A mitzvah is a good deed in modern Jewish lexicon. And this past Sunday a group of friends got together to do one. Our dear friend Elinor wanted to purchase a tallit (prayer shawl) to give to her grandson for his upcoming bar mitzvah this summer in upstate New York. Given that we all live in the Pasadena area, there are not many options to do this kind of shopping, other than the synagogue gift shop or perhaps online. One evening a few months ago we were talking about this over dinner, and I suggested a field trip to the more Jewish side of town, Fairfax Avenue, in west Los Angeles, home to Jewish bakeries, delis, gift shops, etc. This was where David and I had purchased the tallitot for our daughters' b'nei mitzvot years ago, having been able to purchase our son's in New York City on a family vacation.
With the busy schedules of 5 women to consider, it took a few months to coordinate this adventure, but last Sunday we piled into Randi's Prius and took off for the other side of town. We found Solomon's, the shop I remembered, and enlisted the aid of its owner - trust me, there was a lot of advice coming from 5 women. After purchasing the tallit and a few other items for the bar mitzvah boy, we then went and had a wonderful deli lunch at Cantors, childhood memories for Randi, Susi and me - not a lot of deli, either , for us in Pasadena. I came home with rye bread, bagels, corned beef, pastrami and the best garlic pickles in the world for my family - we had great lunches this week.
Here is Mrs. Clymer, the very proud grandmother, with Matthew's new tallit:
Comments (1)
How fascinating, I never knew that's what a mitzvah was. Great concept. Sounds like you had a great day shopping too!
Posted by anne | June 8, 2008 4:59 AM
Posted on June 8, 2008 04:59