[Barmitzvah of Frank Spiegel]
So the day of your barmitzvah has come at last. It is a day for which you worked very hard and creditably, and has been eagerly awaited by many besides yourself, yet soon it will be a memory. You know, my mother often used to complain that it took her a whole morning to prepare a meal, quite apart from the time involved in marketing, and it was eaten in maybe an hour or so. I hope that you will not suffer from this feeling, that something for which you spent a great deal of time and effort is so soon over. On the contrary, I hope that this day will remain with you throughout your life to inspire and help you.
This day is one rich in moral lessons, and I should like to speak to you about two or three of them. The first lesson that you can draw is that of loyalty. It is quite an honor that you have to be the sixth generation to have worshipped in this congregation. You know that these are days when many people are swayed by what the fashion happens to be. They cast off old ties because something new turns up which looks attractive. But you are still with us; you have a loyalty to the synagogue which is rooted deep in the past, and which you do not lightly throw away. You may well take this as the model for your behavior in many areas in life. Your loyalty to Judaism, your family and your country should be abiding, something that you can take from those before you and in time pass on to those after. This is the real meaning of tradition, passing on an ideal because you love it, and wish it to endure.
The second matter I should like to impress upon you at this time is the importance of religious observance. Some people have compared the religious observances and ceremonies of Judaism to the beautiful cover of a book. Inside are those ideals which civilized human beings accept whatever their religion, or even if they do not have one at all -- justice, mercy, truth, lovingkindness. There are some who feel that the contents of the book are so important, that the cover should be ripped off the better to reveal what is inside. Yet we know that just as a cover can both preserve and beautify a book, so can our religious ceremonies preserve and beautify those things which we hold dear. They are not there to be a nuisance, but rather to fill our lives with the idea of holiness, so that we may draw closer to God who created us.
The last ideal that I would put before you is that of perseverance; of continuing to work to improve your knowledge and your character and your abilities, no matter what difficulties may stand in the way. With some people, life seems to go very easily; others have more difficulties, but there are very few who cannot benefit greatly from the virtue of perseverance, and if you take this attitude in all that you do, I am sure that all the obstacles that you may meet with in life -- and we all of us meet with them -- will be valiantly tackled and conquered.
In your mother, your grandparents and the rest of your family, whose loving care has brought you to this important point in your life, you have a fine group of people who are ever ready to help and guide you. In this synagogue where your forefathers worshipped I hope you will find comfort and spiritual uplift when you need it. We look forward to watching you grow up into an upright young man imbued with the spirit of all that is best in our tradition. Set the Lord always before you, and may his blessing ever rest upon you.
Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man; and keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgements, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself. I Kings 2.2
A short time ago you read to the Congregation the charge of the dying King David to his son Solomon. I would like to draw your especial attention to these words, because they apply to you too as you come forward to take on new responsibilities.
The Rabbis selected the age of thirteen as that of religious adulthood long, long before the teen age group to which you now belong acquired the importance it has today. Our teenagers have more influence than ever they did; they have more independence; and, although you may find it hard to believe, in one sense they are the wealthiest age group in the country, because they have more money to spend on what they want to have, rather than, like adults, on what they must have, and, as yet, there is no income tax on pocket money.
For this important period in you life, your motto should be: Be strong therefore, and show yourself a man. And this strength does not mean muscle power. It means moral strength - the ability to make decisions on the basis of what you know to be right; the ability to resist temptation; the strength of character to shun bad companions; the devotion to studies planned to improve your mind and character. Only if you foster, and then display, this kind of strength during your teens can you ever hope to show yourself a man as you emerge from them in a few years' time and become a mature adult.
To help you in this, you must keep the charge of the Lord; you must make the ideals of Judaism your own ideals, and its religious practices your religious practices. And this I stress to you for a particular reason. By nature you are inclined to be an individualist. You like to make up your own mind, and do things your own way. Now this is fine, since many of the world's greatest men were individualists. The Hebrew prophets were: otherwise they would never have proclaimed their messages which were so unpopular to the mass of the people. But the individualist has to remember two things. First, this characteristic of individualism makes life harder. If you want to go it alone from time to time, you have to be ready to accept cheerfully the isolation it may bring, or else you will become a burden to yourself and to everyone else. Secondly, individualism is never at any time an excuse for unwillingness to cooperate with your fellow human beings. Society is based on the fact that one person is ready to work with another. When for some reason this breaks down, there is a quarrel, or a strike, or, worst of all, a war. The philosopher Bertrand Russell says that life today is a matter of co-existence or no existence. Both on the world scene, and in our own lives, we either have to live together, or not at all.
The discipline of Judaism tries to teach a proper conformity, without squashing the individual spirit which has given so much to the world. You are as much bound by the Torah as those who went before, and those who will come after. You cannot separate yourself from the community. In this respect there is no room for individualism. You have a solemn duty which you must fulfil.
But in other ways you are free to develop your particular talents. You live free and unfettered in one of the world's great democracies, and are at liberty to pursue the path you choose for yourself, and none shall make you afraid.
You have yet much to learn about your ancestral faith, and I trust that your participation in the worship of the Almighty today will spur you on to learn and study further your religion. You have the ability to do so, and you should not waste it. In this you will have the support of your devoted mother. She is, I know well, desperately anxious for your welfare, and wants to see you grow up to be a good Jew and a good citizen, as do all the other members of your family.
I hope you will be a frequent visitor in this holy house, which must surely have a place amongst your earliest memories. Offer it your devotion and your presence, and it will reward you by showing you wonders in the Torah of the Almighty.