Becoming a bar mitzvah at 98 in CVS

Rabbi Mordechai Shain of Lubavitch on the Palisades in Tenafly met Edward Kelman, a 98-year-old veteran, at a chance encounter in CVS of Cresskill.

In speaking with Mr. Kelman, who was at CVS with a group from Brightview Assisted Living in Tenafly, where he lives, Rabbi Shain learned Mr. Kelman had never had a bar mitzvah. When he learned that Mr. Kelman never had put on tefillin, he gave him the chance to do so.

“Donning tefillin for the first time is considered a bar mitzvah,” Rabbi Shain said. “I never put tefillin on someone for the first time at the age of 98, so I made him a bar mitzvah in CVS.”

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