A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

I FOR IDENTITY, ISRAEL & INDEPENDENCE

(A BAT MITZVAH ADDRESS )

Over the weeks, as you’ve been attending services you may recall that I have been talking about Jewish values from a Reform perspective, listing those values alphabetically, for convenience and comprehensiveness, placing each new value under a letter of the alphabet. And I have reached the letter I.

I is for Identity. I is for Israel. I is for Independence.

Bat Mitzvah is a great celebration of Identity.

Identification with Israel becomes more of a realisable opportunity as time goes on.

Through youth organisations you can go on Israel tour, you can spend a gap year on Shnat… And there’s Taglit- the birthright Israel scheme which offers you a 10 day, educational trip free of charge to Israel from age 18 to 26.

Israel represents the living reality of the Jewish people as a complete culture. In Israel your Jewish identity is expressed in the language and in the landscape itself. In the history that is all around you, and history that is being made day by day. It is a phenomenal blending of cultures from 4 continents, you make friends from all over the world, all gathered together under the parasol of Jewish identity. It is the world in microcosm. And of course the challenge of living with others of different identities, (which we face wherever we live on the surface of the globe) are intensified too….

I hope that when the opportunity comes to you to go to Israel, you’ll grab it eagerly

Let me tell you something which probably few people know.

If you were living in Israel now, and you were having your bat mitzvah at a shul in, say Tel Aviv or Haifa, you would be given the choice of a service on Shabbat morning, afternoon or evening. And you would most probably have to share the event with another girl, or a boy. At each Reform shul in those cities they have 2-300 bar/bat mitzvahs per year, that’s 4 or 5 per week every week of the year!

But only 10% of those will be girls. Only 20-30.

To be a bat mitzvah in Israel takes courage. This might surprise you. Since before the beginning of the state women have played a full part in the building up of the nation. Both sexes are called up into the army. And they’ve had a woman Prime Minister Golda Meir. But it is not all that common for a young Israeli girl to have a bat mitzvah.

The reason I was given on my recent visit is that Israeli boys and girls face a lot of pressure from parents and peers. Parents will just say ‘mah pitom, zeh lo chashuv’ it’s just not done. Friends will say ‘you’re trying to do something like boys and you’re letting the girls down, you’re betraying them.’

I was told it’s just not on the girls radars. When they hear that it’s possible, most are astonished. The majority of Israelis are secular. They don’t belong to any shul.

Your parents don’t have to belong to a shul for you to have bar/bat mitzvah. The great majority of those 2-300 aren’t members; they just pay a fee, book the event, the morning, the afternoon or the evening service. In Tel Aviv’s Bet Daniel shul you have a choice of a man rabbi or a one of two women rabbis to officiate.

To do it, usually it means you come from a family who are committed to Reform. They are only members if they choose to be.

It takes the courage of identification to be bat mitzvah. Here too, where not every girl goes for it, but much much more so in Israel. It takes courage. The passionate conviction that it is as important for young women to be as fully involved as young men. That this way forward lies the strengthening of Judaism.

Israel’s Independence is what we are celebrating in conjunction with your Bat Mitzvah.

Independent is actually a negative word, though we may use it in a positive sense. Independent just means, ‘not dependent’ - often when we talk about so-and-so being independent, there’s a hidden wish that they weren’t quite so…

Independence in Hebrew is Atzmaut. Yom Ha’Atzmaut is translated as Independence Day. Atzmaut is very positive. It means literally Selfness. Atzmaut means you define yourself, you’re not dependent on others to do it for you.

Your Bat Mitzvah is a strong statement. It says: I identify!

And our response has to be, as Israelis say: Kol hakavod lach – all credit to you, and thank you – because the more there are like you, the greater the chance that our highest hopes for the future may find fulfilment.