B'nai Mitvah

Dr. Rousch put up a generic invitation to go to his twins Bar Mitvah. Never one to demand a personal invitation, I showed up. The neighbors fence was falling down next to the parking lot, convention room chairs in the sanctuary, the kids doing the responses rather than the invocations for a few verses; cool. But the rabbi quite sincere in encouraging and loving the boys, comments on the Torah portion. 'The Jews were in slavery but it's human nature not to want to change from what is known' (learned helplessness in my lingo). Etc. 'To the cognitive dissonance of, in the midst of a discussion of freedom and slavery, to talk about families and generations. I see many familiar Jewish names here, but I never knew a Mishi; that would be worse than being a boy named Sue.' All in all an informality and an inclusion of others particular the B'nai Mitvah boys that you wouldn't see in a Christian ceremony. An interesting analogy between keeping the Torah in a sanctuary box and Catholics keeping the Eucharist there.