Everyone here knows that that's not you! Happy birthday, Lacy. Did you know, a decision I made to sacrifice my time and do a kindness about 18 years ago today is ultimately how you came to be? Unless you are one! ) But you never forget to have fun. When you fight, you pull out your light saber. Now it's your turn, Lacy, your Bat Mitzvah, in this Sanctuary full of hope and flowers, with G-d all around us – our family, extended family, friends, two cats, a dog, and all of my dreams for you. I will teach you how to guide your daughter through the process of writing a Bat Mitzvah speech, easily and successfully so that your guests can laugh, cry, and clap (and YOU can shep nachas)! But then I realized that, in fact, I had someone else with whom I was sharing each and every one of those details. You are surrounded by the representatives of many tribes, who all came to collectively celebrate with you. INTRODUCTION TO BLESSING: When we finished tying your tzitzit. Then you're ready to write! Always use your beautiful sparkling personality to influence people for good, to help others become better people, to teach people to treat everyone in the world with the incredible dignity that comes so naturally to you. What Jewish cultural or religious values does your daughter exemplify?
May you find expression for all your creativity and share your gifts with the world. No one ever had to tell Sarah that there was a Mitzvah against gossip. And it wasn't enough. She is unbelievably organized, and has taken to party planning like a fish to water. Since I grew in a very Jewish but also a very not religious family, I had to look the subject up. She is loved, we are proud, and even if she does not remember holding my hand and walking up Third Avenue, I do. Someone whispered it to her, and according to her teacher, she just turned around and said "So what? It takes huge strength, hard work and a tenacity to be a ballet dancer. Hannah, you've been my joy and my light since the moment you were born, and I swear, I am not going to cry. Two, that if you're going to ask a hypothetical question, you shouldn't ask it of a 95-year-old without someone there to help. Making a movie for Hannah's bat mitzvah was a highly emotional experience as well, as I got to relive her first twelve years through pictures and home movies. I will always remember you as the perfect little baby in my arms, as the hilarious little girl who bounced like a ball through the hallways and the kind, thoughtful, courageous, confident young person standing before us now, and I am so excited to watch and support the woman you are becoming. I could see that it was really bothering you as you very emphatically insisted to us that same-sex couples are just people like anyone else and without question should not be treated differently. Body: Sarah and the Mitzvot – Protecting the weak, protecting friends from embarrassment, stopping gossip.
Wait let me start again… I am an emotional writer, so when it came time to write the speech for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah I couldn't stop crying. Here I'm looking for a 40/60 split of touching and comical. You don't spend every possible weekend on the mountain because your mom and I tell you to. Neither of us understood how we got from there to here. All parents of B'nei Mitzvah should make this promise.
We'll have breakfast and I'll drive them to school. When you were born, one of the nurses told me that little girls are born, they have all of their genetic material already inside them. Of course, this is an emotional time for parents, family members, and the newly-minted adults, themselves, and so it can be difficult to draft the perfect Bat or Bar Mitzvah speech that highlights both the religious momentousness of the day as well as the personal achievements that led to it. We loved you fully and completely at the moment of your birth, and even before that. You started skiing when you had barely turned four. Another woman explained she was sparing her kids the stress of preparing for lengthy services and speeches by skipping their bar and bat mitzvahs. This is really the topic I want you to think about. The more you do this, the more comfortable you will feel when you take the microphone. I wrote my blessing a long time ago, and made sure that it was short, sweet and had no real triggers to release the floodgates of my tears. Write down the best jokes she's told you and the worst ones you've told her. As an outsider looking in, I can see how following all these rules can be overwhelming and can often turn into a meaningless journey driven by fear. And we tied the A set of fringes tied and knotted on each of the four corners of a tallit, symbolizing and reminding the user of God's commandments. As we've told you your whole life, there is nothing you could ever do that would make us love you any more, or any less.
As we worked our way through the text, I appreciated the unique way she looked at things – and the fact that she wanted to use her time not to grow alone or away from us, but together with me, as study partners, instead. My daughter is loving and kind and will always stand up for what's right. When you were 2, I once watched you stack your wooden blocks into towers, red up, animals down. There are going to be things that you really like about me and things that you won't like at all…You'll tell yourself you'll do many things differently as an adult and perhaps one day as a parent as well. Repeat the process until you're happy with the result.
I say things about scholastic, athletic, and musical achievements, highlight some extracurriculars, yadda yadda yadda. So you see, our promise today to help you find the "Jewish way" to do things won't just be about cold obligations. It came already cracked wide-open to soak in the love around you and shine it back into the world. Leah, my darling daughter, your father and I want to start by telling you we love you, but not any more than we did yesterday. The other one I'd like to add is the certainty that, Natalie, I've never been so proud of you as I am today seeing you up on this bima. When you guide your daughter through something new, you take her through it step by step. The same door they used to beg to keep open because they couldn't fall asleep otherwise.