Richard regarded his freshly printed gold-embossed Bar Mitzva invitation with pride. In four more weeks, he'd be thirteen. He was now on center stage, the focal point of everyone's attention. His name appeared at the top of the invitation, printed in letters four times larger than any of the other details.
Nine years later, Richard lovingly inspected a different invitation. But this time, his name appeared in large letters on the left side, while the name of his bride-to-be appeared on the right side of the invitation. The letters of the bride and groom's names were a little less than twice the size of the other details.
Fourteen years later, Richard and his wife sat in the kitchen sealing envelopes of invitations to their son's Bar Mitzva. This time, their names appeared at the bottom, the same size as all the other details.
Twenty-five years later, as grandparents, their names appeared in tiny letters at the very bottom of the invitation to their grandson's Bar Mitzva. This time, the letters were half the size of all the other letters to accommodate for the names of the Bar-Mitzva boy's other grandparents.
Richard, already 61 and much wiser over the years, examined the invitation to his grandson's Bar Mitzva. He sighed. Compared to the invitations of his previoussimchas, his name got steadily smaller and moved steadily downward. “What's the hope of this world?”, he scoffed rhetorically. “The next move downward is not on the invitation at all, but under six feet of dirt!”
Continue reading The Invitation on this week's Breslev Israel web magazine.
Also featured this week:
Rabbi Shalom Arush: The Secret of Success
Rabbi Avraham HaCohen Kook: Atonement for the Soldiers
Dr. Zev Ballen: Superiority of Speech
Racheli Reckles: The Bright Side
Rivka Levy: The Bracelet, Up in Smoke
Dober Halevi: The Finish Line
Chaya Ovadia: The Magic Carpet Ride
Yael Karni: Miniature Worlds
Give the Gift of Emuna: The Top-10 Emuna CD Set and The Universal Garden of Emuna are on sale this week at big discounts; these are not only great gifts, but you can even buy them with your maaser (tithe) money. Have a great week!
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