What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#0What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 2:19pm
Mine was when we went shopping for my "offical Bar Mitzvah Suit" and we got into a big fight RIGHT in the Menswear Store re: my Father's "taste" in clothing.
He wanted me to wear PURPLE pants! (This was the 1970s)
C'mon, Dad we couldn't have gotten me something in a nice charcoal gray?
What's Yours? :)
"I say YOU'RE the CUTEST one. No, I say YOU'RE the CUTEST One. And we go on like that from dawn to three."
GovernorSlaton
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
#1re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 2:20pm
Showing up my cousin on the bimah. (We had our bar mitzvah together).
I was good, he was...well, I was good anyway. 
#2re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 3:08pm
the party afterwards. no more hebrew lessons for me! 
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 3:16pmyea the party afterwards was the best....or well actually maybe it was the opening of all the gifts after the party
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#4re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 3:31pmI never had one. *dances happily*
CurtainUp
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/9/04
#5re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 3:43pmMy reading was one of the mentionings of the Commandments and instead of "Thou Shalt Not Steal" I said "Thou Shalt Steal" :)
Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on."
- from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
#6re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 5:18pmmy bar mitzvah, all the other ones are crapola!
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#7re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 5:22pmlol you havent been to any other fun ones caroline-o-or-tboo? i mean of course your own one is definetlly the best for anyone. but going to others especially after you've had yours is really fun too. like my sister had her bat mitzvah about 2 years after i had mine. hers was actually on my 15th birthday....what a day. she was really sweet about it tho and it was tons of fun for me too cuz my parents let me invite some of my friends to the party and stuff.
blueroses
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/18/04
#8re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 5:52pm
My parents crying when I sang my Haftarah.
My friends arguing over who really won the "prize" from the Pepsi/7Up contest--Toni Basil's "Oh Mickey" 45.
Best of all--my beloved, late Russian born father and his cousins kick-ass dancing during the hora. It reminds me of the bottle dancing scene in Fiddler...which is why it choked me up when I saw it a few months ago.
#9re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 6:57pmI was smoking pot with some friends in my backyard the week before my Bar Mitzvah. My mother came looking for me and i panicked, ran into a fence and had to wear a cast for 6 weeks. I wanted to cancel the damn thing, but the show must go on according to my mother. All the pictures show me with only one arm. I hid the cast. Bummer.
'The Devil be hitting me!'--Whitney Houston
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#10re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:00pm
"Bar Mitzvah in a Cast," Midtown?
That sounds like a Robert Aldrich Movie!
"I say YOU'RE the CUTEST one. No, I say YOU'RE the CUTEST One. And we go on like that from dawn to three."
#11re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:02pmit was a very traumatic experience. Of course, all my friends thought it was HILARIOUS!
'The Devil be hitting me!'--Whitney Houston
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#12re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:02pmMy Bar Mitzvah was filled with people I didn't know and didn't want to know. I got all my money and went into a room to count it. That was one of the last times I was ever in a temple.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
NYadgal
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#13re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:03pmMatt, what a touching story... LOL!
"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."
#14re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:05pmit seems appropriate, since Matt_G is going to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks for his impure thoughts about Jake.
'The Devil be hitting me!'--Whitney Houston
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#15re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:06pmYes, Adgal. That story keeps me warm on cold winter nights. And I'll be roasting for more than my thoughts about Jake, Midtown!
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
NYadgal
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#16re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:25pmMatt - a bunch of us will be right there roasting with you!!
"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."
sabrelady
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#17re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:44pmWell actually it was quite a bit after but I was @ some hebrew school thing & the senior rabbi came to visit . He thought VERY well of himself ( our nikname for him was G*d) and he started quoting a parash. EXCEPT it was my Batmitzvah portion- the one piece I knew backwords/forwards & he misquoted it and I corrected him !!! Oh the look on his face!! One for the sh*tdisturbers!!
#18re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:46pmHell looks pretty good to me right now...better than living with my Grandmother.
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#19re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 7:47pmI would have Hebrew school on Tuesday nights and wouldn't get home until around 8:30 usually which became unacceptable when I started missing WHO'S THE BOSS, so I would make sure I got in trouble every week so they would send me home early.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
The Grovers Corners Yenta
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/3/04
#20re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:17pm
I did not get to have my Bat Mitzvah because my father would not permit me me to have one. He wasn't observant........just very difficult. Of course my brother had the Bar Mitzvah to end all Bar Mitzvot. I decided at the age of 13 that studying was more important to me rather than a ceremoney with gifts, dancing, the whole thing. Mainly because I saw kids ending their religious study right after and that also meant an end to their observance as well. Not for me! I learned Hebrew on my own, studied Torah, Talmud, Mishnah...........everything. I got to the point where my survival as a Jew meant more to me than a ceremoney. The thing is that today
I have not stopped studying and regard myself as an observant Jew. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I did have a Bat Mitzvah.
"Friends are the people you chose as family."....Me.
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#21re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:30pm
Hey Yenta,
It's NOT TOO LATE!!!
I know a Rabbi who has Bar/Bat Mitzhved people in their '60s.
I'm sure others would as well. . .
"I say YOU'RE the CUTEST one. No, I say YOU'RE the CUTEST One. And we go on like that from dawn to three."
#22re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:39pmmy mother was bat mitzvahed 2 years ago--at 72!! She was always angry her religious father said it 'didn't matter' if she was. She got him!
'The Devil be hitting me!'--Whitney Houston
The Grovers Corners Yenta
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/3/04
#23re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:46pmThere have been times when I did consider an adult Bat Mitzvah. My Mom had one when she was in her 50's. But right now, my dedication and level of observance means more to me than a ceremoney. I am very active in my shul and always study something. I am even learning to read Torah for services on Saturday mornings. What I am doing now means so much more to my spirit. My religion is in my heart and not in a ceremoney.
"Friends are the people you chose as family."....Me.
#24re: What's Your Fondest Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory?
Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:47pmhmmmm.... maybe my mother did it just for the party?.... Nah!
'The Devil be hitting me!'--Whitney Houston
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