[HANASHIR:10912] Re: Adon Olam to Rock Around the Clock

[Sholom Simon <sholom...>]

>  For example, if a family wants to skip an essential prayer in order to 
>keep the service short, I would probably explain the prayer and its 
>significance to the service.  If after my explanation, the family still 
>wants to skip the prayer, I would go along with it.  After all, it is the 
>family's day and I am there to help them make their day special.

WADR, I think treating it as "the family's day" is why so many regular
congregants, who are not on the bar/bat mitzvah's guest list, tend to
dislike Saturday morning services when there is a bar/bat mitzvah.

It's not the family's day, but, rather, a day when the _community_ welcomes
the youngster as a full adult participant in the Jewish community.  The
13-yr-old can show some Jewish knowlege by leading some of the service, but
even if s/he doesn't show up, s/he still is a 'bar/bat mitzvah' provided
s/he succesfully wakes up on his/her 13th birthday.

Sorry for sounding preachy - - but I think the emphasis is in the wrong
direction here.

-- Sholom


+-------------------------------------------------------+
|   Sholom Simon     | sholom (at) aishdas(dot)org               |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| proud daddy to Joshua Ari  4/18/93 - 27 Nissan 5753   |
|        and Eliana Rebekah  3/12/95 - 11 Adar-2 5755   |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

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