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David older at time of Goliath conflict

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

The latest topic I’ve taken on while writing lessons for my bar and bat mitzvah class at Kehilat Sar Shalom is a character study on the life of David. One of the things I was somewhat surprised to learn is that David was older than traditionally thought at the time of his conflict with Goliath.

The misconception seems to arise from the fact that he is the youngest son of Jesse, but simply being the youngest does not mean he was 12 or 14 at time time of this battle, as is traditionally depicted. As revealed in the book, The Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg, David was already 27 at the time of his anointing to be the next king of Israel by the prophet Samuel. This event is recording in I Samuel 16, and his conflict with Goliath comes in I Samuel 17, chronologically a later date than his anointing. So David had to be at least 27 at the time he battled Goliath.

Now there’s something to contemplate when sitting on your shower stool with time to spare as you clean up and prepare for the day ahead!

Tags: David, Goliath, Louis Ginzberg, shower stool, The Legends of the Jews
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Relevancy of the Torah

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Discerning the value of traditional teachings that are not part of scripture is not an easy task. As I write my 47 lessons of Torah, it would be easy to get lost in the traditional teachings of the Sages. However, only a small fraction of what is written has direct relevance to our purpose as a messianic congregation; even that aside, only a small fraction has relevance to issues that would shed light on these Torah lessons for my bar and bat mitzvah kids.

Of course, if anyone thinks it’s easy to teach 10-13-year-olds, I have some North Carolina land for sale. While I greatly enjoy it, it is a challenge to get kids at that age to pay attention enough to learn something, though it can be done.

Relevancy is the trick. So many lessons talk about adult concerns in their examples, rather than kids’ concerns. An illustration of how a certain passage of scripture relates to marriage or paying off a mortgage, for example, isn’t as relevant has an illustration that compares a certain passage to dealing with bullying or peer pressure, or making a choice between Bible study time and videogame time.

Yet even kid-appeal doesn’t guarantee relevancy. In writing my lesson on Genesis, I came across a writing of the sages that expands on the day of creation when all underwater life was brought forth by the words of Adonai our G-d. The passage was filled with stories of G-d creating monsters that could destroy the earth if he’d made more than one of them. Such a story from the sages would have held great youth appeal.

But the truth is, it’s complete legend, never mentioned directly in the passage we were studying and, therefore, problematic at best, if not downright confusing the mythology of Torah from the historical Torah passage itself. Better to leave such a story aside for an older, more discerning age. That was my feeling, anyway.

Tags: bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, North Carolina land for sale, Torah
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47 lessons of Torah

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Picking out Nike golf clubs has to be a lot easier than writing a 47-lesson Torah cycle curriculum for my bar and bat mitzvah kids, and yet that is exactly the task I’ve taken on for the coming year. It will be quite a challenge. Not only must I study up on my Torah well enough to teach it, but I must study up on connections to the Brit haDasha as well as the writings of the Jewish sages, gathering the good from each source and discarding the not-so-good.

So far, I’m producing these lessons quite close to deadline. Uncomfortably close. I’m hoping to find a creative burst that will launch me 2-3 lessons ahead of deadline so I have more time to look at, pray over and consider the writing I am doing before having to finalize it.

Already, the rush has produced a possible oversight on my part. In my enthusiasm over the first two chapters of Genesis, I may have misinterpreted the order of events. My traditional understanding of Genesis is that on the sixth day of creation, Adonai’s work was devoted exclusively to the creation of humankind.

However, it appears the L-rd also created some other mammel life on the sixth day as well, a fact I didn’t catch until the lessons were already printed up. I was disappointed in myself, not because I expect to always be right, so much as I expect better results of myself than that.

Sure, I suppose the point might be open to some debate; but I think a clear reading of the text points out that it was simply an oversight on my part. Fortuantely, it’s a small one, easily corrected. If that’s the worst error I make over the next 46 lessons I must write, I’ll be doing well, I think.

Tags: 47 lessons, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, Nike golf clubs, sixth day of creation, Torah
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The end of Matthew

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Three lessons.

That’s all that remains for the current cycle of lessons – a cycle that is one year (47 lessons, with space for some special weeks of instruction) in length – before we reach the end and start over again. I have been teaching the bar and bat mitzvah class much of that time. For the first few months, I was part of a two-person team that rotated in once a month. For the past seven months, I’ve been part of a two-person team that handles the teaching pretty much every week.

The book our study revolves around is the gospel of Matthew, with plenty of rabbinic and Torah teachings brought in along the way. It’s a challenging curriculum that even adults could gain knowledge studying. But now we’re reaching the end of Matthew. In the next three lessons, we will cover the death and resurrection of Yeshua, then move into the great commission and then it’s done.

And then, we start over, of course.

We don’t use a lot of multimedia to keep these young minds engaged. We don’t need DVDs or TVs or TV lift cabinets. All we do is expect them all to take part reading through the lesson, answering questions, paying attention, reviewing the material and figuring out (with help) how this all applies to their every day lives.

Because, as we often remind the kids, we could have them attend every single week for two years, push them through a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony and welcome them into the age of accountability with fanfare galore; and if, in that time, it never made a difference in how they lived and whether they thought about how each choice they make either honors or dishonors G-d, then it is all wasted time.

Tags: bar and bat mitzvah class, Matthew, TV lift cabinets
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Bar and bat mitzvah, defined

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

First communion invitations are not a concern for messianics, as we do not celebrate such a thing; however, we do celebrate bar and bat mitzvah as our young boys and girls enter their teen years, so there is a parallel invitation need.

Bar mitzvah happens for boys around the time they turn 13; bat mitzvah happens for girls around the time they turn 12. What does this mean? Let’s break it down. Mitzvah is a word that traditionally means “commandment” in both Hebrew and Aramaic, although it can alternatively also be translated as “good deed” or “righteous act,” which are simply shadings of the same root meaning. “Bar” means “son of” in Aramaic and “bat” means “daughter of” in Aramaic. So, in essence, the celebration could be translated either, “son of the commandment,” or, more loosely, “son of righteousness.” Similarly with girls, it would be “daughter of the commandment” or “daughter of righteousness.”

Basically, it is a coming of age celebration, but with a spiritual connotation. From a messianic perspective, it celebrates the age of maturity, when young men and women have studied Torah enough to have their own basic understanding of sin and righteousness, so that they are without excuse. It celebrates the time at which young people must become responsible for their own behavior, choosing what is righteous and pleasing to Adonai over what us unrighteous and sinful.

It is not, as many messianics believe, a full license into adulthood. Children in their teen years are still in need of some direction and assistance in making their way through the challenges of life and becoming prepared for full adult responsibilities; all a bar or bat mitzvah signifies is that no longer can they claim they did not know right from wrong.

Tags: Adonai, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, coming of age, First communion invitations, maturity, Torah
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Missing the kids

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

It’s strange.

One of the main reasons I am a bar/bat mitzvah teacher at my congregation is that those who are parents themselves aren’t exactly beating the door down for their turn at bat. In the nine or 10 months I’ve been doing it, even though I’m not a parent, I miss the class and the kids quite a bit on Saturdays I can’t make it, which are thankfully few and far between.

Take this past weekend for example.

I loved being in Chicago with my wife, spending time with her grandmother, her uncle John, and other important people in her life. It was great fun, a nice getaway and long overdue: over two years since we’d been down there ourselves. The whole weekend was memorable in good ways. But I must confess that, come Saturday morning, I missed getting up and going to Sar Shalom to teach “my kids.”

Sure, they can be challenging, hard to deal with at times and a bit of a handful. But they can also be bright and studious and full of joy. I enjoy teaching them. And it beats buying body shop supplies.

Saturday this week can’t arrive quickly enough.

Tags: bar and bat mitzvah class, body shop supplies, kids, Sar Shalom, Torah
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