ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה – Rabbis: תקן תפילת מנחה. What is association bet. Promenade and Prayer? That in all walks of life, dedicate your labors to spiritual quels. In business, professions etc. not only selfish, ambitions aims, but religious word. As you, dear Bar-Mitzvah, leave portals of this synagogue and begin promenade with life, make your promenade a prayer ("coming in or a swing and prayer?"), make your like a religious service, let your place of business becomes sanctuary, your dealings a Divine worship etc.

On this occasion of your Bar Mitzvah, as you have made so eloquently obvious in your address, you reach your majority. According to Jewish Law, you are an adult in the full sense of the word – with all the privileges and responsibilities that it implies. When your Father, just a short while ago, recited the traditional formula ברוך שפטרני מעונשו שלזה, he announced that from now on you are, so to speak, “on your own.” You are expected to act and behave as a mature Jew acts and behaves.Let me draw your attention to an episode recorded in this week’s Sedra in which another young man was just coming into his own and beginning on the adventure of mature Jewish life. Joseph was sent away from home by his loving father Jacob. He was sent to inquire after his brothers, to learn to live with them, to make headway in Society and in Life. And so often happens with so many Jews, as we begin our adventures in maturity, we find ourselves והנה תועה בשדה – wandering in the field. We feel lost. We don’t know the right way from the wrong way. Many such people continue to travel in circles, and never reach the desired goal, they never find the right path. Their life is all wandering aimlessly. But not a Joseph. Not the son of Jacob. Not a young man with a love for his family and his people and his G-d. When such a young man first leaves his childhood behind him and begins to feel lost, then וימצאהו איש, then, as with Joseph, a “man” finds him. This man, who our Rabbis say was an angel, sets him straight, shows him the right path, points out to him how he can find his brothers and ultimately, after many adventures, realize his great ambitions and becomes a source of pride to his family.As you go out on the great road of life, we hope and pray that you too may be guided by an angel, that you too – thanks to the training your parents and family and community have given you – will find the right ways and follow it.And do you know who this angel is? Some Rabbis said it was Gabriel, and ot…

כי מרדכי היהודי משנה למלך אחשורוש, וגדול ליהודים... A Ring ends of Megilah. – greatness of Mordecai, according to Hasidic interpretation, is that after משנה למלך, high in court and society etc. still גדול ליהודים, a great Jew. In one day, once a Jew reaches importance in secular world, he forgets – consciously – his Jewish origins. Imagine such a modern Jew in Mordecai's place. Grew up in "North end," Jew.

Dear _______, On _______, your Bar Mitzvah was held in Congregation Kodimoh. You will remember that prior to that important event in your life, on _______, we had an intimate chat in my office during which one or both of your parents were present. At that time, I pointed out to you that the whole procedure of Bar Mitzvah was just a farce unless you followed it up in a special way. I told you that it meant that from then on you were to be a “good Jew” – and that the way to do that was to lead a Jewish way of life. Particularly, I urged you to put on your tefillin every morning and daven at least the Shema and the Shemoneh Esrei – to come to services at Kodimoh every Saturday and holiday morning – and to participate in the activities of our teen-age group, the “Bnei Mitzvah,” which meets every Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. for their minyan and which is followed by breakfast and a meeting. In my office, on that day, you promised me the following: —. I am sure that as an honorable person you want to keep your word, and that as a good Jew you will want to live in such a manner that will prove that your Bar Mitzvah was something serious and sincere. I therefore write to you to remind you of your promise, and to tell you that I anxiously look forward to greeting you as a “regular” at our Saturday services (they begin at 8:30 a.m. – you may come a little later if you wish) and our Sunday morning breakfast minyan (9:00 a.m. – be prompt, please!). I am confident that you will not disappoint me. Cordially, Rabbi Norman Lamm

There are still many inhibitions in Orthodox circles about the permissibility and the advisability of having girls Bas Mitzvah. In most cases, our colleagues only grudgingly institute Bas Mitzvah ceremonies in response to overpowering pressures. The most frequent objection to the practice is that it is “ke-chukas ha-goyim,” a direct imitation of non-Jewish and Reformist groups. Several years ago, we printed a rather elaborate ceremony and material about Bas Mitzvah in Ideas. We have been informed that it is presently in use in very many congregations throughout the country. Its essential merit is that its manner of presentation obviated all possibilities of violation of tradition. We feel that Bas Mitzvah ceremonies will achieve more widespread acceptance with the passage of years, particularly amongst non-yeshiva girls. We now have several basic important rulings about the propriety of Bas Mitzvah. In a letter to a 12-year-old Tel Aviv girl who had asked for a ruling on the subject, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Itzhak Nissim wrote as follows (published in Yediot Aharonot): “The reason why in all Jewish communities a Bar Mitzvah has always been made for a boy is that from the day he assumes the commandments, he fulfills an immediate mitzvah, the putting on of tefillin. A girl, though she assumes the obligation of the mitzvot, does not have an immediate and special command to perform. This does not imply that a girl should not rejoice on the day of her entering the world of mitzvot. On the contrary, it is good and proper to make a celebration in honor of this occasion in her life. The celebration should be in her home in the company of her friends and relatives and with the participation of a rabbi. The rabbi should make a speech in honor of the occasion and should speak on the virtues of the law, on keeping the mitzvot and of the reward for those who keep them. It is fitting that the girl should wear a new dress and make the blessing of ‘Shehecheyanu.’ She should prepare a…

In this Sidra which speaks of the exodus from Egypt, the reading of the Torah concludes with the law of the tefillin. The Torah describes the tefillin both as ote (sign) and zikaron (memorial).How is it a sign? In Egypt the laws of nature and history were reversed, the powerful were defeated and the weak prevailed – and this, because of the Divine Will. Similarly, the tefillin are placed on the left hand (yad kaheh) which is the sign of weakness, to teach us that we, too, can prevail despite our weakness if our left hand, symbol of that weakness, has on it the symbol of the fulfillment of the Divine Will. Not by might nor by power, but by the spirit of the Lord.

(Although his Bar Mitzvah was the week after, I used a passage from Bo because his Bar Mitzvah pilpul dealt with this subject matter) In your discourse you spoke of the law of Rabbi Akiva that one need not lay the teffilin on the Sabbath, because teffilin is a "sign" (ote) and the Sabbath is similarly a "sign", and therefore if one observes the Sabbath he is exempt from laying the teffilin. The great-grandson of the Besht, author of Degel Mahane Ephraim, sees this in the words of the Sidra in which God tells Moses to come to Pharoah le’maan shiti ototai be'kirbo -- in order to place my sign>against him. Literally, this means in order to perform wonders and miracles on Pharoah and the Egyptians which would testify to the power of God in redeeming Israel. However, the word ote means that only the sign in sense of a miracle, but also sign in sense of a reminder. This means, says our author, that out of the agony of Pharoah and Egypt, the source of su much -- of our bitterness and persecution, we will emerge with a great victory: two "signs" that God will give us and that will be with us till the end of days -- the Sabbath and the teffilin. May you remember this, for throughout life each man faces his Pharoah and his Egypt, not once but many times. From every such event, from every such crisis, may you emerge with the spark of holiness and nobility and sublimity -- your "sign".

Dear parents, relatives, and friends: Because this is the eve of Shabbat Hagadol, I would like to devote my “Devar Torah” to the forthcoming festival of Passover. The commandment to read the Hagadah is biblically ordained; it is a mitzvah min ha-Torah that we tell the story of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Now if this recitation of the Hagadah is, indeed, a biblical mitzvah, then we should be required to recite a blessing before the performance of this commandment, as we do over all commandments. Why, indeed, do we not recite a berakhah prior to the performance of this commandment? Why should the recitation of the Hagadah be different from, for instance, the recitation of Hallel or the Megillah, over which we recite a benediction before we begin? One answer that has been suggested is the principle laid down by the Rashba. The Rashba points out that we ordinarily recite a blessing before those mitzvot bein adam la-Makom, the commandments guiding man's relationship to God; but we do not recite a berakhah over those commandments bein adam le-chaveiro, which relate to the conduct of man towards his fellow man. But are not the ethical and social commandments of the Torah equally as important as the purely religious ones? The answer, says the Rashba, is yes. However, whenever I make a blessing I recite the name of God, and I must therefore be particularly careful that the blessing is a necessary one, that it not be wasted – for then I will have recited the name of the Lord in vain. Now, those commandments which tell me how to act towards God depend only upon myself, and once I have decided to perform the mitzvah then I may recite a blessing because there is no one to stop me from doing the commandment. However, when it comes to those commandments that are bein adam le-chaveiro, my successful performance of the mitzvah depends not only upon myself but upon another intelligent human being, my friend. I therefore cannot make the blessing because I am never sure that the…

Dear Friends: Most regretfully, your invitation reached us the day of the Bar Mitzvah, because we had just returned from our summer vacation. That is why I was unable to telegram my congratulations in time or, certainly, to attend personally. To keep things in their proper chronological order, let me first welcome you back from your stay in Israel. A number of people had told me that they met you – including the Aaron Greens – and all of them brought back enthusiastic reports of your stay there. And now please accept our most heartfelt and sincere congratulations upon the Bar Mitzvah of Ilan Daniel. May the Almighty grant that your Ilan bear your kind of perot which will distinguish him as a loyal son to his parents, a devoted member of his family, and, above all, as a fruitful and creative child of Israel. May you be blessel with years and years of undiminished "nachas." Cordially yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Charlotte and Yaakov: Mindy and I would have been delighted to attend Daniel's Bar Mitzvah on Thanksgiving morning, p. G. Having enjoyed the last one as much as we did, we looked forward to a repeat performance this year. Regretfully (but, of course, not unfortunately), we shall not be able to attend because of other commitments to "simchas" at this very time. It seems that everybody, including close friends and members, is either getting married or having a Bar Mitzvah this Thanksgiving Day. Please forgive us then, and please ask Daniel to forgive us too. We look forward to joining you at other "simchas" in the future, and meanwhile express to you our deepest feelings of joy and our most genuine good wishes for "mazel tov," and years without end of undiminished "nachas" as he grows up into the kind of Jew and human being who will justify his parents' fondest hopes, and realize their greatest dreams for him.Sincerely yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMMRNL/fz