The altar in the temple, they may not even call it an altar, looks pagan to me. I know that is an absurd assessment since Jesus was a Jew but the prohibition of idols or images of god thing takes my favorite part of religion off the table. There’s a great big wooden cabinet behind the lectern, they probably don’t call it a lectern, and inside the cabinet there is a reproduction of the sacred Torah scrolls. I know this because I opened the cabinet a few years ago when my nephew made his Bar Mitzvah.
My brother converted from Catholicism and we’ve been to three of these coming of age rituals now. Our niece had just turned thirteen the day before and that is such a pivotal period, it’s fun to just look at her on this cusp. Serious on one hand and childlike on the other, the rabbi scolded her when she made eye contact with her friends who were sitting right behind us.
Peggi and I were asked to play music during the event so we were sitting right by the piano. The canter had a beautiful voice and she was backed by the keyboardist for the Yankees. Peggi and I jumped in on sax and hand drum. The minor key modal thing is right up the Margaret Explosion alley.
Our neice’s lesson (upon being called to Torah as a Bat Mitzvah she is now a “teacher”), one she picked from a story in the book of Numbers, was how she learned and will continue to learn how to stop complaining and be happy with what she has. She said, “I know Apple will always introduce new products that are better than what I now have.”
2 Comments
love the Apple quote LOL
The big wooden closet where the torah is kept is called the ‘Ark’ btw.