Torah Talk

A lifetime couple of years ago, I went to an evening meeting at the temple for parents of kids who would be Bar/Bat Mitzvah during the 2009–10 school year. It happened to be during the World Series, and our wonderful rabbi made a point to say that he would keep it short so we could all get home to our TVs. He figured that since all anyone was thinking about was baseball, he'd run with it. He said, "You know how when you go to Fenway Park, you're there for the game, but there's so much more going on than just the game? I mean, if it weren't for the game, you wouldn't even be there, but there's all the food! and the people-watching! and the songs! and the fun! That's how a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is. Obviously you're all there for the main event, but there's all this other 'stuff' going on, and it's good stuff; it's important and fun and memorable. But it should never become more important than the 'game.' And, as far as the 'game' goes, in the same way that it's not your responsibility to worry about how the Red Sox have been doing in practice or whether they're ready for the game, you don't have to worry about your kid. We [the clergy] will take care of that. Your kid will be ready—of that you can be sure. So you can just concern yourself with all of the other stuff—the food, the people, the music—as long as you never lose sight of why everyone is there in the first place: the 'game.'"

Wow, huh?

I had a similar "wow" moment a couple of weeks ago when we had a meeting to start thinking about Steph's Dvar Torah—that's her "Torah talk," or her speech about her Torah portion, and what relevance it has to her life. Steph kind of lucked out, because her Torah portion is from Exodus, and it's all about the Ten Commandments. She plans to talk about the importance of rules in everyday life. No matter where you go, there are rules, and (for the most part) they're there for a good reason.

We were told to come up with a "Mrs. Schwartz" sentence. Huh? Imagine you're at a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and you have to excuse yourself to go to the rest room right in the middle. You get back, only to find that the child has already completed the Dvar Torah. You don't want to unduly bother your seatmate, Mrs. Schwartz, but you want to know what you missed. You lean over and say, "Mrs. Schwartz, what did I miss?" Mrs. Schwartz, not wanting to talk any more than necessary, sums up everything in the Dvar Torah in just one succinct sentence. In Steph's case, it's something along the lines of "Rules are important." The "Mrs. Schwartz" sentence isn't a summary of the Torah portion, or an example of how it relates to the child's life, or an examination of what it means to us in today's world; it's just a statement of the underlying message that the child has taken away from it.

Some Torah portions are not so easy to extract a "Mrs. Schwartz" sentence from; they're stories without a clear lesson or sets of laws that are not readily applicable to the 21st century, so I'm glad Steph got a pretty straightforward Torah portion.

Comments

[Nancy]

My youngest brother's Torah portion was about the census. Try reducing *that* to a "Mrs. Schwartz" sentence. "Counting is important"?

[Karen]

Maybe "Leaders need to know how many -- and what kinds of -- people live in their community in order to better govern"?

I'll ask the rabbi next time and get back to you. If they can do it for animal sacrifices, they can do it for census. ;-)

[Sheila]

Since we switched temples when Elena was in sixth grade, we ended up with "Metzora," the reading from Leviticus that no one wants (which is why the date is often available for latecomers). It's the one that explains the rituals for healing lepers, cleaning dwellings with an eruptive plague, and purifying persons with genital discharge. (Not exactly what I was expecting when I agreed to raise Jewish children...) But believe me, those rabbis can help a kid craft a Dvar Torah out of ANYTHING.

[Elena]

Regarding the census: How about "Everybody counts"?