Bar Mitzvah

My wife's nephew's son became a Bar Mitzvah yesterday morning. I seem to remember him playing the piano last time I saw him. He studied Hebrew and I was studying Arabic. We had pizza, chips and salsa, bagels, lox,... Lox is the limit of recall, not because I cannot remember more, but rather what possible reason is there to remember anything beyond lox? In particular New York Lox, cream cheese from Daiter's in Toronto, onions from the heartland of the USA, and capers from the Middle East. The word "bar" means "son" in English. It begins with the letter "beth".

Interestingly enough, the very first word of the Torah, bereshit, begins with the letter "beth". Hebrew is written and read from right to left, just as is Arabic, contrary to English which is read and written from left to right. So in Hebrew, as I write a sentence, what I have already written lies to the right of my pen, and what I have not yet written, that which lays in the future, will be to the left of my pen. Thus does the letter beth look towards what is yet to be written:

for the beth has closure on the side facing the past of the already written and has an opening on the side of the future which is yet to be written. The entire history of the Universe lay to the left and in the immense potential of the future of that very first letter beth of the Torah, so this is no small deal. The beth of Bar Mitzvah is a symbol of how your life changes from childhood into adulthood, a taking up the burden of the community and a closing on childhood. The things of childhood are not forgotten. The love that your parents and family showered upon you as a child are not taken down, packed away, and forgotten. However, the things of childhood themselves now become symbols of innocence, because they are no longer the things with which you live your life. The future of being an adult opens now, and the things of adulthood themselves are no longer just symbols; that is, things that your parents would tell you about, saying things like "Just wait till you're grown up!", for these things are now going to become real and no longer be mere symbolic words.

What is possible becomes real and what is real passes into memory in time. The Bar Mitzvah marks the point where you become aware that you are part of this Community of Future, Present, and Past. Welcome to the future, young man, young Bar Mitzvah!