Here’s what I’ve figured out from the video: They’re having a bar mitzvah as a party, not as a religious life cycle event. Pastor Brian shows Trevor and Tara the tallit Trevor will wear at the bar mitzvah party. His name is Elya Chaim ben Baruch and Fayga. Did you catch that Trevor’s already turned 13, and they’ve decided to throw him a bar mitzvah a Christian bar mitzvah. I married very well indeed!Īnd so, for all the world to know, I want to be the first to wish a mazal tov, from the depths of my soul, to the man I love as he reaches this special commemoration. But never did I doubt his devotion to me or our progeny. It’s obvious to all that he’s very smart but he is also very gentle and very loving. If and when I speak I will tell all of those attending that this is no ordinary guy, that I was a wise and precocious teenager who recognized his goodness and kindness and talents and never, for a single moment in the years that followed, regretted the marriage. Among this group will be three rabbis who will praise the boy for his adept reading and listen intently and respectfully to his d’var Torah. No, this time we’ll be looking forward to sharing with the newer relatives, those unknown to the original guests, our great-grandchildren, our grandchildren, and our children and their spouses who have become ours as well. They’ll be remembered of course and the shadows of their joyful presence at the first bar mitzvah will resonate, even in their absence. Most of those guests are long since gone. The guest list will not be as extensive as it was in 1951. We’ll scratch the food from the “to do” list. No calligrapher and no stamped response cards. Adult Jews lead prayers for the congregation. Generally, adults are given the honor of going up front and reading from the Torah - or, rather, saying the blessings before and after the Torah reading. After all the road to the celebration was filled with stumbling blocks like sickness, war, and the dangers of daily life. You are an ‘adult’ (religiously) and responsible for your own religious behavior (which is what ‘bar mitzvah means: ‘son of the commandment’). We would give no ayin ha ra on reaching this moment since the evil eye can follow one everywhere, even to the celebration of a second bar mitzvah, even in the midst of a pandemic but we would recite Schehechaynu and shed a tear. Herring (which I have never ever served before) and egg kichel, which my mother used to call eya kichel, and those marzipan multi-colored little cakes which he adores. I had already, years ago, thought of the menu something similar to the Brooklyn shtiebel menu all those years ago. Probably a new suit and a tie, if he could remember how to tie it. We’d be spiffily dressed and he’d have a fresh, professional (not done by me!) haircut. There would be flowers and a catered by me meal. He had in mind something grander, not elaborate, not gauche, but at least a kiddush with his fellow congregants and our family surrounding him. Did he ever think in those years behind him that, in his dotage, he’d not only celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah round two, but that he’d do it in the midst of a pandemic. Not only a man but quite an old man at that. How did I choose so well when I was a mere 17, married at 20, forever. He’s a perfectionist in everything anyway. He’s a descendant of some famous rabbonim, so, with the weight of that on his mind, he’ll do a perfect job.
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