Well first of all... Hi and Shabbat Shalom, and thank you for spending this special day with me. Up until only a few months ago, it was easy for me to imagine a world that was only filled with blessings, although I knew that people suffered, it hardly affected me. But since the events of last January, I’ve learned that the real world is very different and that often we might feel cursed.
As I was thinking about my Torah portion I found this quote by the philosopher Walter Anderson, he says that “bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.”
This quote relates so much to my Torah portion and my experience from the past few months of my life. My perspective has changed so dramatically that I now understand much better, how our reaction to the bad things that happen in life define our character.
My Torah portion is about the power of blessings and curses. As you’ve heard, the main character, Balaam is a magician who is commanded to curse the Israelites by his king. However, every time he tries speak his curses, he is unable to get the words out and instead he is only able to speak words of blessing. Having tried so many times to curse them, Balaam finally figures out that God controls the words that come out of his mouth and that he will only be able to speak blessings.
The quote by Walter Anderson relates to the story in the Torah because the quote says to live your life to the fullest, and I think that the story in the torah says that because God intervention helps Balaam live his life to the fullest as well. Because of his words of blessing, we are telling his story thousands of years after it was written. Our ancestors put stories like this in the Torah for a purpose. While we can’t know for certain what that was, I think that this story teaches us important lessons for our own life. First of all I hope that none of us will ever be cursing anybody, but if we ever do we know now to think before we speak.
In the Torah’s story, Balaam is unable to curse the Israelites through his words, they only experience blessings. But we all know that few people can ever experience only blessings. I suppose that even when you follow the rules bad things do happen, I mean it’s in the circle of life for crying out loud. Sometimes I believe that if I do the right thing I might actually catch God’s attention, and make sure that not as many bad things do happen in my life. But, other times I don’t believe that God does hear and respond to your prayers because, well look at me: did I do anything wrong to deserve any of this? And have we as a community done anything wrong to deserve this? Maybe, it’s just that even if God doesn’t hear or respond to our prayers, prayer gets us moving and it keeps us hopeful for whatever we are praying for.
Prayer also helps us shape our character it lets us know who we are by what we are praying for.
If two people are praying next to each other and person A was praying for another person’s health, and person B was praying for another person to have something bad happen to them, which one of them do you think is a better person? When I think about it more, I think that I’m in control of much of my own life but even if I do everything right, bad things still can happen. But, I know that I usually feel good after I have done something great. Maybe the story of Balaam is a wish of sorts: if only God controlled the world so that only blessings happened.
I have chosen to live my life in the most positive way possible. I have been loved by so many people and have created so many new friends from gymnastics, camp, the Academy, and school. Without all of these activities, I probably wouldn’t have been as close with my cuzzies, camp friends, the carpool gang, my awesome friends, my orchestra friends. It’s there that I found the only guy I know who will tell me my future and act like a two year old in front of me, and the few friends that will hold my hand when I really need it.
Living in the most positive way is a choice that I have made not only for myself, but for my friends, family, and community too, just like God had made the choice by making it impossible for Balaam to say anything negative, because that is not only affecting Balaam, but affecting the Israelites as well. Living in a positive way effects my peers too because when I am honest with them, I am honest with myself.
This morning I thought to myself is this really going to happen, in just a few short hours I will be an adult of some sort, but the best part is that I get to celebrate with my friends and family! Speaking of friends and family, I would like to thank some of those people!
First off, thank you again for being here today to celebrate Jane and me on our B’not Mitzvah. I would like to thank Rabbis Herscher and Stern for working with me and to help me connect more with this D’var Torah, Jacklyn for helping me get out all of my laughs and spaz attacks, for taking me to mani/pedis, for the balloon that is still there to this day, for mi yeki menu, and mostly for making today as easy as it could possibly be. I would also like to thank Canter Fortman for being here today.
To all of you grandparents, thank you all for motivating me and getting me here today!
Mommy, thank you for everything, I know you love my foot massages, and they will keep on coming, I love when you make me laugh, and I love that I will always be able to count on you, I love you to the moon and back.
Morgan, you are the best sister in the entire galaxy, I love flying both like an airplane and like a real flyer with you, I love making you laugh with my stupid words, for example, my 5th grade essay, I love when you make me laugh, especially with your Harry Potter wait no not anymore now its you Dr.Who pintrest jokes, thank you for being there for me, I love being your dear big sister, I love you!
Aunty and Uncle Ricky, thank you so so so so much for helping my mommy plan today! I love you both!
Jane, you are a FANTABULOUS cuzzie, remember when we ate yellow snow when we were three that was funny, I love going to Lake Arrowhead with you, I love shopping with you on Black Friday, now we know how to shop for real, I love holding and hugging you and being with you, and thank you for doing this B’not Mitzvah with me, you made it much easier for me. I love you so much!
Maguire, thank you for being with me through these hard times, and thanks for playing the Uke with me, I love you.
And thank you to my friends and family from everywhere and thank you to my community. Shabbat Shalom!
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