By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — I attended the bar mitzvah of a young man who recoils from compliments or recognition. So I can’t say who he is, but I can tell you that his friends and relatives are shaking their heads in wonder. The young man turned 14 just two days ago, on March 11. But today it was if he were 13 again. Or so it seemed, because today he finally had his bar mitzvah, which normally occurs when a boy turns 13.
The bar mitzvah originally had been scheduled this time last year, but that’s when the nation was alerted that the coronavirus had taken on pandemic proportions and that we should all keep socially distant and wear masks. Dutifully, his family postponed the bar mitzvah ceremony for what was expected to be a couple of months at most. But as we all know, the pandemic got worse, not better, and after several more postponements, it was decided that the young man should have his bar mitzvah this year on Zoom, immediately after his birthday.
This worked out well because the Torah portion he needed to read (memorize) in Hebrew was the same that he would have read in 2020. It told of how the Israelites constructed a Sanctuary for God’s presence to dwell as the Israelites trekked through the desert.
Under the coronavirus restrictions which his Conservative congregation observes, Shabbat services are limited to 20 people, with the rest of the congregation following from their homes on Zoom. Such services are supposed to be conducted outside, under a tent, with a non-Jewish employee of the synagogue operating the camera. That’s how the service started, but the the first aliyah had hardly been pronounced when it started to rain. Rabbi Josh Dorsch, spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, declared a recess, and had the bar mitzvah — video camera and all — moved into the sanctuary. Following Covid guidelines, persons from different households sat a minimum of six feet apart. And the two doors of the sanctuary that lead outdoors were opened wide for proper CDC-recommended ventilation.
The young man’s mother and his older brother noted that the rain stopped shortly after everyone had piled into the sanctuary. “It was if God was telling us it’s time to go indoors, for matters to start returning to normal,” the mother suggested.
Be that as it may, the young man’s bar mitzvah had the distinction of being the first one to be postponed at Tifereth Israel because of Covid, as now as the first to be held inside the congregation’s sanctuary since the pandemic began.
In his d’var Torah, the young man wondered why God was so specific in giving instructions to the Israelites about how to build the Mishkan. “The more I thought, the less I think that God really cared about what the Mishkan looked like, what color it was, and what kind of wood it was made about,” he speculated. “What God cared about was the effort the Israelites put into building it, that they took it seriously, and that because they knew that it was important to God, it became important to them as well. The Torah made it clear no one told the Israelites that they had to participate in the construction of the Mishkan, but the entire community decided for themselves that it was important and that they wanted to contribute to the project.”
He added: “In many ways, the same is true about my bar mitzvah today. Becoming a bar mitzvah means a lot of different things, and is a lot of hard work. There is a right way and a wrong way to lead the prayers, and to chant from the Torah, which isn’t easy to do.. But one of the things that I have learned while practicing, very hard, almost every day, is what makes my bar mitzvah, and so important, isn’t that I will chant perfectly from the Torah and read every word correctly. What makes my bar mitzvah so meaningful is the effort, the time, and the energy that I have put into my studies, and into my preparation, not just for today, but for my journey…”
As on most subjects, this particular young man offers an interesting perspective.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com