Celebrations
Torah
B’nai Mitzvah
Seventy faces, at least
Jarah Eger, daughter of Jason Eger and Janelle Eger of Mt. Lebanon, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 2 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Jarah is the granddaughter of Dr. Mark and Susan Eger of Moon Township and Judi and Bob Van Winkle of Missouri.
By Rabbi Seth Adelson Parshat Beha’alotecha Numbers 8:1-12:16
W Liam Glen Friedlander, son of Drs. Mary Pat and Eric Friedlander, will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 2 at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation. Liam has an older sister, Hannah. Grandparents are Steven and Linda Friedlander of Boynton Beach, Fla., and Perry and Nancy Schreffler of Oil City, Pa.
Adam Levine (right) and Noah Levine, sons of Donna and Michael Levine, will become b’nai mitzvah on Saturday, June 2 at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills. Grandparents are the late Charles Levine, Sylvia Levine of State College, the late Julius Walther and the late Dorothy Walther.
hen my daughter was in second grade, she learned about the Big Bang theory, the most comprehensive model for how the universe as we know it came into being. We were walking home together from school one day not long after, and she said to me, “Abba, I’m not going to be Jewish when I grow up.” My interest piqued, I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Why not?” “Because if the Big Bang happened, then the Torah can’t be true.” “Hm. And why is that?” “Because that means that God didn’t create the world in six days and rest on the seventh.” She was 7 years old at the time. I had rather optimistically figured that this moment would not arrive for another decade, at least. So I tried to fumble my way through an amusingly abstract answer (for a second-grader) about holding two stories in our head at the same time, about living Jewishly with feet firmly placed in both the secular world and the religious context, about how science and the Torah answer two different questions: one
the “How?” and the other the “Why?” I reassured her that it would be okay to accept the Big Bang and still be Jewish, and that perhaps someday this would all make sense. She listened politely, and then changed the subject. Rabbi Isaac Luria, the 16th-century kabbalist who lived in Tzfat and created a branch of Jewish mysticism known to us as Lurianic Kabbalah, did not limit Judaism to what was between the covers of ancient books. He explained the image of the menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum described in the opening verses of Parshat Beha’alotecha, as standing for six branches of secular learning, plus the one center stalk as symbolizing the light of the Torah. Science and faith are not mutually exclusive rivals which vie for our hearts and minds. Rather, they sit comfortably together on the menorah, in close quarters, illuminating and complementing each other. The origins of both the Reform and Conservative movements lay in the 19th-century movement known as das wissenschaft des Judentums, the “science of Judaism.” When the scientific tools of archaeology and source criticism and comparative Semitics and so forth enabled our forebears to interPlease see Torah, page 20
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Gabriella Louisa Naveh, daughter of Barak and Lisa Naveh, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 2 at 10:30 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Gabriella has a younger sister, Abigail. Gabriella is the granddaughter of Jacob and Edie Naveh and Peter and Susan Gonsenheimer. Gabriella attends Community Day School. Her interests include political activism, reading, writing and spending time with family and friends. For Gabriella’s mitzvah project, she is collecting books to be donated to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
Jake Schwartz, son of Ginger and Howard Schwartz of Tempe, Ariz., was called to the Torah on Saturday, May 5 at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. Jake is the grandson of Esther and the late David L. Schwartz of Pittsburgh and Delray Beach, Fla., the late Renie Franklin and Susie and the late Charles Franklin of Pittsburgh, and is the brother of Hannah Jordyn Schwartz. Ellia Simone Neiss will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 2 at Community Day School. Ellia is a sixthgrader at CDS and loves playing soccer, basketball and trumpet. She is the daughter of Jason and Jessica Neiss and the granddaughter of Dee and Jeff Weinberg and Gerry and Mel Neiss. Close friend Rabbi Ethan Linden of New York will officiate the ceremony. PJC
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