Diamond sun dancing over white river ice, with patches of windy blue sunlit riverflow. A full floor-to-ceiling picture window brought ice and sun and river right into the Bar Mitzvah, the early Saturday morning as as we gathered for the event. We knew the room well by this time. The Friday night before, we had feasted together, and happily reunited, Jeremy and Simon from Boston, Janie, Justin, Shlomo Jack and Sunny from Winnipeg, me from Netanya, Susie from Hanover, and many many from Toronto and Kingston. How good it is for family to gather in joy. Shlomo Jack shone, that early morning, resplendent in colourful keepa and robe, smiling, ready, delighted. Family and guests chatted sweetly, until Janie's rich wordless nig'n filtered through our voices, and soon we were all singing this lively melody, and becoming one listener, ready to begin. Shlomo Jack welcomed us, and he, Sunny, Janie and Justin carried us, with such close and happy family synchrony through a whole Shabbat morning of thoughtful translations and new melodies for the ancient prayers. Harmonies filled that sunny room, as Janie's inventions, until that moment singing inside of her own mind's ear, took on real world glory. Randy, Simon, Daniel and Yoni provided rich bassline for Janie's tune. Sunny sometimes ran to sit on an auntylap or two, and then joined into leading the service again. Her reading was strong, confident. As Uncle Larry said the first blessings for the Torah reading, many of us remembered Larry holding Shlomo at his bris, 13 years before. Larry wrote Shlomo a letter back then, about how connected he felt to this wondrous person, so tiny at the time. Imagine how Larry felt, blessing Shlomo's first reading from the Torah. And Shlomo Jack chanted the Torah with interest, absorption, gumption, enthusiasm, the way Shlomo Jack does things. The Torah, the Haftorah and its blessings, all that candy and Siman Tov and Mazel Tov and we danced and we sang for the Torah and for Shabbat and for joy and for Silkenwine, a wonder and a blessing in our world. Randy lifted the Torah high, and then Susie and I had the honour of dressing the Torah, using the wimpel that we had made for him at his birth. What sweet delight, anticipated these thirteen years, to see that gorgeous fabric art, crafted with such love for a little baby we knew would grow to Torah and to curiosity and to lovingkindness towards this day. Shlomo Jack, named for Shlomo Carlebach and for Justin's father, may his memory inspire Shlomo to thought and to caring and to action. Janie and Justin placed their hands on Shlomo's head, and with admiration and such pleasure, blessed him. And through a sunlit Shabbat of feasting and swimming and storytelling and jamming and singing and talking and hugging and kissing, we tasted from a cup overflowing with sweetness, glimpsed a world of pure sunlit delight.
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