Daily Devotionals

All a person's ways are right in his own view, but ADONAI weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2).

Amentsh tracht un Got lacht is Yiddish for "Man thinks and God laughs." The Talmud teaches that a male at the age of thirteen becomes responsible for his own observance of the Torah (Pirkey Avot 5:24). It was once common for a girl to be confirmed at age twelve, but even this has changed and the bat mitzvah these days sometimes occurs at age thirteen.

When we are young, we believe that we are immortal, nothing can touch us and oy! are we smart.We know just what to do. Every parent's wish is that by the time of his Bar Mitzvah their son becomes a man. The truth is that we must train our young people in the knowledge that they do not know it all, and that neither do we.

The rite of passage of bar/bat mitzvah can be a blessed experience for our young people. But the tragic reality is that in modern times this rite of passage has too often become just a party. There is an old joke that the bar/bat mitzvah receives so many pens as gifts that instead of saying, "Today I am a man/woman," the saying should be, "Today I am a fountain pen."

We must become more focused on the meaning behind this event and the Word of God that defines it, and less focused on parties and gifts. Messianic Jewish families need to provide the proper bar/bat mitzvah training for their children, remembering always to make our redemption through Yeshua the centerpiece.

...become a man/woman in the truest sense by allowing the Lord to train me in his ways.

JR