Last week the cohort of Year 7 participated in the Kabbalat Mitzvah celebration. This was a wonderful occasion where the students joined their parents, grandparents and special friends in a night of joint learning and reflection on reaching the stage of Bnei Mitzvah and the significance of this in their lives. 

We were privileged to hear from three generations of speakers who each reflected on their Jewish identity and on the value of Jewish education. Millie (Yr 7) spoke about how proud she was to connect with her heritage and how grateful she is to have the opportunities for rich Jewish learning at this school.

Parent, Lara Lubitz, spoke about her hopes for her children and how she felt that anchoring their emerging identities in their Jewish practice had been so meaningful for her. Grandparent, Andrew Jakobovits reflected on his journey to Australia and then about how over time he has come to realise how vital it is to offer young Jews a Jewish school education as a way to ensure their engagement with Jewish life.

Next, Rabbi Allison Conyer addressed the audience on why becoming Bnei Mitzvah was so important. She explained that in contemporary society, b’nei mitzvah is not about reaching adulthood. Rather, it is about reaching a stage where we can take on individual choices about what Jewish life means to us and we can start partaking in our own Mitzvot. These are now valued within our tradition as individualised contributions and not ones that are the responsibility of parents. Rabbi Conyer delineated that this did not have to be about theology and could equally be considered from a framework of reaching an age where one can take responsibility for bettering one’s community.

After the students and their families listened attentively to these speeches, Feygi Phillips, Learning Area Leader for Jewish Studies and Hebrew, shared that the emphasis of the evening was focused on participatory hands-on Jewish learning. She invited our families to take part In a series of rotating workshops that each elucidated the meaning and practice behind a mitzvah.

Groups included a rotation exploring the meaning behind tzitzit and having an opportunity to plait them; a session on the Sh’ma with an art activity decorating a pillowcase with the prayer; a session making and decorating Mezuzot; and a session exploring the form and function of t’fillin and how Progressive Judaism understands them.

This evening was demonstrative of the philosophy behind Jewish education at King David. Our school offers non-judgmental, engaging and fun ways to explore an emerging Jewish identity. We adhere to a model of informed choice. To understand this approach one must place equal emphasis on both the informing and the choosing. A young adult without a knowledge base of Jewish ritual, practice, history, ethics and meaning is not in a position to make a meaningful choice about what this can mean in their life. So our role is to fill up their Jewish toolkit so that they are empowered to make positive choices.

This was something that Ilan Bloch, Director of Jewish Life and Learning, emphasised in his closing address. He said that becoming Bnei Mitzvah marks a parallel transition that the Jewish people have undertaken over time. That is from being the chosen people to becoming “the choosing people”. 

I shared in the deep sense of nachat that our parents and grandparents experience seeing this ‘choosing’ taking place before our eyes.

Shabbat Shalom,
Marc Light