5784: BAR/T MITZVA RECORD IN ATID

This year we said goodbye to 5784 with a bar/bat mitzva record at ATID. During this year Ari, Brett, Camino, Limpio, Caro, Mila, Rubén, Bruno and Eyal have celebrated their bar/bat mitzva at ATID. They learned to wear tefillin, read the Torah, lead the Kabbalat Shabbat and Shacharit Shabbat service, and wrote their parsha commentary, among other things. But the most important thing is how these boys and girls face their future as Jews.

Despite the horror that has surrounded us in this 5784, despite what they have heard and seen, these boys and girls decided to do their bar/bat mitzvah with pride, and, even more importantly, they made the Torah their own, contributing their vision of the world in our Jewish teaching. Thus, we have learned about how we should not judge texts from the past with current parameters, debate about freedom and purity, discover how to relate the number 8 with parties and football, vindicate tradition and question it, think theologically from a point of view rational, to try to understand what is a blessing and what is a curse, and to elucidate between justice and revenge by mixing Star Wars and Torah. These voices of the future have made the Torah their own and claim their role in Judaism and in the construction of the Jewish community of the 21st century.

In this new year 5785 we will begin with 4 more bar and bat mitzvahs (for now), with new perspectives on the Torah, its teaching and its way of seeing the world that they will share with all of us. We are looking forward to knowing what Simo, Tomer, Samara and Leo have to tell us over the next few months. Until then, kol hakavod!