Comments at Adult B'nai Mitzvah

Rabbi Melanie Aron

May 12, 2001

This is a particularly diverse and a particularly talented class. Many of these B'nai Mitzvah students have already contributed significantly to the life of our congregation and many will go on to do so.

I couldn't help but think, last week during our final rehearsal, that in another time and place, hardly anyone on the bimah today would have been allowed to take a role in leading the service.

Traditionally women would have been excluded, as the bimah was not their place, and their voices were distracting.

Those who were born and raised as non-Jews, would not have been included, as up until recently the Jewish community felt it was necessary to turn potential converts away 3 times.

In addition, even today, in other segments of the Jewish community, members of this class would have been excluded from honors, because they are married to a non-Jew or because they are in a life-partnership with someone of the same sex.

And I thought, what a loss to the Jewish community.

In this week's Torah portion, in one of the few verses that we didn't read aloud this morning, there is a list of those who are excluded from the priesthood, those who were born kohanim but who had any blemish, were blind, lame, halt, hunchback, dwarf, maimed, injured or diseased. Yet among the famous rabbis of the Talmud, I can give you an example of someone in almost every one of these categories.

It's a great example of what I tried to teach this class-- that as Jews, we read the Torah with Rabbinic glasses. It is the continual reinterpretation of Torah that sets the tone of our religious life. The Torah had one sensibility, but the rabbis, through midrash and explication, were able to advance Jewish thinking.

What we are doing at Shir Hadash, this morning and in our general welcoming attitude, is not a deviation from Jewish tradition, rather it is continuing a pattern of ever greater inclusion begun by the generations that have come before us.