Happy Birthday and Mazel Tov

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I'm officialy 23 years old. And I know most of you are wondering how I spent my birthday.
Well...it all started at midnight. I was sitting in the car on my way to a pub in a kibbutz with Roee and his friends.
The pub was a tent with a lot of rugs and cushions, people come there to smoke nirgila - a.k.a. hubblybubbly.
We did a round of birthdayshots and to my pleasent surprise I got icecream with whipped cream and sparlkes in it. I really enjoyed how everyone did an effort and remembered my birthday. Anyways we smoked nirgila and enjoyed the evening.

The next day was Roees brothers Bar Mitzvah. It was a very nice experience, but it did make me feel a little strange. Strange in the sence that I realised how different jewdisim, the traditions and the culture is. It almost shocked me a little.

Anyways here is how it goes:
* There is an intensive preperation before the Bar Mitzvah that asks a lot of study and discipline from the boy or girl. They need to read the passage in the Tora, know enough about jewish history and culture to be able to understand what they are reading. The passage they have to read is linked to the week they were born in. In other words you already know after the birth of a child what passage he/she will read.

* During the Bar Mitzvah the father thanks God for taking the responsbility for his child out of his hands. (Which sounds a little absurd, hehe)

* The Tora is taken out of the arc and passed to the boy/girl through all generations. Starting with the grandparents giving it to the parents and then the parents passing it on to the oldest son and down to the boy/girl that has a Bar Mitzvah.

* Then the reading of the Tora starts, which is not easy because you have to read it in a certain melody. In the sefardic tradition (which is Roees tradition) people through candy at the boy/girl after he/she is finnished reading the passage from the Tora.

* After the reading of the Tora the boy/girl holds a little speech about what he/she has learned based on the contents of the passage they just read.

* At the end the rabbi gives the boy/girl his blessings.

The rabbi was a woman from The Netherlands, Utrecht actually. So to my pleasant surprise I could talk Dutch at the seremony. She came to Israel for love, studied hebrew, got to know the culture and then decided to become a rabbi. Isn't that funny...

Last but not least at the end of the seremony you say "mazel tov" to the boy/girl!

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Photos

Rabbi with the arc
The Tora scroll is kept in the arc

Reading from the bible
Bar Mitzvah boy

Comments

[chicida]

Så kjekt å få lesa om alle tradisjonene og tingene du oppleve der nere!

[Marloes]

Dat is toevallig van die rabbijn