Bar / Bat Mitzva Corner
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This month we wish a mazal tov to
Alex in Malibu, California
Alex's’s Bar Mitzvah Speech on Parashat Chaye Sarah
When I was at the Museum of Tolerance with my B’nai Mitzvah class, I learned about a project to remember the approximately 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust. This project “twins” B’nai Mitzvah students with children who died before they were old enough to have their bar or bat mitzvah. The child that I am dedicating my Bar Mitzvah to, and for whom I will say Kaddish every year on the anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah, is Oszi Krausz. Oszi was born in Romania in 1934. His mother’s name was Gizi and his father’s name was Marci. We don’t know much about Oszi and his family, but we do know that Oszi died in Auschwitz Concentration camp in 1944. He was ten years old. By dedicating my Bar Mitzvah to Oszi, I hope others will do the same, because I feel a sense of accomplishment in remembering my child and his family. When I learn about the Holocaust, it makes me feel grateful to be alive.
My parashah is Chaye Sarah. From the name, you might think it is about the life of Sarah. However, the first sentence tells us that Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham is a really old man by this time, and we already know that he is the “founding father” of the Jewish people. But before he dies, he needs to deal with two more things.
G-d promised Abraham the land of Israel and also promised that Abraham would have many offspring. Abraham needs to plan for Sarah’s burial and others who will follow her, and he needs to plan for future generations by getting a wife for his son Isaac. These two issues are what my Torah portion is all about.
Abraham mourns for his wife, and then he searches for her burial site. The locals who own the land are not Jewish. Abraham decides to buy the Cave of Machpelah from a Hittite named Ephron. Even though Ephron offers to give the land to Abraham for free, Abraham insists on paying for it, and he pays a very high price -- the first price mentioned by Ephron -- with no negotiating -- to make sure his ancestors will own the land forever.
This is the first recorded time that a Jew buys land in Eretz Israel. It is also the first time the Torah mentions that a Jew dies and is buried in the land of Israel, and it is not just any Jew - it is Sarah, the first Matriarch of the Jewish people. Eventually, Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are all buried in the Cave of Machpelah.
Abraham did something that people always do when they move to a new place – he found a place to bury his loved ones. Abraham insisted on owning the land so Sarah’s burial place would be safe and forever belong to the Jewish people.
Abraham wanted to put roots in the ground and make his people’s mark on the world. The cave was an important first step. Abraham affected our future in a huge way by giving the Jews a presence in the land of Israel.
It is sad that the first land purchased by a Jew in Israel is today in Hebron, a part of the West Bank not controlled by Jews. It is a part of Israel that may have to be given to the Palestinians to form their own country. It would be sad if Jews were not allowed to visit the Cave of Machpelah in the future.
All families want to know about their roots. More than 60 years ago, when my father’s parents were teenagers, they and their families were forced to leave Iraq, the country where they had lived for many generations. Right after the start of the current Iraq war, Savta Malka said she wanted to go back to visit Baghdad when the war was over to see if she could find the home and neighborhoods she remembers from her childhood.
Saba Tzion also never felt really comfortable in Israel. Maybe because my grandparents never felt that Israel was their real home, my father decided to leave and put down his roots here in California.
When my mom was growing up, her family had very few Jewish traditions. When she became a mother, she decided to make her family’s Jewish history and traditions an important part of her life and the lives of her children. Both my parents think that being part of a Jewish community is important. All my life, my family and I have been a part of the Malibu Jewish community. We get together all the time with other MJC&S families. We celebrate holidays together and help each other.
Now that I’m 13, I am becoming mature enough to realize that it’s important to consider future generations, and not just live my life for myself. All our famous ancestors, like Abraham, cared about other people and not just about themselves.
I am beginning to realize that one of my jobs in life is to help other people. Whether that is from giving money or food to charity, or doing Community Service projects with my friends, helping other people is one of the things I must do to be accepted in my community as a Bar Mitzvah.
Rambam, Moses Maimonedes, tells us that if you change one person, it’s as if you changed the world. Changing the world can be doing something to benefit thousands of people, the way Abraham did. But if you make a difference in the life of even one person, you have also changed the world.
For my Mitzvah Project, I have been researching how to help children in other parts of the world. I am especially interested in helping children who are orphans. There are approximately 14 million children in Africa alone who are orphans because they lost their parents to AIDS. Millions of these children are illiterate and hungry because they don’t have a regular family life. I did research and I found several organizations that especially help children in Africa and other developing countries and are very efficient at sending almost 100% of the money donated to program services. I am collecting children’s books, and I plan to donate those books and part of my savings to organizations that especially help the poorest children in Africa.
My goal in writing this speech is that at least one person here today might decide to do something good to make the world a better place. I hope that what I say will inspire one person to go home and do something to help someone else and change the future, the way Abraham did. That would be as if I bought a cave for future generations, just like Abraham.
Alex
Malibu, California
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