This week, I started learning with a few new Bar Mitzvah students, who are staring to prepare for their big day.
One of the students who I have known for a while from Hebrew School came for his first one on one class, to finally begin the preparations for his big day. His grandfather, who was born in the DP Camps right after the war, to parents who both went through hell on earth, but managed to survive the Holocaust, was the one who brought his grandson to learn with me for this very first Bar Mitzvah lesson.
The grandfather surprised me, as he handed me a volume of Talmud (the tractate of Brachot) printed 130 years ago in Vilna, and told me that this was one of two volumes of Talmud, that his own father managed to save as the Nazis began burning all the Jewish books in their village in pre war Poland. His father had hidden these two books and saved them from being burned by the Nazis and later had recovered them after the war, and held on to them for many years, before finally passing them on to his son.
Today, the son, the grandfather of my new student, handed me the book, and asked for it to be housed at ChabadSudbury, so that once again, the sacred texts and timeless messages contained in these withered pages, can be studied and internalized, along with the story of this book's survival.
As I touched the ancient pages, and thought of all of those who had once held this book and studied from its pages, I was deeply moved, as I imagined the journey of this book and in which houses of study people had labored over its texts.
I decided to scan through the pages, to see if perhaps there were any notes or interesting writings in the book, and to my surprise, I finally found one small paper. I stared at this small paper and realized it was a page from a prayer book, that discusses the Tefillin and is what is read when putting on Tefillin. On that page it also includes the words "Vehigadeto Lebincha", and you shall teach these words to your child, and make sure you pass on the traditions and our values to the next generation.
I turned to the grandfather and the boy who was about to start learning for his Bar Mitzvah and how to start wrapping Tefillin, and shared him what the little paper said. Together we stood there and processed this timeless message that we had just received from Vilna, via a Shtetl in Poland, regarding the eternity of the Jewish people and the Mitzvot and values we live by.
We opened the pages of the Talmud and I chose a teaching to explore together. I came across the story of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, and the messages and words he shared with his students on his deathbed and decided to review it together. We discussed his impact, in helping save Judaism, after the terrible destruction of the Second Temple and the massacres that followed, and we thought of our responsibility today, just a generation after the Holocaust, with our own set of challenges today, to continue being the torchbearers of the timeless and priceless messages of our faith and tradition, to uplift and inspire the world around us.
In a world with so much in flux and change and interesting dynamics always in the air, coming across a reminder of the eternal and timeless values of our people, at this important milestone for this boy and his family, was a truly beautiful way to start off his journey into being a Bar Mitzvah boy.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel
P.S Please read below regarding lots of new and upcoming programs as we get ready for the High Holidays