On Saturday, we went to the Bar Mitzvah of a good friend of Jihad’s. Having never been to a Bar Mitzvah before we were especially looking forward to it. Jihad’s friend, who we’ll refer to as ID, did a great job going through the ceremony and seeing as that he is autistic, we know it meant just that much more to the family. I was so touched, I even cried some. :-)
The Rabbi explained all the parts of the ceremony well and we were able to follow along. The passage that ID read was Genesis 37 where it’s described that Jacob was loved more than his other brothers by their father, Joseph (Israel). We learned that the Torah is read in syncrhonization by all synagogues during their weekly service and that the reading of the Torah is measured out precisely.
Here’s ID afterwards with his Rabbi and the Torah scroll
Here’s a picture of one of the hand-written Torah scrolls on display
Kaleya was off and on during the service, by the time it was over, she was so ready to go
she perked up though during lunch and of course getting to take balloons home made her day.
The Temple was very nice and I especially appreciated the sense of history present in the service and in the actual building. At the end of the service, the names of those who had anniversaries of their passing during this season were read. Also, there were pictures of all the graduating classes of the temple going back to the 1890s. Here is an example of one of the class photos – this one from 1932. Can you imagine seeing your ancestors back several generations if they too had been members?
We had a great time seeing ID again (he goes to Jihad’s former school) and meeting more of his extended family. Of interest to my genealogy interests, we learned that ID’s grandfather is the founder of an African-American newspaper in North Carolina and the family has ties to the city where I grew up. Small world!
