Jewish Law may define our 13-year-old sons and daughters as adults, old enough to observe the mitzvot, to fast on Yom Kippur and to be called to the Torah, but any parent of a bar mitzvah knows that the mere coming of age does not transform a boy into a man. And, as I learned on Sept. 11, standing just miles from Ground Zero, no matter how old you are, there can be no preparation for such an awakening.
Results of the two new studies are mixed enough that translating them into policy recommendations will not be easy.
Why are we the People of the Book? Why aren\’t we the People of the Question?
After all, before Moses receives the Torah on Mt. Sinai, like Abraham earlier, he answers God\’s call to service with a question. In Exodus 3:11, he says, \”Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?\”
My worst Passover was my first in Los Angeles, more than half a lifetime ago. I had nowhere to go the first night, and the second night, a college friend took me to an institutional seder that was so sterile and faceless that I went home early and, paraphrasing Scarlett O\’Hara, vowed, \”As God is my witness, I\’ll never go without a seder again.\”
Joel Grishaver. The Bible is rich in stories of passion, plagues, miracles and betrayals, but what about good parenting? \”In truth, there is no good fathering in the Bible,\” said author and Jewish educator Joel Grishaver.
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