Follow Sarah & David through their Bar Mitzvah Studies studieshttp://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/barmitzvah.phpCopyright 2007. Sarah & David InteractiveenThu, 18 Jan 2007 23:14:30 -0500 http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/images/sarahblog_home.png Sarah's Diary 200 171 I went to my friend's Bat Mitzvah this weekend. It was wow. The room looked like an enchanted forest. But nevermind the fun party, she did so well at her service. It was a Havdalah service. I hadn't seen that before. The Rabbi explained that Havdalah is the ceremony that separates Shabbat from the regular work week. So it took place on Sat evening at sundown, and they lit this big, braided candle with lots of wicks, and said blessings over the wine, spices and the flame. That was cool. I was so proud of my friend. She did such a great job at the service. She chanted her Torah and haftarah so well. And her haftarah was long! And I saw her moving around the bimah so comfortably. When I saw her after the service I saw she was wearing ballet flats under her dress. She is so smart. My feet were already killing in my shoes with heels. And the party had't even started yet! I have to make a mental note for my own Bat Mitzvah that I should wear ballet slippers under my dress! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=24 04/16/2007 I got to miss school today! How cool is that. My close friend is having his Bar Mitzvah this weekend in Florida and my whole family is going. Finally some warm weather. I wonder if Bar Mitzvahs are different in Florida? My tutor told me that when I'm at the service I should listen for prayers that sound familiar...like the shma and aleinu. My tutor also said to pay extra attention when my friend does his haftarah. The blessings before and the blessings after should sound familiar. And same thing with the aliyah blessings. I get to hear those 10 times! After this weekend I'll see how much I really know. My tutor told me that I can look up my haftarah in the chumash as well. Then I can even practice my haftarah that morning too. I hope I can find it because it's a big book! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=22 04/13/2007 I started to get really frustrated in my Bat Mitzvah lesson this week. I've been practicing the first part of my haftarah so much lately. I just had spring break. And I even practiced extra over the break. And then when my tutor came and I started chanting the haftarah, this one trope, the diamond that my tutor says to just pull out of my mouth and sing like a "long uneven" just wasn't coming out right. With each time I my tutor corrected me, I got more frustrated until it all boiled over and I started to cry. My tutor told me it wasn't a big deal and to not think so hard about it. As long as I was reading the word correctly (and I was), then that was what mattered the most and the melody would come over time. Easy for my tutor to say. I was the one who was having a hard time. I worked on the hard section with my tutor and then we added a few more lines of the haftarah. And you know what, it came out pretty good. So I'll just try my hardest again this week and practice, and whatever happens, happens. I need to take a chill pill. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=23 04/13/2007 I'm so excited Passover is starting today. I love this holiday. I love the charoset and chocolate covered matzah! My family is doing a really big seder tonight. I think my mom said we're having around 20 people. It's going to be a full house. My mom was cooking and cleaning all day yesterday. I was helping too. My mom let me make a sponge cake. I think it came out okay. It took a really long time to beat the eggs though. What is it with this holiday and eggs?! Then I made these brownies from a Kosher for Passover mix. I hope they taste as good as the real thing. I can't wait for the seder tonight. I wonder who will do the four questions. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=20 04/02/2007 So Pesach is finally here. You know how I can tell. My parents bought so many boxes of Matzah. They got the regular square kind from the supermarket. But they also got all these boxes of shmurah matzah, the round kind that is baked by hand. My mom loves it. Maybe the shmurah matzah is actually what the matzah looked like when the Jews left Egypt? It's round and bumpy and burned. I just don't believe I have to eat matzah for eight days. I want to find the afikoman tonight at our seder. I just missed it last year. But tonight the seder is at my house, so I have homecourt advantage. Then maybe I can get something cool from my grandparents. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=21 04/02/2007 Every time I have a Bar Mitzvah lesson, and I'm learning a new part of my haftarah, I always say either "I'm sorry" or "oops" when a word doesn't come out right. My tutor corrects me, and then I instantly say "I'm sorry". My tutor keeps telling me to stop apologizing, that all I need to do is correct myself and move on. Well finally, so many lessons and "I'm sorry's" later, my tutor brought me a tzedakah box to go along with my lessons. Now every time I say "I'm sorry" or "oops" or some thought I should really be keeping in my head, I have to put some money in the box. My tutor brought a roll of dimes. I have to start finding all the change spread around my room and keep it for my lessons. It's kind of cool actually, we'll collect money up until my Bar Mitzvah, then I get to choose where to donate it! It's like a mini-mitzvah project. Speaking of which, soon I'll have to choose an official mitzvah project. I called the tzedakah box a "can" today because I couldn't remember what it was called. My tutor gave me a pass for forgetting that it's called a tzedakah box, but I promised not to make that mistake again. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=18 03/29/2007 Hello World! I feel like I've been gone so long. I'm so happy to be writing again. You know, I had an injury in dance a while ago, and I was feeling a little blue. I hadn't danced in ages and I didn't feel like writing. Anyways...the injury is gone. Thank goodness. And I am so back on track. I missed a few lessons too. And so I've had to play catch up. Nevermind though. I got right back in the swing of things with a couple of lessons. I'm moving along through the haftarah. I'm getting used to the melody and the tropes. And it actually keeps getting easier. But a funny thing keeps happening. Every time I have a lesson, and I'm singing the haftarah, I start giggling. My tutor asks me if something funny happened. I always nod my head "no". Then my tutor chuckles and tells me to keep singing through my giggles. Nothing really funny happens, but sometimes, I just have to laugh. You know in one lesson, I was laughing for almost 10 minutes in a row. That doesn't happen anymore, but it's become this weird Bat Mitzvah lesson thing. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=19 03/29/2007 My friend had his Bar Mitzvah this weekend. Whoa. It was fun. His party was at a Science Museum for kids and they had all these neat things to do. I got to test my balance on a surf board. And I found out how fast I can pitch! There was a baseball cage in the middle of the museum called Flaming Fastball. We all took turns throwing. My fastest pitch was 40mph. The museum and party were great. But really I know my friend worked hard to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. He had loads of lessons and he did an amazing job on the bimah. Even the Rabbi said to him that he was an example of strength in the way he chanted his Torah portions and Haftarah. I hope I do that well. I've finished learning the blessing before the Haftarah. Now I'm working on my Haftarah. It's going okay. I'm getting the hang of how the tropes work. And I'm getting used to using these red symbols to guide me when I'm chanting. One of my favorites is the down three (sof pasuk). That's how we sing the last word of every sentence. My tutor tells me every time I have a down three, I can drop my chin down three times. If I drop my chin, my voice will follow. That happens most of the time. The down three is pretty easy to do. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=16 01/25/2007 I had such a fun weekend this weekend. I got to see how great it'll be when I have my Bat Mitzvah. My good friend had his Bar Mitzvah this weekend. My whole family went. My parents made me sit with them during the service. I couldn't sit with my friends. But I guess it's just as well. This way I really focused on what was going on in synagogue. My friend lead a few prayers. Then he was called to the Torah for his aliyah (I sang along quietly for the aliyah blessings). Then he did his Haftarah. He was good. I recognized the blessing before and then I tried to follow along. It's a lot of work to get ready for a Bar Mitzvah. Since he was working really hard to prepare and since his Bar Mitzvah came right at his 13th birthday, his parents wanted to throw him a fun party. Well let me tell you...the party was really FUN! It was at a science museum that had all these great games and learning things for kids. There was a Microbe Lab. I didn't even know that a microbe was a germ (eew, gross). All the boys were playing the sports learning things...racing cars and pitching fastballs. The girls were having fun running all over the museum in dresses and socks!! I don't know what my party will be like, but I hope it's that much fun. I'm still working really hard on my haftarah. Maybe even harder now that I saw how well my friend did. I'm a few sentences in to my Haftarah, and it keeps getting easier! First I read a sentence a few times in a row. Then once I know the words, we put the red symbols to go with each trope and then I sing...well chant. LA LA LA. I love to sing. My new favorite trope is the tennis racket (k'tanah). Literally, it's like playing tennis. When that trope comes, I move my head from side to side to help me get the notes right. It's cool! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=17 01/25/2007 I'm back! I'm back! I feel like I'm drowning in school. I can't believe vacation only ended a week ago! It was so fun. I went to Florida with my family. We went to the beach a lot. I got so tan. I even practiced my haftarah on the beach...my tutor help me put it on my ipod!! I'm working on the haftarah now with my tutor. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Each lesson we read a new sentence. First I have to read the sentence a few times because my tutor insists we can't sing what we can't read. Then we look at the sentence one word at a time for trope and we put these red symbols above each word. The symbols help me understand how to chant the word. Then we practice chanting the sentence. It's cool. So if one word has a little sideways carrot (mapach) under it, we put an arrow above it called the one two. We always end a sentence down three (sof pasuk), and the colon on top of a word (katon) is like a stop sign. There are so many tropes that I find it overwhelming, but the symbols really help! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=14 01/10/2007 I cannot believe December vacation had to end. Hawaii was fun. I learned how to surf. It's not as easy as it seems. And I played touch football with Randy Johnson's son. And we saw lava coming out of a volcano. Why did it have to end? School is okay. I have a lot of work now. And mid-terms are coming. My mom is already bugging me to start studying everyday. And when she stops about the studying, then she reminds me to do my Bar Mitzvah homework! I learned to chant the blessing before the haftarah last week. I had to sing it over and over again. First my tutor would sing a phrase, then I would repeat it. We kept going like this until I finally got it and could chant the blessing by myself. My tutor kept reminding me to breathe. I guess I was trying so hard that it was almost coming out in one breath! He explained that the trope give us cues about good moments to pause and breathe. The tropes come in musical patterns. So every time I see a colon on top of a word (katon) which he called a stop sign, that ends a musical phrase and I should breathe. Each time I see a wishbone under the word (etnachta), he called it an up squiggle, it also ends a phrase and means I can breathe. And he said every sentence ends on a down three. There are two diamonds in a colon (sof pasuk) after the last word of a sentence. They end the sentence, so I should breathe. Apparently breathing makes chanting easier. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=15 01/10/2007 I'm psyched. We're going away! My family and I are spending the holiday break in Hawaii. Isn't that cool. I've never been. But all I want to do is learn how to surf. School finished today. I had a million tests this week...Social Studies, Math, Science, Spanish, Language Arts. Of course every teacher had to give a test before the holiday. I was surprised we didn't get a test in gym! I had my last Bar Mitzvah lesson of the year this week too. Now I have a break til next month (cool!). We started the blessing before the Haftarah. I had to read it over and over again until the words were familiar. Then my tutor taught me how to chant it. He explained about how the tropes are these symbols that come above and below the letters of each word and tell you the melody for chanting. At first it made me a little nervous. But as my tutor was explaining how the trope come in patterns, and that those patterns repeat, and so the melody repeats, I thought it was pretty cool. I just have to learn the melody for each trope once, and then the rest should be easy! My tutor recorded the blessing before the Haftarah for me and I put it on my ipod. Maybe I'll listen to it on the plane! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=12 12/22/2006 Omg, I can't believe I did my lesson in whisper this week. I went to school in the morning and my voice was a little hoarse. But by the time I got home from school, it was almost gone!! I was freaking out. I begged my mom not to have my Bat Mitzvah lesson, but she said I had to do it. There was no choice. So, when my tutor came and heard the news, she said we could whisper! It was really cool actually. I still sang everything like normal, just without the regular loud sound. First we went over the blessing before the haftarah...piece of cake!! Then we went over the first sentence in the Haftarah. I had started to learn that. I realized that the trope symbols in the blessing and in the Haftarah are similar and the melody sounds similar. So the singing wasn't so hard. My tutor said that as we add each next sentence of the Haftarah, the trope and the chanting will get easier because once you know how one trope is supposed to be sung, then you can sing it on any word! I think it's cool. And my tutor is showing me these neat little red symbols that I can write in above each word. There's a symbol to go with each trope. And you know what, it makes learning the melody soooooooooooo much easier! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=13 12/22/2006 I started working on my haftarah with my tutor in my lesson yesterday. What a workout! Some of the words are really long. I was getting super nervous. But then my tutor taught me a neat trick. She told me that long words can be broken down into beats or syllables. A letter and a vowel make a beat. And letters without vowels of their own are part of a beat. So I followed those rules, and put these neat little baskets (or loops) underneath each syllable in the long words, and then read the word in its parts. And you know what, it worked! I could actually read the long words! The baskets were cool because they also work really well with the trope symbols. Depending on which syllable the trope comes under (or above) then that's the one that gets emphasized when chanting. Who knew that this whole process could make so much sense? Can't wait for the next section! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=11 12/14/2006 I know the Aliyah Blessings! I feel relieved. In my last lesson my tutor and I practiced chanting the Torah blessings. I realized something neat about these blessings. For starters, they're not that hard! When I looked closely, I saw that the blessing chanted before the Torah is read and the blessing after the Torah is read are almost exactly the same. There is only one phrase in each blessing that is different. So once I learned the blessing before, I seemed to know most of the blessing after! First I had to read the blessings over and over to get really comfortable with the words. Then my tutor sang a phrase and I repeated. Then finally I could chant the blessings by myself. I felt pretty proud of myself by the end of the lesson. We're going to start the Haftarah next. I feel ready! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=9 12/12/2006 I went to Ireland on Thanksgiving weekend. My dad had a conference and we all got to go along. That was pretty neat. The people in Ireland have these accents that sound so different from ours! I had to listen extra hard to understand. The people were really nice. We drove around the country side for a few days. It was amazing. The grass was so green. It made me think of an Irish Spring commercial. There were sheep everywhere. And random houses in every color you could imagine...bright orange, blue, lavendar, hot pink, yellow. That was kind of funky. We stopped in different towns along the way. On the way back, we stopped in a town called Bantry. We were walking around and saw this enormous Jewish Star hanging on a building. We tried to go in but the door was locked. So we were left to wonder what the star was all about. But I must say, it was pretty cool to see a huge Jewish Star hanging on a building in the middle of Ireland. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=10 12/06/2006 I feel so behind. I went to London with my family for Thanksgiving weekend. And even though it was over a week ago, I feel like things are just turning normal now! London was so fun. And we got to go to an Israel Expo while we were there too. There were so many people from Israel selling these neat artsy things. I couldn't choose whether the jewelry or the tshirts or the paintings were my favorite. You know what was really cool though, even though we were in London, everyone was singing and dancing to a lot of the same Israeli music that I always hear at home. They were selling falafel and Bissli (these taco and falafel flavored chips) and spring fruit nectar (the yummiest juice from Israel) and they were giving out Pesek Zman (my favorite chocolate bar). Gosh, thinking about that day makes me want to go to Israel. Anyways, the whole time we were away my mom kept reminding me that I had to do my Bat Mitzvah homework. She actually made me bring my Bat Mitzvah book with me (!!) and I had to practice the blessing before the Haftarah and I had to practice reading the first few lines of my Haftarah. I practiced a couple times while we were away. It wasn't so bad. Since I've been back, I missed my next lesson. But another one is coming soon. I can't wait to learn something new. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=7 12/04/2006 So I just had my first Bat Mitzvah lesson. My tutor made me this neat book that has my haftarah inside and all the blessings I need to know. It looks like a lot to learn. I don't know how I'll ever do it. My tutor said it wouldn't be so hard though. After we practiced reading the blessing before the haftarah over and over, she explained to me how the haftarah has these little symbols inside called trope (they're the symbols that look like they're supposed to be on the page, but definitely don't look like vowels). The tropes tell us how to chant the haftarah. I don't know if I can learn to follow the symbols, but my tutor said that I'll get the hang of it. I hope so! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=2 11/10/2006 I had another Bat Mitzvah lesson again, and this time, my tutor told me I actually have to practice...I got Bat Mitzvah homework! I guess it makes sense but it might take so much time. I get so much homework in school everyday, I guess I'll have to make time to practice. She said that if I did about 15 or 20 minutes three times a week, that I would be in great shape. Maybe that's not so much time. I can do it before I go to bed, or maybe right before dinner. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=3 11/07/2006 Wow! I don't believe it. So I've had my Bat Mitzvah date set for years, but finally I'm about to start my lessons! I cannot wait. I mean, I'm a little nervous and all. But really, I'm just excited. I'm getting a tutor who is going to give me a lesson at home each week. I hope she'll be cool! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_sarah.php?blogId=4 11/05/2006 I'm starting my Bar Mitzvah lessons this week! I'm supposed to go meet the cantor at my synagogue. He's going to tell me my Torah portion and Haftarah, and then I think he assigns me a tutor. So I've been going to Hebrew school since the beginning of the year, and now I have to do Bar Mitzvah lessons too. Seems like I have a lot to do this year between school and homework and soccer (which is ending soon...but basketball is right around the corner!). I have a friend who is playing on three different soccer teams this season. He has games almost every day of the week! Anyways, I am looking forward to my Bar Mitzvah even though it seems so far away right now. I can't totally grasp what it's all about, but I guess this will get the ball rolling! http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=5 11/04/2006 I just met my tutor, and I just found out which Haftarah I'll be learning. The tutor seems nice. He has a good voice. I was wondering in my head the whole lesson if I'm supposed to sing like him. Um, I don't think so? My tutor told me not to freak out about singing. He says it'll all work out. But still, singing is not my thing. My tutor showed me how much material I have to prepare. Whoa. It's a long Haftarah. I cannot believe it. I'm thinking to myself how I can come up with some shortcuts. The tutor said not to worry. We'll work through it one step at a time. I guess that makes sense. But really, easy for him to say! Next week we're going to start with the aliyah blessings (an ah-lee-yah is when you have the honor of being called up to the Torah during the Torah service). As a Bar Mitzvah, I'll be called to the Torah for the first time! I kind of know those blessings already. So hopefully that will be an easy place to start. http://www.sarahdavid.com/blog/blog_david.php?blogId=6 11/04/2006