Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

During this past week, the 50th anniversary of my bar mitzvah occurred (you are welcome to do the math on your own). While I always reflect on my bar mitzvah each year when my Torah portion arrives on the Jewish calendar, I had not really thought about it in terms of 50 years. It was actually a friend from childhood, who celebrated his bar mitzvah one week prior to my own, who reminded me that our bar mitzvah celebrations had turned 50.

With that in mind, my bar mitzvah memories seem more acute in this year 50. My teachers (Cantor Irving Feller, Tzvia Gaba, Abe Meth), who worked with me in learning how to lein (to chant) Torah and Haftorah. The words of Rabbi Morris Margolies, who, in addition to stating that I had one of the more boring parshiyot in the Torah, talked about the foundational values of Judaism. I gratefully carry all of these lessons with me to this day.

While I have had many twists and turns on my journey through life, I also recognize that these early lessons have stayed with me over these many years. As a “kingdom of priests,” we all have the ability to impact the lives of, and be teachers to, our youth. Let us all work to give our youth a strong foundation of learning, of Jewish values that they can carry with them throughout their lives. Just maybe they will remember and discuss those lessons on the 50th anniversary of their bat/bar mitzvah.