Anne's Womanhood

Passover vacation began on an upbeat with Anne’s Bat Mitzvah. People gave us funny looks when we out that night celebrating Anne’s entrance to womanhood as if to say, “She’s 13?” Nevertheless Anne, who didn’t have a Bat Mitzvah during the lovely years of middle school, read beautifully from the Torah in front of the southern wall in Jerusalem last Thursday. Her mom, dad and grandmother planned to visit during our vacation, so they were able to celebrate and say a few words as well. Their speeches, I must admit, were much funnier than I remember parents’ speeches when we were 13.

While I am not usually very moved by prayer or services, something in particular struck me about this service: the entire service was conducted and led by our friends, people our age. The “congregation,” so to speak, consisted of 30 or so 20 something year olds, the Otzma staff, and Anne’s family. Jenny conducted, and we all stepped up to lead various prayers in English and Hebrew. It was by no means a perfectly rehearsed flawless performance, but it was our effort at keeping tradition alive without the help of professionally trained leaders. I find something very special in seeing my friends read from the Torah at our age because our moms and dads aren’t “making” us at this point; it’s because we want to.

We celebrated over lunch at a themed restaurant in the Cardo where we all wore costumes of robes and togas and blew the shofar. And again that night at Rusty James, a fun dance bar tucked under the bridge where HaYarkon meets Ben Gurion.