The following was recently shared by Rabbi Meir Kaplan, Chabad emissary to British Columbia’s Vancouver Island.

Blue is a 12-year-old boy whose family recently moved here from Ottawa.

Growing up, Blue always had a small, nicely decorated cushion in his bedroom. Told it had belonged to his grandmother’s grandfather, he kept it very close. Sometimes, he even kept it under his pillow.

A few weeks ago, when he came to our shul for the first time, he realized that the folded blanket inside the pillow was actually a tallit…

Amazed by the discovery, Blue brought it to his first bar mitzvah lesson. He can’t wait to wear it soon at his own bar mitzvah celebration!

The original owner of the tallit immigrated from Russia in 1905; the tallit was passed to his grandmother from her mother, and now to Blue.

Many people have the custom for bar mitzvah boys to wear a tallit, and five generations later and 120 years later, it will once again be worn at a bar mitzvah—here in British Columbia.