May the Almighty bless each and every one of you, particularly the Bar Mitzvah celebrants together with their parents, brothers and sisters, in all your needs. First and foremost, may the Bar Mitzvah celebrant be a whole Jew in body and soul, and may he receive all that he needs from the Al-mighty’s full, open, holy and ample hand. May his parents, his whole family, and the entire Jewish people, have much nachas from him through his study of Torah and his observance of mitzvos. This includes the observance of the mitzvah, “You shall love your fellow as yourself,” which means he should influence his friends, relatives, and those with whom he has contact, to follow the path of Torah and Mitzvos.

As is customary in various communities, the Bar Mitzvah celebrant should give tzedakah from his own money in the morning before prayer and also before minchah. [If the day of his Bar Mitzvah is Shabbos, he should follow the above custom on the preceding Friday and on the following Sunday.] His father and mother also should give tzedakah in the same manner, in the merit of their son.

Also, the Bar Mitzvah celebrant should learn, on the day of his Bar Mitzvah, the fourteenth psalm of the Book of Psalms, authored by David, King Moshiach.

All these things together will elicit further blessings from the Almighty, blessings that the Bar Mitzvah celebrant should begin his journey on the path of Torah and mitzvos (as a Bar Mitzvah celebrant should) with health and peace of body and soul; and that he should go “from strength to strength.”

All the above things (giving tzedakah, learning the fourteenth psalm) will give strength to the Bar Mitzvah celebrant, his entire family and the whole Jewish people in all that is needed.

These things will hasten the true and complete redemption, when “a great congregation will return here” — each and every Jew, small and great, will together go to our holy land, to the holy city of Yerushalayim, to the Temple Mount, to “the Sanctuary which Your hands, O L-rd, have established.”

A Bar Mitzvah is an occasion for celebration for every member of the Jewish people, for all Jews are as one family. As my participation in the celebration, I will give each of you a dollar to be given to tzedakah together with your own contribution.

May it be G-d’s will that G-d’s promise, “Tzedakah is great for it brings near the redemption,” be fulfilled. This encompasses the hope that we be freed, even in these last days of exile, from any and all distractions. May we go “from strength to strength,” and prepare ourselves to welcome our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days.