Great question! Children becoming b'nei mitzvah marks a huge milestone for them as individuals, and is also a tremendous moment of joy for the entire Jewish community, as each child stepping up into Jewish maturity brings both continuity and renewal to our people's 2,000+ years of service to and celebration of the divine.

B'nei mitzvah ceremonies mark this occasion publicly, serving as both a culmination of a Jewish child's preparation for this moment, as well as a launching pad for their life as an emerging Jewish adult.

When a Jewish child becomes bar mitzvah, he assumes the rights and responsibilities of Jewish adulthood — meaning that he has reached the age at which he is individually obligated to fulfill the mitzvot (commandments). These mitzvot range from the spiritual (e.g. shabbat and holidays) to the ethical (e.g. supporting those in need) to the communal (e.g. counting in a quorum for daily prayers, or serving as a witness in a Jewish court).

Jewish children spend years preparing for this occasion, learning to read and chant the Hebrew of our prayers and sacred texts, studying the portion of Torah that they read and preparing public remarks on it, and undertaking service projects that give them a taste of the ethical obligations that await them.

* In Hebrew, bar mitzvah refers to a boy, bat mitzvah to a girl, and b'nei mitzvah is the plural across genders. Today, many communities, including ours, use b'nei mitzvah across gender, akin to the pronoun "they."

Shabbat!! It's been described so many ways over the millennia — a "delight," a "palace in time," and what has "kept the Jewish people." Shabbat is a holiday Jewish people get to celebrate every week, in which we refrain from work, spending money, electronics, and other activities that keep us in the mode of production, and instead get to dwell in the joys of uplifting music, spiritual learning, delicious food, and family and community togetherness. It's not so much a "recharge" from the work week as what the week is for in the first place.

Its origins come from the Torah, with the restfulness and joy serving as a remembrance both of the miracle of creation and the liberation from enslavement. And while "guarding" and "remembering" Shabbat is most famously listed as one of the Ten Commandments, a core idea of Shabbat actually comes from Ezra's bar mitzvah parsha, the portion of the Torah he will read: in BeHar, the Mountain of Commandments, God delivers a sweeping cascade of mitzvot to Israel at Mount Sinai, including the command to observe the sabbath.

In short — Shabbat is the pinnacle of our weeks, a time of extra holiness and joy — and we can't wait to share it with you!

A lot! Ezra will be leading the congregation in the prayers for the central part of our services, in which Jews take the Torah out of its central place of honor in our sanctuary, bless it, and read publicly from the parsha (portion) of the Torah that Jews around the world all read that given week.

Ezra's bar mitzvah portion is BeHar (“On the Mountain”), a sweeping tour through the mountain of the mitzvot — including blessings for doing God's will and warnings against neglecting it, and the commandment to care for the poor and the stranger in our midst. It is a rich, ethical, and very contemporary parsha.

The biggest moment of the service will come when he is called up for an aliyah, at which time he himself will recite the blessings over the reading of Torah for the first time on Shabbat. He will also read verses from the Torah, chant a haftarah (a section from the books of the Prophets that accompanies the Torah portion we read that week), and give a d'var Torah (a word of Torah), sharing with all of us his reflections on the words of this week's parsha and our tradition's myriad interpretations of it.

After he reads from the Torah, the congregation will shower him with candy, sending him all of our wishes for a Jewish life filled with sweetness and joy.

A lot of joy!! Shabbat morning services are full of song, teaching, moments of reflection and contemplation, and a feeling of togetherness. At Adas Israel, please join us right at the start so you don't miss any of the parts in which Ezra will be playing a leadership role.

Whenever you go into a new space like a synagogue, it can sometimes feel like everyone else knows what's going on but you. But that's not the case! New people join services at Adas Israel every week, and even among those who come regularly people have a wide range of learning and experience. There are so many great resources out there for newcomers to synagogues — feel free to ask a member of the congregation or the shul office if you have any questions.

Most of all — please bring your full selves!! Whether it's your first time in synagogue or your 100th, don't worry if there are things you don't know. Your presence and your joy are what matter most.

Yes — Adas Israel streams its Shabbat morning services. The link will be posted on this page closer to the weekend. (And remember: no phones or cameras of any kind inside the sanctuary on Saturday.)