Bar Mitzvah Magazine 2014

Comment on the lessons
you learn from the stories at
Letting go of past experiences
By: Sophia Rofe
Hillel Yeshiva
Rachel’s goal was to become a great actress.
One day, Rachel was invited to do
the play “Romeo and Juliet”. Rachel practiced
for months for this play and now it
was finally here. She went on stage and
started to say her lines. Right before intermission,
everyone applauded. During
intermission, Rachel decided that, since
she did so well, she didn’t really need to
practice her lines anymore. When the
play was back on, it was Rachel’s lines.
She said a few lines, but then she messed
up. After Rachel messed up her lines, she
tried again but failed. Then, Rachel ran
off the stage. A few months later, she
was asked to perform in the play “Shakespeare.”
When she received this message,
at first, she didn’t want to enter. But, then
Rachel realized, in life you only fail so that
you can try again. The lesson here is that
you should never give up. Even if you fail
terribly, you should always try again.
TorahContest.com
Sometimes you
have to let things
go for better
things to arrive.
By: Miriam Zenilman
Yeshivah of Flatbush
When I was in third grade, I was diagnosed
with a severe nut allergy. A month
later, I had an allergic reaction and was
sent to the nearest hospital. A couple
of hours later, I was once again healthy.
But, this traumatic experience had a
huge impact on me. I carried the fear of
having another allergic reaction with me
for years. However, this past summer I
was able to overcome this irrational fear.
I went on a community service trip to
Croatia and had to trust that the guide
accompanying my group would read the
ingredients on food packages correctly
as I cannot understand Croatian. At first,
I was very anxious about eating. However,
my friends encouraged me to take
risks and assured me that everything
would be fine. I took their advice and
found that they were right. As a result, I
learned that taking a chance is definitely
worth the risk.
By: Orly Alchkifati
Barkai Yeshivah
In order to live a happy life, you need to
be successful. Successful is when someone
had an embarrassing moment or
experience in their life but is still trying.
Someone who is not giving up, who forgets
about the past and starts fresh; a
person who learns from his mistakes and
tries again the second time with confidence.
For example, Sara has a goal to be
a singer. She believed that she will be a
good singer. But, when she was performing,
she saw so many people staring at her.
She forgot the song. But did she give up?
No! Later on, there was another performance.
She learned the song and learned
from her mistakes. She started fresh, new
and was confident in herself. That’s what
I call a winner - a person who keeps on
pushing and pushing until they get it right.
A person who gets up when she falls.
By: Bert Dweck
Yeshivah of Flatbush
One day, I decided to run a marathon and
tried to be the winner. I never ran more
than 2 miles in my life. I started training
every day for 45 minutes and it was going
fine. Then I ran a 10 mile marathon after
training 45 minutes a day for 3 months and
collapsed right before I reached 6 miles. I
was really upset and ashamed of myself. I
felt like I was a fool and couldn’t succeed.
I just decided to think positive and forget
about all of the stumbling blocks and mistakes
that ever happened to me. I started
my training all over again. I increased my
training to 1 hour and 30 minutes a day
and I ran the same marathon 1 year later.
I was very nervous before the marathon
that something might happen. I ended up
succeeding and winning the marathon.
I won a first place medal. The lesson I
learned was to never give up and you will
succeed.
82 Bar/Bat Mitzvah Magazine 718-909-6060 View magazine online at BMmagazine.com