Candle Ceremony??

First, let me make something clear. I can't stand candle-lighting ceremonies. They are phony, awkward, contrived, and I REALLY hate those forced rhymes. Any questions so far?

Now, let me brag a little about my very cool niece,
Hannah Liberman.

Hannah's Bat Mitzvah was yesterday. Of course she did a great job with her Parasha, Haftara, and drash. (Of course she did; she's a Liberman!) But here's what was impressive. As part of her preparation for her Bat Mitzvah, Hannah chose FIVE charities to support. Five!!

What does this have to do with candle-lighting ceremonies? Well, get this....

Each table at her reception was decorated in relation to one of the five charities. And then, when it came time for the... shudder.... candle-lighting ceremony.... oh, this is good. First of all, there was no hokey candelabra; just five cute chunky candles. One for each charity. And instead of calling up relatives from distant places with painful rhymes, Hannah called up EVERYONE from each table assigned to each charity. So, every single person in attendance was invited to come up and drop a symbolic token from their assigned charity into a huge bin. This represented Hannah's donations to the charities, and encouraged each person there to donate as well.

Bravo, Hannah! Overcoming tackiness is good; being a role model is GREAT!!

Love,

Aunt Esther