I am so excited and for once in my life...nervous. My Mitzvah is this friday!!!! It is kind of cool considering that it is happening a week before my 26th birthday, and it is normally supposed to happen on your 13th. So I basically waited another 13 years and BAM there is it! 
This is the speech I have to give in front of the congregation (this isn't my haftorah, duh) I made mine more comical then emotional, as all the other adults have decided to do:
You know how there is always this "thing" in your life that is just there? It has always been there so you know it's there and you're use to it so you don't really give it a second though? It could be something as frivolous as a snort in your laugh or as important as an anniversary.
Well.... that "thing" has always been my religion. I'm not saying it's frivolous like a snort in my laugh, but it has been important to me....when the holidays roll around anyways.
I used to remember 8 nights of lighting candles and opening presents at my grandmothers house OH! and the Matzoball soup! YUM. I always had a vague and obscure knowledge as to why we lit candles and WHY we read a VERY long book during Seder, but that's all they were to me, religious holidays. It wasn't anyones fault though, my mom being protestant and my father being jewish wanted my sister and I to experience it all. As I grew though, so did my curiosity about my jewish heritage. Until finally I started going to temple services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with my father and grandmother.
My first experience with the Temple was a sliiiiiightly excrutiating one. I was very young still and had yet to sit (and stand and sit and stand and sit and stand....) through anything like it before. I remember being enthralled by the cantors voice and trying (though I didn't know how) to read the hebrew written in the prayer book. Then Rabbi Gan would give his speech, and all I can remember to this day was something about flat feet. It all still enthralled me though, and every year the speeches and the services got better and better until I thought, "WAIT! I still don't know all I want to know about my familys religious past!"
So here I am, almost a year later. I can read hebrew, for the most part. I understand a lot more about judaism and about my past, and I have made some really great friends along the way. You always think back about some things in your life and wonder if they really ever did you any good? This is probably one of the best choices I will have ever made. Thank you Rabbi Gan and Rabbi Klein, my friends, family, my classmates, and most of all.... my grandma Beaulah, For without her this would have meant nothing.
This is the speech I have to give in front of the congregation (this isn't my haftorah, duh) I made mine more comical then emotional, as all the other adults have decided to do:
You know how there is always this "thing" in your life that is just there? It has always been there so you know it's there and you're use to it so you don't really give it a second though? It could be something as frivolous as a snort in your laugh or as important as an anniversary.
Well.... that "thing" has always been my religion. I'm not saying it's frivolous like a snort in my laugh, but it has been important to me....when the holidays roll around anyways.
I used to remember 8 nights of lighting candles and opening presents at my grandmothers house OH! and the Matzoball soup! YUM. I always had a vague and obscure knowledge as to why we lit candles and WHY we read a VERY long book during Seder, but that's all they were to me, religious holidays. It wasn't anyones fault though, my mom being protestant and my father being jewish wanted my sister and I to experience it all. As I grew though, so did my curiosity about my jewish heritage. Until finally I started going to temple services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with my father and grandmother.
My first experience with the Temple was a sliiiiiightly excrutiating one. I was very young still and had yet to sit (and stand and sit and stand and sit and stand....) through anything like it before. I remember being enthralled by the cantors voice and trying (though I didn't know how) to read the hebrew written in the prayer book. Then Rabbi Gan would give his speech, and all I can remember to this day was something about flat feet. It all still enthralled me though, and every year the speeches and the services got better and better until I thought, "WAIT! I still don't know all I want to know about my familys religious past!"
So here I am, almost a year later. I can read hebrew, for the most part. I understand a lot more about judaism and about my past, and I have made some really great friends along the way. You always think back about some things in your life and wonder if they really ever did you any good? This is probably one of the best choices I will have ever made. Thank you Rabbi Gan and Rabbi Klein, my friends, family, my classmates, and most of all.... my grandma Beaulah, For without her this would have meant nothing.
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
eazy:
I am talking about modern kilts, great kilts whatever. Its either the kilts or I am just irresistable.
jj_r0x0rz:
thanx for the birthday wishes yay for leo