Each Temple Board member should volunteer for one Saturday morning per year to present the Bar/Bat Mitzvah candidates with books that are gifts from the Congregation, Sisterhood and Brotherhood.  We encourage Sisterhood and Brotherhood board members to do so as well.

Preparation:

Please come to the Rabbi’s study at 10:40 A.M. on the morning of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah to check in. The books, given by you, and certificates, given by a LEFTY member, will be in the Bima lectern.  If possible, please sit on an aisle preferably near the front.

Instructions for presentation:

At the conclusion of the entire service, the Rabbi will call you up by name to present the books. The B’nai Mitzvah will be on the Bima waiting for you. Use the middle stairs and stand facing the B’nai Mitzvah. Try to stand so that the microphone can pick up your remarks.  The remarks in the presentation should not exceed three minutes (less is fine).

You congratulate the B’nai Mitzvah on behalf of the Board of Trustees, Sisterhood and Brotherhood and presents the books. You can add a comment about how meaningful/thoughtful/etc. their dvar Torah was and/or how well they read Torah.  The books you will be presenting are the Hebrew-English Tanach (Jewish Bible) and Text Messages: A Torah Commentary for Teens by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.

If there is no LEFTY representative, the Cantor will present the certificates.

After giving the books and certificates, the Board Member should leave the Bima..

Tips for making the presentation meaningful (for both you and the B’nai Mitzvah):

Why are you giving up your Saturday morning to present the books, when Amazon could deliver them just as well? One reason is because this is the moment in the service when we look beyond the bar/bat mitzvah child and his/her family to the wider Jewish community.  You represent the congregation and the adult Jewish world that the B’nai mitzvah are joining.  This is the community’s chance to acknowledge this important transition in a child’s life.

So, what do you say?  The first time you do this, you might want to take a few minutes to think about what message you would like to convey. (Then you can say pretty much the same thing the next times you do it!)   You might want to welcome the kids to the adult Jewish world, or say that being part of the Jewish world has been meaningful to you and hope it will be for them, or that none of us has any idea what the Jewish world the B’nai mitzvah are entering will look like in the future but that you hope that they will find meaning and purpose in helping to shape that world, or that as they go through their Jewish lives they should know that both Isaiah and the larger Jewish world are there for them.  Or something else along these lines.  There is no one right message, other than mazel tov, but it’s the perfect moment in the service to connect the B’nai Mitzvah to the larger Jewish community.

If you can personalize it a little, that is great, but not necessary.  It is essential, however, that personal comments not be directed to one child over the other.  And this is not the time to dwell on their specific interests, talents, and accomplishments.  Their parents and the rabbis will have taken care of that!

If you have any questions, please call the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Coordinator.   Many thanks for doing this!