Symbolic Acts

Will you not tell us what you mean by these things? Ezekiel 37.18

This question comes from the haftarah [prophetic reading] which you read to us today. The prophet Ezekel performs some curious actions, what we would call symbolic actions, because they have no meaning in theselves, but only in what they stand for. The prophet took two sticks, one bearing the name of the northern section of the divided Hebrew kingdom, and the other bearing the name of the southern section, and held them together. Now people do not normally behave in this way, playing sticks, so people would ask him: "Won't you tell us what you mean by these things?" The answer was that he wanted to drive home the message that one day the two kingdoms would be reunited.

Today you are in a somewhat similar position to the prophet. You are performing actions that are quite unusual for you, and which have no immediate purpose. We undertand why you eat and sleep and breathe. But when you read publicly, as you did today, for all three sections of our sacred scriptures, we are entitled to ask: "Won't you tell us what you mean by these things?"

I would not blame you entirely if you have not given too much thought to what your answer should be. I suppose that most boys have a bar mitzvah because it is the thing to do. But even if I did not pester you with this question, you should ask it of yourself for your own satisfaction.

Let me suggest some possible answers for your consideration. First I would say that your bar mitzvah represents religious manhood. From now on, the blame or praise for the manner in which you conduct yourself no longer belongs to your parents, but to yourself. In the same way the observance of Jewish law becomes your personal responsibility, and you are required to live up to the high standards that Judaism demands of its adherents.

The second message that you have conveyed today is that of the importance for the Jew of the Hebrew language and Jewish study. Why should you read these things in Hebrew, and not in Chinese or Greek, not to mention English? Hebrew links us both to our past and our present. It links us to the past in that the great works of our literature, the Bible, the rabbinic writings, the medieval poets, and so on, up to our own day, are spelled out in Hebrew letters. It liniks us to the present too, for while English is the herigage we share with fellow Americans of all faiths, Hebrew is the heritage we share with fellow Jews of all nationalities. So much as you have done today has only been achieved through study, and you can only advance further through study, and this, I hope, you will long continue to do.

Finally, by your actions today, you demonstrated something else: namely, the desirability of doing a little more than the minimum. The bare minimum for a bar mitzvah could, I suppose, be picked up by most boys in an hour or so. You have achieved a good deal more than that, but we have to recognize that with a bar mitzvah, there is a lot pressure to do more than the minimum. It is so public a thing, and there are so many with whom your performance, if we want to use the word, can be compared. But perhaps the experience will indicate to you the desirability of doing more than the minimum in all good endeavors, even when the spotlight is turned off. The bare minimum of politeness, helpfulness, devotion to study and relgious things is really too low an aim to be worthy of you. The rabbis said: Say little and do much -- and it is still a good motto.

Won't you tell us what you mean by these things? If you are asking this question, your answer might be something like this:

Today I am Jewishly a man responsible to my creator for my actions. I declare my devotion to the Hebrew language and the Jewish heritage which it bears. Finally, I realize that Judaism calls upon me to do a little more than I am really compelled to do, for thus I show that I am not only a man, but a man of character.

I am sure that your parents and grandparents and other relatives look to you to be a good Jew and a good citizen, and I am sure that today you will decide to try your very best to grant them that desire. The fact that your parents decided that your bar mitzvah should take place here, in spite of the difficulties involved in living in another city many miles away, is a tribute to their love and loyalty towards this congregation. I hope that you will develop a similar sense of loyalty and achievement to all the good things for which Judaism stands. If you do this, you may be sure that you will never stray too far from the right path.