8:30 am - we woke up, had a quick breakfast, and traveled through the Golan Heights to a mountain overlooking the ancient city of Gamla to have a Thursday morning service and Torah reading and also to celebrate Matthew Cohen, Emma and Ian Patterson's Bnai Mitzvah.
Following the service, we went around the Kinneret, Sea of Gallilee , winding our way down the land of Israel and up the hills to Jerusalem.
When we finally arrived in Jerusalem, we made a quick stop at our hotel, the King David, and continued the Bnai Mitzvah celebration at an authentic Moroccan Restaurant, Darna, in Jerusalem. The owner came to welcome us and explained that EVERYTHING came from Morocco - the tiles on the floor, the walls, the plants, pillows, and pottery. He then made sure to welcome and bless our three bnai mitzvah.
Here are some personal reflections from our three bnai mitzvah:
Emma Patterson - I didn't know what to expect when we first got off our tour bus, since we were no longer doing it in the ancient sanctuary on Gamla. While Ian, Matthew, and I prepared the Torah, Mike, our guide, taught everyone a little bit about the ancient city and sanctuary that we were overlooking. The view was spectacular and the weather was just right! I was quite nervous beforehand, but the Torah reading and prayers turned out great.
In my D'var Torah I spoke about my views regarding the mitzvot we perform in our daily lives and the mitzvot the Jews performed while constructing the tabernacle, as my parsha Vayakhel Pekude described. I spoke about how when people think of the word "mitzvah" they don't immediately think about having fun. Instead what comes to mind is that the person must do work to help the less fortunate. I also described how traveling to Israel is a responsibility and obligation of every Jew, and when you do so you perform a mitzvah. The last point that I made in my D'var Torah was that while the Jews were constructing the tabernacle two thousand years ago, they were still performing two mitzvot. One was that they came together as a community to build it, which brought the Jews closer, and that when they were told to donate their efforts and valuables for the tent, they donated more than was necessary.
Overall, the B'nai Mitzvah exceeded my expectations and it was greatly appreciated that the many friends and family were able to make it to help celebrate with our families.
Matthew Cohen and Ian Patterson - Happy Chanukah! Mazel-Tov! Hallelujah! We're done! Finished! Finito! After all the long months of hard studying we've completed the all important task of b'nai-mitvah. We stood there, on a mountain in the Golan Heights overlooking mount Gamla where 2000 years ago the Jews fought the Romans for there own survival, and celebrated our b'nai-mitzvah service. The conditions weren't exactly perfect for a b'nai-mitzvah with all the birds chirping, the bugs buzzing and the sky rumbling with foreboding sounds, but the weather and the view were phenomenal so we survived. Standing on the mountain in the open air while chanting torah was a unique and a once in a lifetime experience. The service went reasonably smoothly except for the few moments of awkward silence, and we were both pleasantly surprised by our performances. The night before we were nervous about the upcoming service, but we later learned that the panic was unnecessary. It turned out that both our torah portions and our haf-torah portions were spoken very eloquently and with little visible or audible flaws. My (Matthew's) d'var torah was about the importance of a strong community. I started by giving an overview of Exodus. I then moved on to tell of the tabernacles importance and relationship to community. From there I talked about the necessity of communities in modern day life and the meaning of coming of age After that I recapped the beginning of my speech, and I talked a little about the importance of being in the place we were celebrating the b'nai mitzvah to rap it up… My (Ian's) d'var torah was about how you what is the right thing to do but you don't always do it, it was also about how sometimes you need to be pushed to do something and sometimes you have to push someone else to do something. My D'var Torah portion was full of humor and I really enjoyed writing it on top of everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment