Mom, Dad, Members of the congregation, relatives, and friends, welcome, again, to my Bar mitzvah. Today’s Torah portion says if you do a sin or commit a trespass against any persons, then you are committing a sin against the Lord. In order to make it right, you must repay the principal amount to the person and then add a fifth to it. Also, you must make atonement to the Lord. This means that if you steal or lie or do something bad to another person, you must pay back exactly what you stole plus add more to it. In the old days, that meant giving back what you owed plus adding a cow or other property. But for today, to me, it mostly means money, property or it might mean feelings. It means not only giving back exactly what you stole but a little more too. Or if you say mean things or do mean things to someone, then not only must you apologize for what you did, but also add a little extra. Maybe being a little nicer to the person, or going an extra step to help that person when they need it. Then you must make it right with God. To me, that means in prayer you ask God to help you be a better person, to not repeat that mistake again.
The Haftarah means the same thing when it says “when one has sinned and, realizing his guilt”, I think that relates to me because, when I do something wrong at first I don’t really feel anything but after a while my stomach starts to hurt be-cause I feel sorry for what I did that. When my stomach hurts like that, I know I’ve made a mistake. Once I realize I made a mistake, then I go back and fix what I did wrong. But now, I know that not only must I fix what I did wrong, but I must make it better. Then I must pray to God, to help me not make the same mistake. I am trying to make it so that I don’t make the same mistakes again.
I feel that this portion connects to all of us because, we all make mistakes. It’s ok to make mistakes because that’s how we learn. We learn from our mistakes. But, when we realize our mistakes, we must make it better then it was and ask God to help us not make the same mistake.
This reminds me of a recent time when I made a mistake. When I was getting ready for school, my mom and dad stopped me from getting on the bus to review my vocabulary words. I got mad because I didn’t want to miss the bus. After the school day, I felt bad that I got mad. They were trying to help me with my school work. But I got mad because I missed the bus. Now that I am a Bar Mitzvah, I know that I can make a difference by learning from my mistakes, helping out more, or just doing a good deed. Also, I will take praying more seriously.
I want to thank my parents for taking care of me for the past 13 years, feeding me, buying me stuff and organizing today’s event. I am glad that my parents supported me to become a Bar Mitzvah. I want to thank Jasha for working with me this past year to help me prepare for today and all my past Sunday School teachers. I also want to thank Jonah and Ms. Mills for helping me with my Service today. I want to thank everyone for being here to celebrate with me today.