NK Nukes? Not today!

I am back. Again, I will not get into the NK Nukes, which makes it sound like a sports team (choose which ever sport you prefer, I will go with Basketball, but that is just me). It was an interesting weekend around these parts. We had a Bar Mitzvah. In and of itself, it would not be a big deal. This was. The Bar Mitzvah boy was a former neighbor of ours and whose younger brother is friends with the lad. The interesting part is that the kid, who was always a good kid, parents have split. His mother is Jewish, but that is in name only and his father is not Jewish.

I recall the house having a Christmas tree (and it was July, just kidding) when they lived here (moved around 2001, but not too far away, and then again around 2003 to Cedarvale and now still in the area as the parents have separate living places relatively nearby). He approached his mother about a Bar Mitzvah. I thought that to be rather interesting as it was a side of his heritage that had never been explored by his mother/parents. It was not necessarily discouraged either, but he pursued it.

Now, no synagogue would "have" them or teach him what he needed to learn. That is a pity. The Lubavitchers, old style wearers of the black hat (see them in their "homeland" of Brooklyn, NY) have a synagogue in midtown Toronto. They took him on and put on this Bar Mitzvah. It was small but very intimate and good. I got to carry the Torah around, where else can this happen for a religious skeptic like myself.

I am part of the team, though I have my questions that have never been adequately answered. I think my observations are quite apt. It is still the interpretation of man that gets me. I guess it is a matter of faith and I have a hard time having faith in the word of man. But that is me and I am a cynic, so....

I will not go into to details as they are rather mundane. Ask me and I will tell you personally. I just do not wish to go on the record with my comments on this one as they are not directed at the Bar Mitzvah boy and it was "his" day. Though the interesting thing about this event, and for those of you who do not know a Bar Mitzvah is where a Jewish boy of 13 reads from the Torah and is considered a man. The meaning is that at this point, a boy, or girl, is responsible for his/her actions at this point. Up to the Bar Mitzvah, it is all one big "do over" for the kids. They could go on a killing rampage (I would have brought up sex and a bacchanalian good time, but most of the "do over" time is spent as a prepubescent, so that stuff is just not in the cards) and it is like it did not happen (in the religious, retributive and karmic sense)(of course, tell that one to the victims and victims' families and you may get a different opinion). It is as if the Young Offender laws in this country were lifted out of Jewish tradition but they have raised the "do over" age to about 14-18 here.

Neat concept, huh? Anyway, I did want to say it was a Bar Mitzvah without pretense. It was driven by a young man's desire to embrace a heritage that was never offered to him. I commend this kid. As I said, I have known him since before he turned four. He was always a good kid, despite his mother, who is a fucking whack job. I am thinking that she may get a post or two in here in the future. But with that I say, ciao!