Overweight Suitcase Leads to 2 Bar Mitzvahs

On his way to CGI Florida, counselor Motty Smith encountered one issue after the next. He understood the reason when he struck up a conversation with an Asian family…

By Anash.org reporter

On the way to CGI Florida, counselor Motty Smith encountered one issue after the next. He understood the reason when he struck up a conversation with an Asian family…

Smith was with fellow staff members Yisroel Weiss, Sholom Brummel, and Yossi Zaltzman, in the airport traveling to Florida, getting ready to give the campers of CGI Florida the summer of their lives. Smith was ahead of the others in line, but was held up when the agent told him that his luggage was overweight.

Smith stepped aside to rearrange his luggage and then rejoined the line to the counter. Yet, despite the fact that he was first in line, the agents made him wait a considerable amount of time.

After they finally checked him in, Smith decided to wait another minute to allow his friends to catch up to him so they could go through security together.

“As I was waiting, an Asian family walked into the airport with a young boy. Despite the fact that they didn’t appear to be Jewish, and I wasn’t even sure if the boy was thirteen years old, I decided that it couldn’t hurt to ask,” Smith told Anash.org.

It turned out that the mother was Jewish, and the son had just turned 13 a few months earlier! The boy had never celebrated his bar mitzvah or put on tefillin, so Smith put on tefillin with him right there in the airport, and celebrated an impromptu bar mitzvah with the other staff members.

“After seeing what we had accomplished, we got a push to continue doing mivtzoim in the airport, and we put on tefillin with another 3 Yidden, with one of them being a karkafta – our second for the day,” Smith said.

“What started off as a frustrating delay – an overweight suitcase, and a held up line, ended up turning into five Yidden putting on tefillin, with two of them celebrating their bar mitzvah,” Smith concluded.