Interpreting Your Torah Portion

 Interpreting Your Torah Portion (Excerpted from Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Spiritual Rite of Passage [2] by Rabbi Goldie Milgram)

On your Bar/Bat Mitzvah (B-Mitzvah) day, the power of the pulpit will be handed over to you. You will have the responsibility of helping your community to find meaning for living from within the parsha, the Torah portion for the week. Giving over meaningful guidance on the Torah portion during a religious service is not so much a speech as it is a mitzvah, a sacred act called “giving a d’var Torah.” A d’var, “a word,”of Torah, is a brief teaching where you connect your Torah portion with the heart, mind, and spirit of those present. Israelis often refer to this practice as a derasha or drash, an “explanation” of the Torah portion.

Although a Torah teaching is often an oral presentation, yours can take many forms. Whether you can offer a

-self-crafted talk

-play

-satire

-ballad

-dance

-visual art

-poetry

The format will depend upon local norms, the flexibility of your setting, and your own talents. This is a precious opportunity that is meant to reflect who you are as a member of the minyan of your life and to relate those ideals, concerns, and ideas that you believe will be meaningful to those in attendance.

You are not meant to be alone in the task of crafting your Torah teaching. Nor is someone else to create it for you. Some will believe it is a gift to do it for you, so thank them for caring so deeply and say you want to do your own.

You will find interesting examples of divrei Torah in Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Spiritual Rite of Passage [2] and on the internet, consider them as springboards for finding your own unique approach. Every person has the ability to accomplish this phase of the initiation process with integrity. Let those who seek to help you know that you want yours to be an original work, so that you will experience the full benefit of the B-Mitzvah as a ritual of initiation.