Crafted by acclaimed author and educator, Shoshana Silberman*, this free discussion guide for groups, book clubs and classes, will help deepen learning and build community through discussion of the provocative new adult-level collection Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning.

*Author of A Family Haggadah, Shema Yisrael Siddur, The Whole Megillah, Tiku Shofar & Active Jewish Learning.

A Jew from Yemen once told me how he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah back in the land of his birth. What left an indelible impression on him was staying up all the previous night with his grandfather, and together reciting the entire Book of Psalms. Submitted by Rabbi Monty Eliasov, Austin, TX

Beth Ornstein was bat mitzvah in 2002. "This has been the best year of my life. I really worked hard, and everyone had a great time. My grandmother came from England, she’s 84. I was so happy to see her." Beth has a book of pictures and memorabilia she’d created from the event, it was bursting with masks and every note sent back to indicate attendance had a blessing on it. That it seems, was her teacher’s idea. "She taught us to make the return cards a spiritual message to lift each other’s spirits on the path to bat mitzvah. That works, you know!" What about the masks? "My bat mitzvah as around Purim time. I researched every midrash I could find about Queen Esther and wrote one of my own. I asked my friends to write midrashim (story commentaries) as presents for me, a few really did! They read their at the party and then they surprised me with a skit about Queen Vashti. Then everyone sang the Esther song, even the stodgiest people in our family got into the spirit of it. It was a day to remember!"

"The Silver Ring"

Two weeks before my bat mitzvah, my mother took me over to her jewelry drawer. She lifted out a silver ring with a turquoise stone in it that had cracks filled with drizzled in gold. "This is my bat mitzvah present for you. This ring is full of special memories and it comes with a blessing." She slipped it onto my right hand ring finger. A perfect fit. "What kind of memories? What do you mean it comes with a blessing?"

I didn't spend a penny on my last trip to Canada and so I noted that on the customs form. The smiling agent stamps a big red word "Extest" onto my form and sends me around the corner where all the people with large suspicious boxes go. Ugh. A zillion overseas trips and today, winging my way back to my beloved, to get stuck in bureaucracy. 

by Noa Baum from Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning, Goldie Milgram and Ellen Frankel [Eds] with Peninnah Schram, Cherie Karo-Schwartz and Arthur Strimling

     Bilal grew up in Lahore, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. When he was a young boy there was a war between India and Pakistan, and Bilal asked his father:
     “Baba, why do the Muslims and Hindus hate each other? Why is there all this war?”

Converso: A Historical Novel from Gaon Press is based in the period of the Spanish Inquisition's manifestation in America's Wild West, Mario X. Martinez's short murder mystery provides a really good read that introduces a little-taught period of American Jewish history. Converso is also a valuable creative stimulant for creating effective discussion of difficult ethical questions.