Bar Mitzvah

The party is over, the relatives have departed for California, Illinois, and Orgegon. And I am still kvelling! N. became a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday morning, January 6, 2007. He lead the service, read from Torah and Haftarah...and he made it look easy!

To the left is a photo of my husband Bruce adjusting N.'s tie after helping him don his tallit (prayer shawl) before the service.

Here is N. pointing to the first word of his portion with a yad (pointer) before he practices reading his portion. (We do not take pictures during the service, so this one was posed on Friday morning).
The Torah is written by a scribe and does not have vowel marks or cantillation marks, so the student of Torah must chant with the proper cantillation without these aids. Leyning (chanting Torah) takes much preparation.

To the right is a picture of N. putting on his tallit in the Cantor's study just before going into

the sanctuary to begin the morning service. He was very proud of his new suit and the Tallit, but he was just a tad bit nervous!

Praying with a Tallit is a commandment for adult Jews, so this was the first time that N. donned the Tallit while saying the blessing for fulfilling the commandment. Some communities have reserved the tallit for a married man and others for anyone over the age of Bar Mitzvah. Our community follows the latter custom. We ordered the tallit from Israel. I had N.'s Hebrew name embroidered on the shoulder of the tallit.

Here is another picture from Friday's practice. N. is chanting from the Torah and the Cantor is preparing the roll the Torah forward for him. His portion was Vayechi, the last portion in Genesis. The Torah had to be rolled to the very last line: "...And Joseph died at the age of 110, and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt."

In the foreground is one of the Torah crowns, called "Rimonim" (pomegranates). Just as a pomegranate has many seeds, so Torah has as many meanings as there are people to interpret it.

Here is Netanel ben Elisheva, Bar Mitzvah, holding the Torah before the open Ark on the morning of his Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Rabbi Joseph Black is on the left side of him and Cantor Barbara Finn is on the right.

My baby boy...in a suit and tie. He looks so grown up!

And he did such a good job of his Bar Mitzvah responsibilities...I am still kvelling!