Elisha's Album

Elisha is my youngest son's best friend. They first met when his Mum and I went to Mum & Baby Group together, and they have remained good friends ever since, even though they now go to different schools.

Elisha recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and Mum asked me to create an album for this special occasion. Elisha is a sporty guy and enjoys playing cricket. He is dedicated to his faith so mum asked me if I could include the Kotel, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem in my design, and also show him wearing his tefillin. The Kotel is the holiest of Jewish sites, sacred because it is a remnant of the Herodian retaining wall that once enclosed and supported the Second Temple. It has also been called the "Wailing Wall" by observers because for centuries Jews have gathered there to lament the loss of their temple. Tefillin are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. They are worn by male observant Jews during weekday morning prayers.

Elisha is also a keen supporter of Carlton Football Club, a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, and Mum wanted the Australian and Israeli flags on the album too (Elisha, and his parents, are both Australian and Israeli).

I have shown blue-eyed Elisha wearing his tefillin on his arm and on his forehead. He is holding a cricket bat, and the stumps and bails are next to him. Elisha wears a white t-shirt when he plays cricket and it has his name in navy blue letters printed on the back of it. Allowing for a little artistic license, I put it on the front of his t-shirt instead. The Carlton badge, and the flags of Australia and Israeli, are to his left. The background box is a photo of the Kotel.

The red lettering shows Elisha's name and birthday in Hebrew. The Star of David, or Magen David, in two corners add another Jewish element.

As always, I decorated five pages inside the album. The opening page featured a cricket bat, stumps and a ball. A photograph of the Kotel and then Elisha's small black leather tefillin followed. The badge of his favourite team, Carlton, came next, whilst the last page in the album featured the Australian and Israeli flags.

Mum declared it "Perfect!". "I love it!" she said.