Best Haphtorah Ever: This Bar Mitzvah Boy Might Really Be an Adult
Like this poor kid, I was forced to go through religious lessons and a Bar Mitzvah ritual and the whole nine yards. Unlike this kid, however, I would have been beaten senseless if I had been so bold as to question the existence of Jehovah instead of singing my haphtorah (I have long since forgotten what passage it was). Oy, what tzimmis it would have been, I tell you!
Funny thing; before I started religious lessons, I had been rather uncertain about the existence of a God-in-man's-image like Adonai. It took religious lessons to convince me that such a concept was too silly to consider. My Bar Mitzvah was the last time I ever set foot in a synagogue for religious reasons and the beginning of a long, twisting path toward coming to my own decisions about religion and the idea of divinity that went on well into my 30's.
Good for you, kid. You've got a lifetime of thought and exploration ahead, I'm sure, and the journey is the best part. Mazel tov!
