Maya Bat Mitzvah

My baby Maya is 12 years old. She was born at the Whittington Hospital, London, at 3 am on a warm Friday morning. Clare was exhausted after a 10 hour labour and so the midwife handed Maya over to me and said: your wife needs to rest. The following 4 hours were the most magical I have ever experienced. I held my newborn baby in my arms and introduced her to the world she was born into. She seemed to be listening; she was looking around curiously and didn't even cry once. When I wasn't talking to her, we just sat quietly together. I was the one crying with joy. As dawn broke and the first rays of sunshine appeared, the room filled with light. Maya has been radiant with this light ever since.

Two days ago we celebrated Maya's Bat Mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage. It's a beautiful ancient ritual which has stood the test of time. In today's bland modern world of cultural homogeneity, very few people connect with their ancestral traditions. I am proud of Maya for choosing to do this and for elegantly walking the path of her Mitzvah. She studied for six months with the wonderful Aviva and Rabbi Elisha from Ve'ahavta community in Zichron Yaakov. On the day, Maya's radiant light filled the room once again: the synagogue during her Parasha chanting and the Kibbutz dinning hall during her solo singing at the party. My baby Maya is 12 .