“Anshei Mitzvah – Wow!!”

If you don’t already have plans to join us for services this Friday and Saturday, March 1-2, I suggest you cancel whatever you were going to do, and come to Temple. I say that, even though I suspect that our attendance will be overwhelming, the most people we’ve had since the High Holy Days! Even so, you should be here. After all, it’s not every day that you can see 42 adults celebrate a Shabbat together with their congregation, families and friends as they become Anshei Mitzvah.

“What is Anshei Mitzvah?” you may ask. Well, to be honest, it is an invented term, coined to describe the experience of adults, who never became Bar or Bat Mitzvah, learning Hebrew, learning to lead the worship service, learning to read Torah, creating a worship service, and sharing all of this with our community. In many ways, it is an “Adult” Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony, except that this year, here at Temple Beth El, we have 42 adults who are participating together in the experience.

Imagine our surprise! Every couple of years, we invite the adult learner community here at the Temple to join in a new class for those who want to learn and become Anshei Mitzvah. In the past, we have had two or three, even a dozen or so, who responded and stuck with the eighteen month program, meeting weekly for an hour or more to study together with the clergy and other teachers. Last year, 42 people responded, and stuck with the program for nearly two years! It must have been something in the water!

Or perhaps it was something else. There is a thirst, a desire, for Jewish adults to learn and grow and become more knowledgeable, more connected, more a part of our congregation, our community, our heritage, and the Jewish people. Learning Hebrew, learning Torah, learning to pray, searching for Jewish meaning, are all ways to accomplish these goals.

These remarkable people have amazed and inspired us, the rabbis, cantor, Temple staff, and others, who have worked with them. We have been overwhelmed at times by their enthusiasm, their desire for learning, their thirst for Torah! This energy is contagious, however, and now, this Shabbat, we will spend the weekend together in worship, study, and celebration.

This is an opportunity not to be missed! We have changed the times of our worship services on Friday night and Saturday morning to accommodate the beautiful and inspiring service the class has created for us. We will sing, pray, perhaps even dance, as we are touched by the remarkable sight of 42 adult learners standing together, seeking to find blessing beneath the shelter of God’s presence this Shabbat. We will cry, laugh, and rejoice, thanking God for our community, our heritage and our faith. Our beautiful Blumenthal Sanctuary will be packed, standing room only, but it will not matter, for we will be grateful for the privilege of such a remarkable opportunity. The Silverman Social Hall will overflow with food and celebration for the occasion of this simcha. And most of all, our hearts will be full as we say to each of these Anshei Mitzvah, these “People of the Commandment,” MAZAL TOV!!! Congratulations!! Thank you for sharing this blessing with us all!!!

James M. Bennett