דברים שהרציתי לכבוד הבת-מצוה של נכדתי היקרה, טובה חוה דראטש תחי' (2000)

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Introduction to Tova Warburg's Bat Mitzvah Talk (1993)

As I greet all of you this wonderful day, I think of the words of King David in his תהילים: שיר המעלות לדוד, שמחתי באומרים לי בית ה' נלך. I was so happy when I was told by my parents that my Bat Mitzvah would be celebrated here in ירושלים, the city of the בית ה'. עומדות היו רגלינו בשעריך ירושלים. It is hard to believe that we are actually standing here in this holy city of ירושלים, for the first time in my life. ירושלים הבנויה כעיר שחוברה לה יחדו. We are in the rebuilt ירושלים, the city which makes all Jews friends to each other — even my sisters and I... למען אחי ורעי אדברה נא שלום בך. On behalf of my sisters I thank my Mommy and my Daddy, for giving us the privilege of coming here to Jerusalem to celebrate both my בת מצוה and פורים, and I thank my grandparents and aunts and uncles and all my cousins, for making the trip here with us — and I am happy that so many of our relatives and friends who live here in Israel came to join us.למען בית הי אלקינו אבקשה טוב לךFor the sake of ירושלים and of the בית המקדש I will always be grateful to all of you and pray that only good things befall you now and forever.

Bar & Bat Mitzvah

Tova Warburg's Bat Mitzvah (1993)

Just before the climax of the Purim story, after King Achashverosh orders Haman to dress Mordecai in royal clothes and have him mount the royal horse, Haman returns to his wife Zeresh and his counselors (whom the Megillah sarcastically calls חכמים). He tells them of the reversal of his fortunes and how he now has been ordered to give honor to Mordecai, the man he wanted to execute by hanging. Zeresh and the advisors give him no encouragement at all. Instead, we read:ויאמרו לו חכמיו וזרש אשתו, אם מזרע היהודים מרדכי אשר החילות לנפול לפניו לא תוכל לו כי נפל תפול לפניו. "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the Jews (by which they meant that he is of Jewish descent), you will not win over him, but you will surely fall before him". Now, that is a very strange thing to say. Didn't they know, from the very beginning, that Mordecai is a Jew? Wasn't that the very reason Haman hated him? Why, then, the word אם, "if" Mordecai is of the children or seed of the Jews? I heard of a wonderful answer that was given by a very great personality — Rabbi Meir Shapira, who was the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the great ישיבת חכמי לובלין. He was especially important to our family, because in 1925, when he visited the United States and was in New York, my great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Yehoshua Baumol, זכר צדיק לברכה, invited him to be the מסדר קדושין and preside at the wedding ceremony of his oldest daughter and her husband. They were my great-grandparents, Zeide and Bobbe Lammעליהם השלום, whom I loved very much. Rabbi Shapira offered a very interesting and important answer. He pointed to a marvelous story recorded in the גמרא מגילה דף ט"ז עמוד א. The Gemara says: "ויקח המן את הלבוש ואת הסום" — Haman took the royal robes and the horse to Mordecai; אזל אשכחיה דיתבי רבנן קמיה ומחוי להו הלכות קמיצה לרבנן — He went and found Mordecai teachimg his students. He was in the middle of a שעור about how the כהן performs קמיצה, the taking of a fistful of flour for the מנ…

Parshat Zachor & Purim Bar & Bat Mitzvah

לב"מ של ארי צבי לאם (2000)

בצו"ת שאמרת לכבודה "הד-ן" שלך – הדגשת שצריכים לפשר בין העמדית הנראת כקוטביות, היבא וייתכן שכולן יש לכן משימה ומטרה אחת. וזה מסומל בשמך – ארי' = כח וגבורה (ארי' שיג מילא יראה) וצבי – יופי כאן (דמי לב לצבי, ארץ הצבי) ואולי גם: לאם... וכן בהפלרה: העמק = ובתמך דר מזאל, ובראה (בת האפקים ממי)... וירח ביא הלב ומ-חזיך חלקי... (ואולי גם חיבור הלב והמוח – ר' בלגוט יהודה לכי תצא עמ' כג-כד)

Bar & Bat Mitzvah