Bar Mitzvah Magazine 2014

How to believe in yourself when others don’t
Comment on the lessons
you learn from the stories at
By: Gayle Zagha
Hillel Yeshiva
An 8th grade boy is in a lower math track.
But, he is really trying to do better. He
practices and practices during all of his
free time and ,yet, he still fails his quizzes.
Everyone keeps telling him to stop
trying, “You’re never going to get any better.
You’re not smart.” He started to believe
it. So, he stopped trying and kept on
failing. After a while, he thought to himself,
“Wait! I shouldn’t listen to this. I can
pass.” The night before his next quiz, he
studied for hours. During the quiz, he kept
thinking to himself, “I can do this, I can do
this. I will do this.” When he got his quiz
back, he was scared to look. He covered
the grades and closed his eyes. Finally, he
opened his eyes and uncovered the grade.
He got a 95%. He was so proud and so was
his teacher. From then on, he wouldn’t listen
to what others would say about him.
Only what he thought of himself.
TorahContest.com
Millions of people can
believe in you, and yet
none of it matters if you
don’t believe in yourself.
By: Linda Sasson
Hillel Yeshiva
One day, I wanted to try to play baseball
with my friend. I started to throw the
ball up in the air and I tried to hit it but
I missed. I kept trying to hit the ball but
it was no use because I kept missing. My
friend said, “Give it up. You’ll never be
as good as me.” After she said that, I felt
really bad. And, I believed that I wasn’t
going to be as good as her. Then, every
day after school, I went outside and my
dad pitched to me. I did a little better
because I got one hit, but it didn’t go so
far. The next day, I went outside again to
practice. I hit the ball up into the trees.
I was jumping up and down because I
got such a good hit. I ran and gave my
dad the biggest hug and thanked him
for making me so good at baseball. I
learned from that to never give up because
everything is possible.
By: Sari Alfaks
Magen David Yeshivah
Fear can prevent you from reaching your
life goals and dreams. If it’s your dream to
be a lawyer, you should push yourself to
get there and enjoy doing it. If you have
a job interview and you get very nervous
about it, you won’t succeed. An opportunity
like this comes once in a lifetime. You
must be relaxed and calm and believe that
you could succeed. Fear is all imagination
and the only person causing fear is you.
By: Estelle Saad
Yeshivah of Flatbush
There once was a girl who never tried anything
new. She would never talk to anyone
else other than the girls she knew all
her life. When she went to a new school,
she was forced to make new friends and
try new things. She joined many teams
and made so many friends. She was glad
that she stepped out of her comfort zone
and wished she had tried it before. Don’t
wait for an opportunity to knock on your
door. You should knock on its doors.
By: Laurie Rae Haber
Barkai Yeshivah
Sarah went to a store to buy new clothes.
She saw an exotic dress that she liked a
lot. She saw a price tag. It was only $20.
She was afraid that her friend wouldn’t
like the dress. She was debating if she
should buy it or not. She liked the dress
and it was cheap, but her friends might
not like it. In the end, Sarah didn’t buy
the dress. She came to the store the next
day and the dress was $50. Sarah lost out
on the dress because of fear. She learned
that day not to think about what anybody
thinks.
To see sources for the
quotes in the magazine
Log on TorahValues.com
search kids’ quotes sources
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