal Tov to my dear niece, to my sister, my brother in law, and all our extended families!

I was your first official babysitter, sweetheart, – but I will refrain from the usual stories that loving aunts so enjoy to impart. Well, maybe one – when you were all of eight months old, we had to go to the Court House, where not one, but two judges pronounced you smarter than 90% of the jurors they got.

Now, to get a little more serious, I want to talk about the special time of your birth.  You were born on Chanukah.  If you look at our holidays, Chanukah is considered a minor one – well, nice American gentiles think that it’s a major Jewish holiday, because it happens in the winter…well, it’s a minor holiday when we remember the miracle of the oil and gain about 5-10 pounds by eating latkas and sufganiout.  We also periodically forget what precisely we are celebrating, because it’s not just the miracle of the oil - it’s a miracle of defeating our enemies against all odds; the miracle of our spiritual survival; the victory in the bloody civil war that our ancestors fought against other Jews who refused to be Jews

If you look at the more modern history, nothing reminds of Chanukah more than the Communist regimes.  They were also going to build a glorious new world - only, unlike Hellenists, whose culture became the foundation for the magnificence that is Western civilization, Communists destroyed culture; and, tragically, a lot of the Communists were Jews.  Jews that disavowed religion as the opium for the masses  - and were actively trying to erase any and all religious observance, beginning, of course, with Judaism. 

This, my beautiful girl, was the country where your mother, your aunt, and your uncles were born.  Being a religious Jew was an almost impossible task; there was no Torah education; teaching Hebrew was punishable by jail; same went for being a Zionist.

But our family managed to leave, to find freedom, and to re-discover our heritage.  You were the first member of our family to be born on free soil – and you were born on Chanukah, the holiday on which we celebrate our spiritual survival. 

You, my dear niece, your brother, your sisters – you are the biggest blessings; you are also our victory dance! Here, tonight, in the Holy Land, we celebrate your bat mitzvah!  Believe me, nothing else says “we won” like this evening!

I want to thank The Heavenly Father for all the blessings that He bestowed on our family, and for His constant protection. 

I wish you health and much happiness, my beloved niece!  May you continue to be sweet, loving, talented, and wonderful; may you grow up to be a great bat Yisrael, and may The Heavenly Father bless you!