Yair's Album

Yair was due to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on 12th October 2023. On the morning of 7th October, in an act of war, hundreds of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel while firing thousands of rockets. Yair's Bar Mitzvah plans were derailed. His mum had already collected the album I had made for his celebration, and I do know that he was able to go ahead and use it anyway, just a few months later! I made a Bar Mitzvah album for Yair's brother, Gavriel, back in 2021. Back then we were still in the throes of Covid-19, so Gavriel's Bar Mitzvah celebration must have been a bit different from the norm too.

Yair is interested in space and the galaxies. He enjoys reading books like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, and his favourite food is sushi. The family was planning to hold his Bar Mitzvah outdoors, so mum asked me to feature nature on the cover of Yair's album and to use green and burnt orange colours.

I have shown Yair with a book in one hand and some chopsticks in the other. Behind him are some planets and stars, to reflect his interest in space. On the right is the logo for his Bar Mitzvah and at the bottom some more sushi and two of Yair's favourite books. I added some leaves as well, to cover the nature theme.
Yair's Bar Mitzvah and the date appears at the top in English and at the bottom in Hebrew. The lettering is in gold.

I decorated five pages inside the album as well. The opening page featured some planets and stars. Next I showed two of Yair's favourite books, "Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief" and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". A page was devoted to Yair's taste for sushi, below, and I added the logo of his Bar Mitzvah invitation to another page too. Finally, I created a little outdoor scene, imaging where Yair's Bar Mitzvah was due to take place.

"Your books are always such a special addition to our smachot [joyous occasions]. Thank you so, so much." Yair's mum wrote to me.

She also wrote this piece about the war and her son's Bar Mitzvah and shared it on Facebook. I am sharing it here with her permission.

Today we should be feeling happy.
Today we should be dressing up and putting on our new beautiful clothes.
Today we should be excited and over the moon.

Today we should be smiling with pride and crying happy tears.
Today we should be celebrating our son's Bar Mitzvah.
But
Today we are home.
Today we are crying.
Today we are mourning.
Today we are scared and worried for our safety and the safety of our country.
Today we are worried and praying for every single one of our soldiers, our people on the frontlines, for every single one of our people.
Today we are begging and praying for the hostages to be returned.
Today we are praying for this nightmare to be over.
Today is a different Today than it should be.

- Taryn I Baker

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Inspire Me Tuesday.