There is a particular animal that I love to study.  I love to study its patterns of behavior, its social interactions, how it interacts with its family unit.  Now, this animal scares many and studying it is NOT for the faint of heart.  Only the strongest of the strong survive when it comes to studying....

the 13-year old boy.

I jest but I truly do say with genuine emotions that I adore this age.  I know a lot of people shy away from it but really, it's so beautiful in its singularity.  Straddling the threshold between boy and man, this is a time of enormous change, in every sense of the word.  For the last twelve years of his life, he has been a boy. He's acted like a boy.  He's been treated like a boy.  But for the first time in his life, he's suddenly being asked to act like a man, he's starting to think like a man, he's starting become...a man.  

And this glorious life event is the reason I was invited to take a peek into this absolutely paradisiac family.  I use that word purposely.  While I am sure their days are filled with sibling battles, their nights filled with hectic runnings of sport to practice to rehearsal and back again and it rarely feels like paradise.  But for someone like me, who hopes and dreams that one day this is how my family will look, it truly is paradise.  To see how this family interacts with each other, with no regard for teen norms, with no care about who is watching, I want my family to openly express their love for each other and gratitude that these are the people that G-d has blessed me with, just like this family does.  

But back to this young man, who truly is a product of the loving family he was born into.  To see such a wise soul in such a young man is a rare find. He is the ultimate yin and yang.  He is quiet, yet silly.  He is thoughtful, but goofy.  He is wise beyond his years but he also possesses a spirit inside of him that is saved only for the innocence of the young.  He is only thirteen yet he understands the magnitude of wearing the tallis of his great grandfather that has been passed down through FOUR generations.  

What a joy it was to join him and him family at the MAGNIFICENT Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, NJ and then to watch him and his friends party the night away at Top Dog in Cherry Hill, NJ.  I am so thankful I was invited to witness this joyous event celebrating this absolutely wonderful young boy-now-OFFICIALLY-a-man.

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