Question
Is a Jewish boy required to have a bar mitzvah? We started sending our son to bar mitzvah lessons in May and he did not cooperate with the teacher. He was so difficult, the teacher quit after two lessons. Sooner after, we hired another tutor, who quit after four lessons for the same reason. Our son told the second instructor he wasn’t interested in a bar mitzvah and did not understand why he had to do what he was doing. We are panicked now. His bar mitzvah is supposed to take place in November, and time to get him ready is running out. Our best efforts to find any further tutors have failed because he has resisted and proven to be a difficult kid. We are distraught about this not just because of his behavior we can’t control, but also because this is the only opportunity we have for all our family to be together for at least 10 years. And by then, it is not likely all our older relatives will still be around.

Question
I would like to offer the firstfruits from my garden to God as a thank you for the abundance He has given me. To whom should I speak to? I donate most of what I grow to the local food pantry which I am the president of. By the way; I am Catholic. I know the giving of firstfruits was confined to the seven items grown in Israel during the time of the Second Temple, but I grow none of these. I grow pickles, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and squashes. I understand that 1/60 of my harvest should be given. I want to give God what is due to Him, that is pleasing in His eyes. God has been VERY generous with me. I should try to be as generous. Shalom

Question
If you are married to someone happily, does that mean your spouse is definitely your bashert? Is it really possible that one can have a happy lifelong marriage to someone (Jewish and otherwise permitted of course) and feel like they have everything they want in a spouse with the same feelings mutually returned, yet their spouse they married was not their bashert and they didn’t know it?