SA
Celebrating his barmy for the third time
Ninety-six-year-old Maish Cohen celebrated his third bar mitzvah at Rabbi Gavin Michal’s Bal Shem Tov Shul in Orange Grove, last Shabbos.
OWN CORRESPONDENT
According to Tehillim we should live three score and 10. That’s 70 years. Thirteen years after 70 he had his second bar mitzvah at 83 and time for the third one came around.
Maish was born on June 27, 1921, in what was then called the Transkei.
He is known as “an amazing gentleman” with “a gentle touch for humanity”. His mind is amazingly sharp and he still remembers almost every person’s telephone number. He will add a column of figures without using a calculator. His passion is watching sport. He makes a note at the beginning of the week of each rugby or cricket game and watches all of them.
In 2015, he wanted to visit his daughter in Australia. He underwent all the required medicals and passed with flying colours. The Australian authorities would not accept this, so they sent him to their appointed doctors in South Africa.
Maish passed with flying colours, but still the powers-that-be would not accept these results. So, they sent him to more specialists for more tests – and again he passed with flying colours. December arrived and finally the approval for the visit came through. Maish then decided that on his terms, because they don’t want him, he was not going to go!
Now, although he is physically quite frail, he is in great health and loved celebrating his barmy.