Beltane and the Bar Mitzvah Moon

Sunday gratefuls: Rock. Gneiss. Granite. Shale. Sandstone. Lava. Sedimentary. Soil. Humus. Loess. Chernozem. Thin. Rich. Regenerative agriculture. Corn. Wheat. Barley. Soy Beans. Millet. Quinoa. Taro. Tarot. The Hermit. The Fool. Herme. Shadow Mountain. Rock above ground. Maxwell Creek. Cub Creek. Upper Bear Creek. Bear Creek. Kate’s Creek.

Sparks of Joy and Awe: Tom and Paul

One brief shining: I undressed the Torah scroll after Jamie removed it from the ark; holding it by the spindles of its rollers, he placed the scroll on the bimah, unrolled it to its current spot at the end of Leviticus and began going backwards to the nineteenth chapter of Exodus where the ten sayings, or the ten commandments are written, found my Torah portion at Exodus 19:25, handed me a yod, and Hello, this is Evergreen medical center chimed in my hearing aid, projected by blue tooth from my phone sitting at the back of the sanctuary.

 

Yeah. It was both funny and an odd juxtaposition of an ancient text, modern technology, and today’s health system’s love affair with text, e-mail, and phone as reminder mediums. Vayared is the first word of my Torah portion and I had my mouth ready when my hearing aid came alive with the sound of medicine.

This was yesterday morning during the final run through before Shavuot. Kat was at CBE, Veronica was on Zoom. Not sure where Lauren was. Jamie and I rounded out the bonei mitzvah* crew. I practiced reading my parts while Lauren and Kat sang and chanted theirs. There was some palpable tension as mistakes were made with the first and only performance only four days away. Rabbi Jamie was reassuring, quietly helpful.

Tom asked me what the purpose of an adult bar mitzvah is if it’s a rite of passage into manhood and womanhood. Something I presumably (OK. OK.) accomplished a while ago. The first answer I gave him was that this bar mitzvah was a way to increase the depth of my Jewish learning. I began this process about a year ago and conversion was the aleph moment, the beginning. That was last November.

Getting ready for my own bar mitzvah has pushed me into a better familiarity with Hebrew, with the prayerbook, with the Torah scroll itself, with Rabbi Jamie, with Tara, my tutor, and with other Jews like Alan, Joanne, Irv, Marilyn, Dan, Rich, Ron, Susan. To them it signals my seriousness about conversion. As Alan said, it checks one of the boxes.

The second answer I would give him now. Wednesday will be a capstone moment for my year of living Jewishly. It will mark the point when my life as a Jew can pass over from preparatory to customary. I have noticed that I often use we when referring to matters Jewish already. A sign. Still have not gotten to services as much as I intended. That homestand inertia I’ve mentioned before, yet I feel bonded in a new and deeper way to Congregation Beth Evergreen.

 

 

*Bonei Mitzvah means, builders of chosen connection and communal service. The phrase is an adaption of the plural form of bar or bat mitzvah (or b’nei mitzvah / children of mitzvah) that is gender neutral, highlights the active nature of the process… HaMaKom