Well, a few more e-mails and it became clear to me that tennis and reading are his main hobbies, whilst the Jewish theme could be dealt with quite easily by showing him wearing his kippa (skullcap) and tefillin (phylacteries, or boxes containing Biblical verses). My customer also thought that the Bar Mitzvah boy would like his Hebrew name on the cover. I added the words בר מצוה (Bar Mitzvah) directly below.
The tefillin are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah and are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Putting on tefillin is the first mitzvah assumed by a Jewish male upon his Bar Mitzvah. Usually boys are trained to start wearing them one to two months before their thirteenth birthday. During this period they put on tefillin but do not recite a blessing. Subsequent to the Bar Mitzvah, a specific blessing, "Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to put on tefillin," is recited whenever they are worn.
The Bar Mitzvah boy is holding a blue book in his left hand (above). This book is a tikkun, a study guide used when preparing to chant the Torah reading in the synagogue. I illustrated his overall love of reading by adding the small pile of books by his side and he is seen playing tennis, with the yellow tennis ball flying through the air nearby.
This order arrived at it's destination well in time for the celebration and my customer wrote to tell me that she loved it and was very excited about giving it to the Bar Mitzvah boy. I do hope that he liked it.
1 comments:
Your work is beautiful!
Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment - -
Best,
Annie
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