The Tallis - an essential part of any bar/bat mitzvah ensemble.

After spending a year knitting a gorgeous blue tallis bag for my son, my mother was determined to find the tallis that would do the bag justice. Yellow pages were searched for Judaica stores; the lower East Side of New York was scoured for the specimen. Finally, Ben and Grandma walked into a local store and within moments he had picked out a tallis that would cover his shoulders while praying.

The Bar Mitzvah Boy

Check out a true bar mitzvah boy with his complete set - the torah (the large velvet covered item in his hands), his tefillin (the leather item wrapped around his arm), his tallis (the scarf-like item draped over his shoulder), and his kippa, also known as a yarmulke (a head covering worn as a recognition of the Lord). Without these items, the bar mitzvah is incomplete and thus one year before Ben's ceremony, the search for each began.

What in the world?

From the day my son was born, it was clear that he would be bar mitzvahed. Although my family is not ultra religious, we do honor the traditions of our religion - Judaism. Accordingly, not a month went by without discussion of "what are you going to do for his bar mitzvah?" It didn't matter that Ben's only actions were downing large amounts of milk in his bottle, projectile vomiting and pooping in his diapers - the bar mitzvah would be here sooner than we imagined.

The Bar Mitzvah Chronicles is the tale of a mother gone mad, a family in chaos, and a young man coming into his own both as a young adult and as a spiritual entity. While the focus is on the Jewish coming of age ritual, we'll also look at all the other great and sometimes insane coming of age rituals practised all over the world (if you think the bar mitzvah circuit is bad, the quincenera puts us to shame). So hang on...it's going to be a bumpy ride.