I felt like a toddler at the Bar Mitzvah
The whole family takes part in the bar mitzvah celebration.
I had the honor of witnessing a young friend make his bar mitzvah on Saturday. I felt a bit like a toddler because I didn’t understand what was going on. When they were doing the Hebrew parts, they might as well have been speaking Greek or Hebrew. The only way I could follow the action was by observing body — which toddlers are expert at.
Toddlers can also clap. When I watched the cantor closely, I could clap on the right beats of the songs with clapping. It always amazes me at bar mitzvahs how the congregation knows all of the songs without looking at the words or the music. They just join in with gusto leaving me feeling like a toddler because I haven’t learned how to do it yet.
Clapping made me feel good and like I could participate on my level. Like a toddler, I felt the bar mitzvah went on for way too long and I was tired and hungry, and anxious for the party.
I love that Judaism has an initiation to adulthood for boys and girls to cross from childhood to adulthood, although the age should be moved up in today’s world to age 18. That’s about when young people take responsibility for themselves, unlike the olden days when 13 really was the precipice of adulthood.
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