My Year of Biblical Hebrew

This Saturday I celebrated my Bat Mitzvah at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, California. A Bat Mitzvah is a ceremony in which a woman enters into Jewish adulthood by reading to the congregation from one of the five books of the Old Testament (Torah) and leading the congregation in prayer. 

Usually this happens at the age of 13. I started a bit later, at the age of sixty. When I was actually thirteen, Bat Mitzvahs were less popular for girls and I did not have one.  Nor was I interested in having one. 

However,  after spending two years as Library Director at a Catholic Seminary, St Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California, working while going through breast cancer treatment, I became first familiar with and then immersed in liturgical years in which certain prayers were read at certain times. The prayers changed with the seasons--just as I was changing, both physically and mentally. I came to cherish and be comforted and inspired by Morning Mass,  and when I left St Patrick's in 2013, to begin teaching English as a second language, I decided to learn more about my own heritage and Jewish prayer. 

Last October, when Congregation Beth Am offered an adult Bat Mitzvah class taught by Rabbi Sarah Weissman and Cantor Jamie  Shpall,  I enrolled with three other women and two men. I met weekly for Biblical Hebrew classes and every two weeks for religious instruction.

Here is an article about the class:

https://www.betham.org/worship-community/event/member-spotlight-meet-years-adult-bnei-mitzvah-class


Here is a photo of the class at the celebration:




And here I am in my prayer shawl--the tallit or tallis, depending on whether it is being pronounced the Hebrew (Sephardic) way or the Eastern European (Ashkenazi) way.

Below is the talk that I gave at the Bat Mitzvah, before reading a passage in Hebrew from the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. The talk clocks in at 3 minutes and 45 seconds--about 45 seconds longer than the time limit recommended by master homilist Rev. Gladstone Stevens S.S., who taught me everything I know about delivering homilies.  When one Beth Am rabbi complimented me on  "the perfect arc of my talk" and its sound structure, I proudly told her that a priest taught me everything I know! 

There is a two and a half  hour video of the Bat Mitzvah ceremony and at some point I will learn to splice my speech section and share it here. But for now, with profound thanks to ALL of my religious and family mentors, here's the text.

Bat Mitzvah Talk

Lauren John

May 9, 2018    (Three minutes forty five seconds.)

בֹקֶר טוֹב

Boker Tov.
Good morning

I’ve been studying biblical Hebrew since October in preparation for this day. I had no background at all—other than being able to recognize the letters on a dreidel. I did not know the Alef Bet song, and did not go to Jewish summer camp. So I really had to learn to read Hebrew or at least recognize the letters in order to truly live my Torah portion today.

The realization that I was going to have to learn biblical Hebrew—new words in a completely new alphabet-- almost kept me from this day. My two good friends on the bimah today, Judy and Tina, already know Hebrew and I was afraid of looking foolish in front of them—and in front of you.  But here’s the thing—I teach English as a second language at Menlo College. And most of my students are Chinese.  They also have to learn new words in a new alphabet. So I knew that if I took this on—and struggled to learn something new—I would be at least a better teacher if not a better Jew.

We have a great teacher in artist and calligrapher Lisa Rauchwerger—she is patient, kind, loves the Hebrew language and brings homemade cookies. It took hours of repetition in Room Gimmel here at Beth Am and at home to learn the basics—and I’m still learning. And I think I am a more patient teacher today—I have almost completely stopped thinking: how many more times do I have to go over this ?  We learned this yesterday.  We learned this five minutes ago.

So I signed up for biblical Hebrew. The confusion began immediately. For one thing,  the Ashkenazi  neighbors I grew up with in Queens, New York ended words with an S—Good Shabbos—the holiday of Shavuous--men wore a tallis, while in synagogue  here we ended words with a T—Shabbat, Tallit.  Was this one of those crazy California things?  No—it’s the Hebrew spoken in Israel—Sephardic Hebrew.

But in the midst of the confusion, there was one clarifying moment-- one connection that took place in a very moving way for me.

We learned in class one winter night  that when the letters NUN and VAV—“N” “U” are added to the end of a word, it means “we” “us” or “our”

Avinu Malkeynu—Our father, our king

Asher kidushanu—who has sanctified us.

Early the next morning, I called my mother in New York—sixty year old me, talking to 91 year old Mom and she answered the phone, as she always does, with: How are you Laurenu.

Hold on. She called me Lauren-u.

My mother and father have always called me Laurenu. My grandmother, Ruchel, and my grandfather, Wulf, called me Laurenu.   Aunts Yetta and Goldie called me Laurenu. My cousin Judy, who is here with us today, calls me Laurenu.

It is a childhood name, a nickname, and I never knew why and I never questioned it.

I was named Lauren, after the actress Lauren Bacall,  and that was an unusual name enough in a family that favored biblical and eastern European names. But add the u—LaurenU--and I joined the ancestors.

Here I am, 59 years before my Bat Mitzvah,  in my first year of being Laurenu

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In any event, that morning after Hebrew School, on the phone with my mother in New York, I said, “Ma…did you know that LaurenU  means  “our Lauren”

And my mother said, “Of course, you’re OUR Lauren. 

You should be somebody else’s?”

The study of Hebrew has also taught me the power and meaning of many other names.

Jacob struggled with an angel and his name became Israel—which means--he struggles with God.

Hashem—a name for God, --simply means “the name”—and it is said in awe.

How many times had I heard the phrase “Baruch Hashem” –Bless the Name --and not really known what it means.

I will leave it to friends and family to decide if learning biblical Hebrew has made me a better Jew. It has made me a wiser Jew—continuing to make connections between words, meaning and theology. I hope to continue to do that—Baruch Hashem.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me. Gut Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom.