#adult bat mitzvah
Text
Finally, officially bat mitzvah today. I can't describe how full my heart is right now.
363 notes
·
View notes
Text
I get to take beginning Yiddish this semester :,) between that and studying for my Bat Mitzvah I'm about to be the BEST at reading the Hebrew alphabet lmaooo
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
daily painting practice feat my favorite outfit of the year and my inherited gumby/shoujo anime man proportions
#painting practice#franzia's art#wore this to a wes anderson themed adult bat mitzvah only to find the theme had been changed to blakc tie without me knowing....
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
back at it w another dp x dc prompt!! :0
you know the setup; Jack and Maddie go evil mad scientist mode and Danny and Jazz have to run away to Gotham.... except the only adult Jazz can think of that they could go to is their auntie, Harleen Quinzel.
she was the 'cool aunt', their favourite babysitter as kids, and the one who inspired Jazz to become a therapist. more importantly, she knew all about the Fenton's ghost hunting, and that ghosts were even real. Harleen never liked that the kids were being raised on top of a lab filled with dangerous weapons- she argued with her sister, Maddie, all the time about it- and she always told Jazz if their parents ever made them feel unsafe she and Danny could go to her.
but at some point, she just... dropped off the face of the earth. she still sent cards and texts, but she stopped showing up for Thanksgivings and Bat Mitzvahs. this was, of course, after she met the Joker, not that she told Maddie and the kids about that part, just that her work at Arkham was keeping her too busy to visit. even less than sane, she still wanted her family as far away from Mister J as possible.
Jazz knew auntie Harleen lived in Gotham, and she could get her number from their mom's phone. hopefully she still meant what she'd said when Jazz was a kid, and wouldn't mind two traumatised teens showing up on her doorstep.
Harley, of course, is delighted to see her favourite niece and nephew, and Ivy has to physically restrain her from coming after the Fentons with her mallet
#harley voice: do you want me to kill them for ya? cause i'll do it if you want :o)#jazz voice: n. no please don't#dc x dp#dp x dc#dc x dp crossover#dp x dc au#dp x dc prompt#dp x dc writing prompt#dc x dp prompt#dc x dp au#danny phantom x dc#dc x danny phantom#1k#2k#arcades prompts
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
Headcanon: Vulcans are Incorrigible Matchmakers
Every unpartnered person who knows a Vulcan finds themselves living in a rom-com. The Vulcan will arrange dates, meet-cutes, entire academic conferences if you want a buffet of options. They will not rest until their single friends have partnered up. They can't help it
One of a Vulcan child's early memories is of their parents and family elders hunting for their future spouse. They're bonded at the age of 7, then watch the same process happen for all their siblings, cousins, and friends.
Their bonding is probably a lot like a bar/bat mitzvah. Whatever little kid emotions it was socially acceptable to express until then are expected to be bottled up. You are now Bonded. You have a future Spouse! You are a miniature adult.
In the fulness of time, Bonding becomes Marriage, and for those who wish it, they have children of their own. Now they're on the other side of that race. They have seven short years to find this newborn a spouse. Every baby they meet is sized up as a potential in-law.
If your kids are spread out every 7 years, which seems to be pretty common, then you are perpetually playing matchmaker right up until your youngest has their bonding.
Meanwhile, having been through Pon Farr a time or two yourself, you know exactly how dangerous it is for a Vulcan adult to be unbonded.
When you meet an unbonded adult your first thought is FIND THIS PERSON A SPOUSE, STAT! Even if that person isn't Vulcan.
They can't help themselves. It's both a biological and cultural imperative. Your Vulcan coworkers, friends, and especially bosses will not relent until you are either partnered up or you convince them you're part of a celibate religious order.
Everyone around them finds it a little endearing and a lot weird. But damn, they really are good at finding people partners who are remarkably compatible!
90 notes
·
View notes
Text
My cousin’s bat mitzvah is today!
I’m so proud of her. And it is not lost on me that it is on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Our grandmother is the only living child of her mother—who is the only survivor from her family in Hungary. Of her several siblings. Today I pray for them and their memories. And we recommit ourselves to our faith in their honor. We live and find joy because we fought hard for our right to do so. They tried to kill us all and make sure we never existed and here she is—my cousin!!! Enjoying a time honored tradition and becoming an adult in our community.
Suck it Nazis and antisemites! Fuck y’all! We live!
Also, her Torah portion is wildly good.
Parashat Beshalach / פָּרָשַׁת בְּשַׁלַּ ?!!! Are you kidding me‽????? That’s like the best one!!!!!!
Beshalach (“When He Let Go”) describes the splitting of the Red Sea and the song the Israelites sing upon crossing through. In the desert, God sweetens bitter water and provides manna and quail. The portion ends recounting the victory of the Israelites against an attack by the Amalekites.
Like…for those who don’t know, Jews read the Torah in order and every week is a new Torah portion. You don’t really get to choose any chapter. You just get the one you get when it’s your week (which is usually near your birthday).
For reference, my Torah portion was about what to do when you see a dead body on the side of the road (I actually did like that one and I think my sermon was really good and I’m still proud of it tbh), but it’s a lot harder to make a random Leviticus chapter work than THE freaking EXODUS.
I’m just so proud of her. I wanna talk about her community service project but I think that would involve too much identifying information. But she’s an extremely good, caring young woman and I’m so full of joy for her that im actually pretty tearful about it.
My fellow Jews, please — amidst your memories of the horrors and losses and in your mourning for those many family members and their descendants who should still be with us— don’t forget: we are still fucking here. They decimated us. But they did not succeed in exterminating us. We are here. We are still here. We live. And we love and we celebrate and we can do this. We have each other.
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
(New York Jewish Week) – When Michael Witkes arrived at his bar mitzvah party, he knew he couldn’t enter to a musical theater song, his preferred genre, because he was already being bullied for being too effeminate and flamboyant. So, he simply told the DJ to just pick any song that matched the vibe of a bar mitzvah entrance.
The DJ picked “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross.
“This day that is supposed to be completely celebratory became this kind of tragic, camp event, where I had to wrestle with getting bullied because of this,” Witkes said. “I was just trying to become a man, a Jewish adult, and then I was suddenly getting outed at my bar mitzvah.”
Eighteen years later, Witkes, 31, is a professional drag queen in New York City, performing as “Pink Pancake.” This week, he will revisit that troubling coming-of-age moment in his first ever one-woman drag show, “Today You Are a Man!” at The Tank NYC.
“I take that moment of tragedy and I flip it on its head and I turn it into this play about self discovery and coming into your authenticity as a queer person and as a Jew,” Witkes told the New York Jewish Week.
Witkes first began developing the show, which runs for 50 minutes, two years ago as a four-minute lip sync for a “Hanukkah in July” drag performance. Since then, he’s partnered with director and queer Jewish art and events curator Stuart B Meyers to flesh out a full-length performance.
“The show gives an earnest portrayal of the horror of that experience, how awful it was, and is, to be bullied for being gay and femme, yet also lifts and celebrates the story of who Michael has become through drag,” Meyers told the New York Jewish Week. “So what’s really interesting is that the piece is about his bar mitzvah of the past, but in a big way, it’s also a bar mitzvah in and of itself, because it’s a celebration of his own very Jewish process of coming into this next chapter as Pink Pancake.”
Ahead of the show, the New York Jewish Week caught up with Witkes about what it was like to make the show and revisit his bar mitzvah experience.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What would you tell your 13-year-old self about how far you’ve come?
It’s funny because I think if I told my 13-year-old self, “Hey, you’re now a drag queen in New York, and you’re making a living pursuing this queer art form,” I think that my 13-year-old self would be horrified. This might be my biggest fear at the time, realized.
First, I would give my 13-year-old self a giant hug. I think I would say, “You are wonderful as you are and just let your inner star shine. At the time, I did everything I could to make myself smaller and to try to hide the fact that I was gay, even though I was just naturally more feminine and flamboyant growing up. I did everything I could to hide that, with my clothes, with the way I walked around. Everything was a performance. I would just say, “Hey, baby, breathe, let it all out. It’s gonna be okay. Own who you are.”
What does it mean to you to have your first full-length one-woman show center on a Jewish narrative?
I grew up in a pretty Jewish suburb of Philadelphia, on the Main Line. I feel like growing up, I kind of took my Judaism for granted. In seventh grade, there was a bar or bat mitzvah every single weekend. Judaism was so prevalent that it wasn’t a huge part of my identity.
But now we’re in a time where there is this rise in antisemitism and you can feel it. In my other gigs, I have made some self-deprecating jokes in the mic about being Jewish — as Jews do with Jewish humor. Before it was just a part of my act, but now I have this inner voice in the back of my head saying “Is it safe to say this? Is it safe to make these jokes? Is it safe to be openly Jewish?” Since coming out and embracing myself fully, I’ve been really proud to be queer. Now I feel like the show is helping me be more proudly Jewish. It’s been wonderful working with Stuart Meyers, who has done a lot of queer Jewish work and queer Jewish art, because he’s kind of pushed me to embrace my Judaism even more and pull things out in the show in relation to my Jewish identity even more, so it’s been really exciting. We have to continue to be visible and proud and continue to advocate for ourselves and everyone that is marginalized in the global majority.
Do you feel like making this show has helped you process the trauma from your bar mitzvah party and given you a second chance at celebrating?
That is the structure of the show in a way, where I have the chance to do it all over again. It’s a queering of this Jewish rite of passage. The whole show, in a way, is like a redo of my own bar mitzvah, but now I’m in drag as a woman — but I’m not a woman, and I’m also very gender-queer. It’s a beautiful way to explore what it means to be a man and to explore your gender identity and sexuality.
This has definitely helped me process my bar mitzvah and re-own this moment that was kind of tragic. In general, my bar mitzvah was a wonderful event — this moment just clouded it. I think that wounds can continue to heal and come back and they can surprise you like, “Oh, I thought I got over that.” So revisiting this moment has definitely brought some things up to the surface that I’m able to now heal from.
I rewatched the video of my service many, many times while putting the show together. I had a wonderful support system in my parents, but I don’t think I fully realized that at the time because I felt so alone and othered in school. So it’s really healing to be able to look back and listen to the speeches that my parents made at my bar mitzvah. Watching myself in the video, I look awkward and I don’t like that my parents are saying nice things about me and I’m probably not fully paying attention and kind of dissociating because it’s uncomfortable. But to look back now — my parents are so sweet. My dad said that he appreciated how sensitive I was and how gentle I was. These are things that I was bullied for, because they’re not “masculine.” But at my bar mitzvah, he was saying you’re a man because of all of these things. That’s just so beautiful.
I’m excited to bring it to an audience. I’m sure that healing will happen even more when it’s in front of a live audience and I’m hoping that the same thing will happen for them as well. I hope bringing the specificity of this event to my show will allow people to bring the specificity of their own moments growing up Jewish or growing up queer and find healing and celebration.
What else can people expect at the show?
There are going to be too many costumes in a short amount of time. I’m really excited for all of these wacky costumes I’m bringing. It’s going to be heartfelt, it’s going to be drag. It’s a full production and I’m so excited to finally bring this to life after sitting on it for all this time. It combines drag lip sync with multimedia — video projections of my bar mitzvah and lots of other very fun, funny things. Of course, I have two backup dancers — it’s a one-woman show, but it’s a one-woman drag show, so that means that you need to have two backup dancers. It’s a fully realized show with a plot and a beginning, middle and end.
“Today You Are a Man!,” is playing at The Tank NYC (312 W. 36th St.) Jan 18-20 at 9:30 p.m. and Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $15.
37 notes
·
View notes
Note
I want to share something. I absolutely adore how you write Astarion. You capture his mirth, the absolute ridiculous stray ginger cat energy he embodies, the tragedy of his situation, and how utterly hilarious he is all at the same time. But what I love especially is how *young* you manage to write him, like this is an elf who was killed before he even reached young adulthood in Elvish culture and you capture that brilliantly in both his mannerisms, sarcastic and sometimes juvenile quips and even his body language. It's just mind-blowing and I love reading your fics due to how well you capture him.
this is such an incredibly sweet comment and thank you so much for making it T_T my heart, it is warmed.
if I may ramble for a moment!
here's my thing: based on the information available to us, it's pretty widely confirmed canon (fanon? since Larian hasn't actually confirmed to my knowledge?) that based on the translated dates on his grave marker, Astarion died at 39. which is VERY young for an elf, but still adulthood, because elves physically and mentally mature at a similar rate to humans. the "they don't reach adulthood until 100" is more cultural than physical/mental, so Astarion very much was an adult with a career and all that when he died. culturally, however, he would not have been considered fully adult by other elves.
kind of like if you had a bar/bat mitzvah at 100 instead of 13? like it's not a measure of physical/mental adulthood, it's a cultural/religious ceremony signifying the passage into adulthood. that kind of thing.
WITH THAT SAID: Astarion did die young (we think) and then was launched into a situation that severely impacted his growth and progression as a person. namely: it stopped. he's frozen in time. he had no opportunity to learn, grow, or change. he was literally prevented from doing so.
Cazador worsened and encouraged this behavior not only in Astarion but in ALL the spawn. he refers to them as children, they're considered siblings, and the journals and notes we find in the palace indicate that they frequently pranked the shit out of each other and were generally the worst versions of themselves because Cazador regularly pitted them against one another. he starves and belittles and torments them physically and mentally. no one can thrive in circumstances like that.
when we meet Astarion in game, we're meeting a severely abused soul in survival mode who's never been able to make a plan or act for himself or exist in a world that wasn't constant terror. not since he can remember, anyway. he's fully and completely trauma-brained.
SO MUCH of his behavior is rooted in that. Cazador and his staff routinely refer to Astarion as a brat, little one, child, etc. dialogue indicates that he was constantly shamed for "prattling" and being a talker. so here's a man who's in literal arrested development and any meaningful growth he could have had was cut off at the ground. and he acts it.
until he gets a chance to grow.
then he still acts like a big baby boy but, you know, one who's also beginning to think past his own nose and develop a tiny bit of empathy and consideration. if you let him lol. you don't have to.
also I have a history in writing YA and Romance if that wasn't PAINFULLY OBVIOUS LMAO.
22 notes
·
View notes
Note
Am I the only one who sees serious parallels between the verd’gotten and the bar mitzvah ceremony? I don’t know if it’s the fact that the age for both is about 13 years old or the new clothing items and responsibilities overlap?
You're not the only one!!
I've ranted about this before, but I have had a sneaking suspicion that some, even if only a little, of Mandalorian culture is based on Judaism. Some similarities many folks other than me have pointed out include:
Diaspora culture/trauma (Canon Mandalorians were pushed out into the galaxy after the destruction of Mandalore's inhabitable areas)
Tradition/culture/language being passed down from parent to child (very similar emphasis in Judaism)
Verd'goten or Mandalorian coming of age ceremony, paralleling the Jewish bar/bat mitzvah where children become legal and/or cultural adults in their community
Tensions between different movements (Traditionalist/Death Watch characters versus the more liberal New Mandalorians as a metaphor for the Jewish struggle between orthodoxy and reform movements, for example)
Themes of forgiveness and justice (repaying a debt, etc) are similar in both cultures
Language -- some mechanics in Mando'a somewhat resemble spoken/written Hebrew
"Not gone, merely marching far away" i.e., no explicit Mandalorian heaven or afterlife, paralleling the Jewish concept of loved ones living on not in heaven/etc but through memories, etc
I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but these are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
#jewish stuff#judaism#mandalorian#mando#mandos#mando'a#myfic#thoughts#asks#anon#jewish/mandalorian commentary#i can elaborate on all of these just didn't wanna clog up folks' dashboards
69 notes
·
View notes
Text
i started writing this and it ended up way longer than anticipated. apologies in advance.
a movie called "you're so not invited to my bat mitzvah" has been on netflix's top 10 for the past couple of weeks now. i thought, "i wonder what this is", looked it up, saw it was review bombed, and thought to myself. great. now i have no choice to watch this.
i'll just write my review of this, and then get into what i found odd about the review bombing.
this is the latest adam sandler production for netflix. it's a coming of age story, kind of a modern take on "are you there god? it's me, margaret?" sort of thing. deals with all the difficulties of modern life – phones, tiktoks, hip rabbis, etc – and the eternal difficulties of life – puberty, getting your priorities in order, why god allows evil, hip rabbis, etc – in a way that's both familiar and specific. it's familiar in part because sandler casts people from his regular orbit, but also a very specific movie because it's about a very specific milieu. which is to say, upper middle class jewish girls and their parents, and tension between a religious event which involves a lot of intellectual preparation for an adult responsibility, and the consumerism involved with bar/bat mitzvah inflation in families that can afford to celebrate on that scale.
i found the specificity charming, especially in the depictions of the protagonist (played by sunny sandler, adam sandler's daughter) and the various difficulties she has with her father (played by her irl dad). although, i'm grading on the netflix curve here, which i'd define as "was this a movie you can watch while you're looking at your phone and still be entertained by even though you're not paying close attention to" and it's pretty much that. i'd say a little bit better than average, because the performances of the young actors really nail it. sunny sandler is great in this. she's not afraid to come off as totally ridiculous, especially in one scene where she's wearing overdone makeup and trying to take selfies. she seems genuinely bereft when her friendship with her best friend unravels. her character does some things which are genuinely cruel, even by the standards of teen movie stuff, but she has a lot of potential as a physical comedian.
it's easy for a movie like this to be a total nepotism project, but it also does not work if sunny sandler isn't good in her role, and she is. and the kids who play her friends are also good in their roles.
another thing that i also found fascinating about this wasn't just the specificity of the jewish experience that's depicted in it, but also the specificity of the current situation where teenagers aren't just presenting themselves on their phones all the time, but in which they're recording each other on their phones all the time. we've all been cautioned about what we share online, but there isn't yet conventional wisdom about documentation we have of other people outside of, idk, "you shouldn't share other people's nudes". and it does a good job of blending a specific cultural milieu with a specific generational experience.
it's not ibsen or anything but it's, like, fine.
so. the review bombs. i think this might have gotten a lot of traction on tiktok, because a lot of the 1 star reviews are prefaced with "i am [12-14] and jewish and i didn't like this". i'm not here to pick on them, but a lot of them share a common gripe about it which is... i'll just pull some quotes from them:
"As a young woman, myself, I was extremely disappointed in the oversexualization and generally offensive depictions of teenagers (especially the girls) in this film."
"With the barbie movie just coming out, I thought we were past sexualising girls. But here comes along a movie AIMED AT KIDS and teaches them that incredibly revealing outfits and quite sexual pictures are correct and even possibly supported for kids!"
"I also noticed that it sexualized teenagers after the amount of times they said “hooking up” after reminding us that they are only 13 years old"
"Second off this show “shows off” 12 year olds in a very dirty way in some parts of the show and some parts are absolutely disgusting."
"Stereotypes, sexualising of 12 and 13 year olds, and teaching people that this is how Jews are"
i'm not going to be like "these dipshits in middle school do not understand the language of film, unlike me, a 28 year old woman who is very smart". but there's nothing remotely sexual in this movie. there's the scene where sunny sandler's character is taking trying to take IG type pictures with her friends, but the audience isn't invited to ogle at it. like, one of her friends is holding a floor lamp so it functions as a ring light, and the dialogue is, like, "how do i look?" "like your goldfish just died :/". and stuff like "they kissed and i heard he touched her underboob" is no more salacious than the sort of juvenile gossip that you'd find in an actual junior high school.
that all said, it's very jarring to me to hear people in that age group using "it sexualizes teenagers" in their critical vocabulary. i don't think that would even cross my mind when i'd be that young and watching a comedy. and i could be reading too much into it, but the ongoing moral panic about sex ed and kids seems like it's driving kids nuts just as much as it is adults.
all of this is a long winded way of saying, this culture war shitstorm has gotten a lot of coverage in terms of the parents who want to ban books, but maybe it'd be prudent for someone to pitch a piece that focuses on how this whole thing is impacting young people who are no doubt absorbing some of this through osmosis and tiktok.
48 notes
·
View notes
Text
So as I'm studying my Torah portion and learning the chants and things, I'm realizing how many octave jumps and sudden high notes it has, and the fact we make 13-year-olds do this at the voice-crackiest time of their lives is now legitimately hilarious to me.
100 notes
·
View notes
Text
And remember, kids! Tell your adults that I take cash tips, checks, Cashapp and also DJ birthdays, weddings, office parties, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, baptisms, funerals…
Still thinkin’ about circus Eddy
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
Jewish joy is celebrating a double adult bat mitzvah atop a mountain.
52 notes
·
View notes
Text
I honestly don't know if I can do Rosh Hashanah this year. There is so much baggage I'm carrying with my family right now. There's a part of me that just wants to drive away. But I don't think I can do that to my mom, and also that's just avoiding the issues.
The biggest thing is that I haven't really seen my brother-in-law since my niece's bat mitzvah in January. It wasn't intentional, but it wasn't unintentional either. I definitely let it happen. He's been having issues with my sister and while they've reconciled or are working on things, I have not forgiven him or let shit go. I have always had issues with him. But me being me, I always just kept my silence and tried to avoid confrontation.
Then he was unkind to my mom last year in a big family blow up where he complained about how he was treated in our house. As it was, I always felt that I had to work so hard to cater to his ego in our house, and that blow up just made me feel like what was the fucking point. Now more than ever I feel this heightened need to be careful around him. I pretty much just ignored him at the bat mitzvah, but he'll be staying in the house so of course I can't do that now. And apparently ignoring him was part of the problem. I can't believe how much emotional work I am doing to accommodate this person.
And to make matters more complicated, his brother will be visiting from out of town. Our house is pretty full already - I already give up my bedroom to accommodate my sister and brother-in-law. Now this guy is going to be sleeping on the den floor. He's perfectly nice, I guess, (though we're both lawyers and that can be sort of a thing iykyk), but what adult man decides to sleep on a futon in the middle of the house instead of just getting a hotel room? He's a big law lawyer, he can afford it. I would never. I barely want to stay with friends when they have a guest room (am I weird about this btw?).
And then there's my cousin and her in-laws. Firstly, my cousin is sicker all the time with cancer. I think she might be close to the end of her fight. Which is a heartbreaking thing to say about someone I adore, someone I grew up with, who is 45 years old, and has three children in their teens. She is fighting so hard, but she's in treatment three days a week, and she will never stop for the rest of her life. I'm happy she'll be coming, but I worry about her being around the 19 other people.
And then her in-laws are coming, and they are bringing their 100-year-old matriarch, who is a wonderful woman, but she is 100 years old, no one ever talks to her except me and my mom, and I don't know who is risking bringing someone like that around a place with 19 other people right now.
AND my cousin is not on the best terms with her mother-in-law. That's too complicated to get into here, but it's not the most pleasant thing in the world. As it is, they are not my favorite people. We've known them and included them for almost 20 years at this point, and over the years it has become clearer and clearer how different my values are from theirs when it comes to money and society. They're not Trump people, but they're definitely Rick Caruso people.
All of that is the backdrop to this dinner that I will be helping my mom to host for 20 people. She will be very stressed so I expect to get yelled at a lot tomorrow. And we're the type of people who smile and get along and pretend, while seething inwardly.
And it's not just like everyone goes home at the end of the night. I'll still have my brother-in-law and his brother at the house, probably all weekend. And I'm obligated to sit through like four hours of services on Saturday in the middle of this. All while not having my own private space to retreat to at the end of it until the family leaves.
Seriously, the more I type this, the more I think I should just leave. But I would never do that to my mom.
#long post#i just need my own house#but hahahahahaha jk#seriously thanks to anyone who read all this whining
46 notes
·
View notes
Text
#IMPORTANT RESEARCH PT 2#it 2019#the losers club#bill denbrough#richie tozier#eddie kaspbrak#stanley uris#mike hanlon#ben hanscom#beverly marsh
85 notes
·
View notes
Text
Look out! It's only part two of The Crimlette's bat mitzvah! (ft. Tedbecca)
Read the rest of Scenes From Another Life here.
Ira had repeatedly insisted all morning that it was going to rain, so it came as a pleasant surprise when the sun slowly crept out from behind the clouds as everyone filtered into the synagogue.
Henry walked in front of Ted, scanning the vast, intricate walls in awe. Formal occasions usually bored Henry. But this one was different - he didn’t have to wear a stiff, uncomfortable suit. He just had to look smart.
Ted stopped Henry at the first row of pews and furrowed his brow. He waved at Trent and signaled him over. “Hey, uh, Trent? I don’t really know what the rules are - do we just sit anywhere or do you need us to go sit somewhere specific?”
Trent smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Ted. The synagogue may be Orthodox, but I’m not. Sit wherever you like.” He walked a few steps, then turned back to Ted, pulling his glasses down onto the bridge of his nose conspiratorially. “Please don’t tell my mother I said that.”
Ted held up a hand. “Scout’s honor.”
Trent hurried off again, watching his parents fawn over Ruth and Batsheva. He smiled sadly to himself, remembering his own bar mitzvah and how proud his parents had been. They didn’t know then that their beloved son would end up having to come out twice in order for them to believe him. And a third time to Rabbi Kellner ‘just to make sure’, whatever that meant.
Trent was a skinny and anxious eighteen year old when he told him he no longer wanted to live the Orthodox lifestyle if it meant his parents wouldn’t accept him - if Rabbi Kellner wouldn’t accept him. This man had all but raised him alongside Helen and Ira. He was just as much a member of his family as anyone else, and the thought of being completely rejected terrified him. But Rabbi Kellner understood. Trent was forever grateful for that.
It was then that Rabbi Kellner seemed to materialize out of thin air. He was relatively young when he’d started to serve the community, but he’d always looked older. Now, he looked ancient.
“Trent! Shabbat shalom. Is everyone ready?”
“The children, yes. The adults? No. I remember standing up there myself, now my niece is old enough to do it. Time flies.”
“Indeed it does.” Rabbi Kellner’s eyes softened. “I’ll go and tidy the bimah to give everyone a few more minutes to get ready.”
In the pews, Henry shifted in his seat and swung his legs a little. The creak of the wood made Ted very aware of his own movements. He still hadn’t quite shaken off the awkwardness of walking into Paul Welton’s funeral late, all eyes on him because of how loudly the door had shut behind him.
“Henry, come on now, hush your butt. Sit tight buddy.”
“Sorry Dad.”
Ted put an arm around his son and gave his shoulder a light squeeze. “It’s okay. Just try and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.”
“You got it, Davy Crockett!”
“Ted?”
His head jerked in a double take as he turned to see Rebecca leaning over their pew. As he looked at her, something rumbled inside him - and it definitely wasn’t Mae’s full English breakfast from an hour ago. As good as he was at bottling his emotions, sometimes his face betrayed him. This was, rather unavoidably, one of those times. His face lit up as he greeted her - in fact, they both looked at each other with a great deal of warmth. It was as though no time had passed at all.
“Hey Rebecca! How the heck are ya?”
In spite of how much her body had relaxed when he greeted her, her face was suddenly a little strained. “Good, thank you, Ted. You?”
“Yeah, good, yeah. Y’know, I don’t think you two have ever met - this is my son Henry.” He nudged Henry’s shoulder.
Henry shook Rebecca’s hand. “Nice to meet you Miss Welton.”
Rebecca raised her eyebrows, shooting Ted a surprised look. Ted bobbed his head a little, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Henry knew exactly who she was, even though they’d never met. Ted talked about her more than he was willing to admit. The fondness he held for Richmond had never faded. Coming back, even for just a few days, felt like coming home again.
A tall, bulky man appeared behind Rebecca, followed by a shy little girl. He pressed his palm to the small of Rebecca’s back, and she jolted.
“Oh, Ted, this is Matthjis.” She gestured between them. “Matthjis, this is Ted Lasso, my former colleague.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Matthjis’ handshake was firm. Perhaps a little too firm for Ted’s liking. “This is my daughter Jelka.” He gently pressed Jelka’s shoulders, encouraging her forward. She was fixated on Henry, obviously much more comfortable in the company of other children. Henry smiled back awkwardly.
“We should probably go and sit down, otherwise we’ll hold up the service.” Rebecca half-laughed.
Ted nodded. “Nice to see ya.”
Rebecca replied with a hum and headed off to the opposite pew with Matthjis and Jelka, who snuggled in between them. Ted couldn’t help casting a glance at the three of them. His face had fallen now. His palms were a little sweaty. He didn’t quite know what to do with himself.
Henry studied his father’s face for a moment. He knew something was wrong, but didn’t ask what it was. He knew that sometimes it was better not to ask.
14 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
voodoocapoeira
Untitled
agentsaraofcasterlyrock
Vivi of Casterly Rock
lizpielcanela
Piel Canela
selunesfavouriteprincess
AND the most interesting girl in the world