Welcome to a Chabad Bar Mitzvah

Avraham Tzvi Antopolsky clearly understands and welcomes the responsibility he accepted when he turned 13. By receiving an Aliyah in a service at Chabad headquarters in New York on his Hebrew birthday, by leading Friday night services and reading Torah at Shabbat morning services in Atlanta the following week, and by reading Torah at prayers in his school for the first time, the bar mitzvah boy enjoyed new experiences as an adult member of the Jewish people.

Avraham Tzvi, a seventh-grade student at Chaya Mushka Chabad Academy, is a combination of typical teen and serious Judaics student: note that his favorite school subjects are Chumash and Gemorrah. He loves sports (baseball, football, basketball), likes to read mysteries, is interested in “figuring out how things work,” and is a good artist who likes drawing portraits. He even ideated the clever tefillin-based logo used throughout the events of his bar mitzvah weekend.

Above: Avraham prepares to read Torah for morning minyan at school, with grandfather beside him.

Avraham Tzvi prepared diligently during the year leading up to his bar mitzvah. He studied weekly with Rabbi Mendy Wineberg to learn to read Torah along with studying key halachot (laws) pertinent to a bar mitzvah boy. He worked to understand and memorize a famous Chabad ma’amar, a classic meditation written by the fourth Chabad Rebbe in the mid-19th century for his own son’s bar mitzvah which has been passed down for generations. Along with his Chaya Mushka teachers, Rabbi Mendel Jacobson (Halachah) and Rabbi Dovid Rahman (Gemorrah), Avraham Tzvi expanded his Judaic studies through regular meetings with Rabbi David Goldshmidt, Rabbi Avraham Zaltzman, and Irv Rabinowitz.

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In addition to his bar mitzvah preparation, Avraham Tzvi is in his fourth year studying for Chidon Sefer Hamitzvot, a rigorous program of mastering the intricacies of all 613 Jewish mitzvot, with the intention of participating in a final program and celebration in New York with other young men in his age group from throughout the country. Upon entering Jewish adulthood, meaning that he is now personally responsible for all his interactions with other people and with G-d, Avraham Tzvi celebrated his change of status and responsibilities starting on his Hebrew birthday. He went to New York with his father and Rabbi Yossi New, where they visited the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the well-known and beloved Seventh Chabad Rebbe. There, Avraham Tzvi took the opportunity to recite the bar mitzvah ma’amar he had learned.

The next day, he was called to the Torah for an Aliyah at a morning service in the late Rebbe’s office in Brooklyn, in which minyanim meet daily and where celebrants like bar mitzvah boys receive an Aliyah when the Torah is read on Mondays and Thursdays. The office, located at 770 Ocean Parkway, is the center of the worldwide Chabad movement. While in New York, Avraham Tzvi purchased a shofar of his own (his father is an accomplished lay shofar-blower), and he started donning tefillin for daily morning prayers.

Avraham is pictured with friends at the party.

The Antopolskys are active members of Congregation Beth Tefillah in Sandy Springs. On Shabbat, Sept. 20- 21, Avraham Tzvi led the Kabblat Shabbat and Maariv services Friday night, which was followed by a dinner for his large extended family, special guests, and his classmates. He chanted the first five aliyot of his Torah portion and the Haftorah for the Shabbat morning service. Following that service, the entire congregation joined the Antopolskys for a seated kiddush catered by Kosher Gourmet. Centerpieces of large replicas of tefillin boxes underscored the centrality of tefillin in Avraham Tzvi’s life.

The bar mitzvah celebrations continued after Shabbat on Sunday evening, when the Antopolskys decorated Beth Tefillah’s social hall with blue lights and hundreds of balloons, a large sculpture of Avraham Tzvi’s name, and the table decorations of tefillin box replicas bedecked with flowers, arranged by close friend Dawn Siegel and Avraham’s mother and sisters. Guests entered the room through two columns of balloons with Avraham’s logo on top. Buffet tables held a bountiful array of fruit and dairy desserts that included a chocolate fountain, ice cream bar and plethora of pastries. Balloons, cookies, and custom kippot all bore the logo Avraham Tzvi had originally conceived for his bar mitzvah invitation.

Several speakers stepped up to the microphone during the party to offer blessings for Avraham Tzvi and prayers for Israel, including Rabbi Yossi Lew of Chabad of Peachtree City, and Avraham Tzvi’s father, David, and his sisters wrote and charmingly sang an original song. The highlight was a video of Avraham Tzvi’s pre-recorded thoughtful and occasionally humorous d’var Torah. Disc jockey Idan Cohen kept the crowd dancing for hours, and Cohn gave the celebrant and his friends turns at DJ-ing during the party, which added to the merrymaking.

Avraham cavorts in front of his mother, paternal grandmother, and sisters.

Home hospitality and synagogue and community involvement are important to their family. David, who is an electrical engineer, voluntarily blows shofar for homebound Jews on the High Holy Days, and Esther, a teacher at Chaya Mushka Children’s House, works on synagogue events and is active in myriad chessed projects. Avraham Tzvi is on the Congregation Beth Tefillah pizza team, most Thursdays, helping to make pizza the synagogue sells that day.

The Antopolskys are close-knit, adventurous, and fun-loving. They love traveling together in their van, decorating their vehicle with a giant menorah on Chanukah and joining the annual Chabad Chanukah Menorah parade. They especially enjoy outdoor events and activities, like visiting air shows, hiking, roughing it in cabins, zip-lining, and frequently visiting David’s parents’ farm in Augusta. (Yes, they know how to ride horses.)

The significance of Avraham Tzvi becoming a bar mitzvah, which literally means “son of the mitzvot,” or commandments, was shared deeply in the Antopolsky home, in which Orthodox Jewish observance is joyfully followed. Mother Esther notes, “We are so proud of Avraham Tzvi, who accomplished a tremendous amount of rigorous learning.” Father David adds, “Our son studied all year, and he got excited about what he was learning. Any time he found something special in his Torah portion we would know about it because he would say it to us, using the correct Torah trop (cantillation).”

Avraham Tzvi reflects, “I really liked preparing for my bar mitzvah, and the weekend, from start to finish, was the best time of my life!” His upbeat “can-do” personality and the values of his family, school, and community do seem to be an advantageous combo for navigating our complex, uncertain, and challenging world.