How do we pass on our values or even our identity?
(Q: is it perhaps by ‘tradition’)
Tevya: ‘On the hand / On the other hand’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWGtjqv19ZA
On the one hand, here is one way (below) to celebrate a young person’s acceptance of or into the Jewish Tradition. On the other hand, this week’s Haftara (i.e. the reading this week, from the Book of Judges) — tells a slightly different story from the perspective of Samson’s parents.
All things considered, I have a feeling that while the rapper sounds pretty enticing, I am wondering if perhaps we haven’t traveled a bit too far from the Tradition . . .
a 21st Century “Tradtion” . . . . ?
Killing the DJ: In The New Yorker, Evan Osnos examines the practice of hiring top performers for private concerts to celebrate birthdays, weddings and bar mitzvahs. “On this evening, [the rapper Flo Rida] had journeyed north on business: he was playing a bar mitzvah, for a thirteen-year-old boy and three dozen of his friends, in the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire. The bar-mitzvah boy, [Andrew,] in keeping with the customs of his forebears, had chanted his way into adulthood; then, following a more recent tradition, the celebrants had relocated to a warehouse-size event venue that is highly regarded on Chicago’s mitzvah circuit… The entertainment had been arranged by Andrew’s father, an executive at a financial-services company. At first, he had doubted that Flo Rida, his son’s favorite artist, would agree to come, but an agent informed him that most big-name musicians are available these days, under the right conditions.”
(full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/05/how-to-hire-a-pop-star-for-your-private-party)
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Here, Sampson’s parents prepare for their son’s coming of age (— i.e. both his birth, his Tradition, and the nature of his identity).
I think this may have been what the word ‘awesome’ was originally meant to convey . . . not sure.
Judges 13:21
וַתֹּ֧אמֶר ל֣וֹ אִשְׁתּ֗וֹ לוּ֩ חָפֵ֨ץ יְהֹוָ֤ה לַהֲמִיתֵ֙נוּ֙ לֹֽא־לָקַ֤ח מִיָּדֵ֙נוּ֙ עֹלָ֣ה וּמִנְחָ֔ה וְלֹ֥א הֶרְאָ֖נוּ אֶת־כׇּל־אֵ֑לֶּה וְכָעֵ֕ת לֹ֥א הִשְׁמִיעָ֖נוּ כָּזֹֽאת׃
And Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen a divine being.” But his wife said to him, “Had GOD meant to take our lives, our burnt offering and grain offering would not have been accepted, nor would we have been shown all these things—and [God] would not have made such an announcement to us.”
וַתָּ֙חֶל֙ ר֣וּחַ יְהֹוָ֔ה לְפַעֲמ֖וֹ בְּמַחֲנֵה־דָ֑ן בֵּ֥ין צׇרְעָ֖ה וּבֵ֥ין אֶשְׁתָּאֹֽל׃ {פ}
The spirit of GOD first moved him in the encampment of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
