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Cece, who was abandoned to an orphanage in China – one of the consequences of that country’s “one child” policy and the strong cultural preference for male offspring – and adopted by an American Jewish couple – went through a preparation for her Bat Mitzvah very familiar to that experienced by our B’nai Mitzvah students. She had the same reticence to belt out her portion so that it could be heard throughout the sanctuary, and the same tendency to “under-represent” our famous “ch” sound in Hebrew. (I’m guessing, however, that she never learned Torah and Haftarah trope, didn’t have the same exposure to the mitzvot as our students, and surely didn’t have a teacher as adept or mind-expanding as Johnny Lee!)
But Cece’s Bat Mitzvah reflects two things that we love about our Judaism. The first is the commandment – which we encounter again and again in our Torah portions – to welcome the stranger. Cece, herself, was hardly a stranger to her classmates and fellow congregants at Rodeph Shalom, but the hall was filled with lots of Chinese-born individuals, some from the very same orphanage. Reb Robert’s words to the assembled: “Let the stranger in your midst be to you as the native, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
The second is that while the Bat Mitzvah itself was part of a normal Shabbat Morning Service, the ceremony and the events surrounding it celebrated rather than camouflaged Cece’s Chinese heritage. When, at the party, Cece was lifted up in a chair, in traditional fashion during the Hava Nagila, she nearly bumped her head on the Chinese umbrellas hanging off the chandelier. A similar Bat Mitzvah in Massachusetts took place during Sukkot which, that year, coincided with the Chinese autumn moon festival.
One of the particularly admirable things about our congregation is that families and individuals among us are able to celebrate our Judaism while still holding close a national or cultural heritage held dear. Throughout our history, Judaism has survived and sometimes flourished in many parts of the world, inevitably absorbing particular local customs, melodies and recipes, and, no doubt, rubbing off on these as well. And, as events like Cece’s Bat Mitzvah makes clear, that rich interface is continuing.
Recently I was approached by a Jewish-Tibetan couple asking if I would begin sessions with the Tibetan partner in a move toward conversion. I thought about it for some time, and then told her that I could consider this only (1) if she promised not to give up her Tibetan heritage and (2) if she agreed to share with me, in the process, some of the gems of her tradition. Both partners (the Jewish partner already is fluent in Tibetan) were full of enthusiasm and eagerly anticipate a family life filled not only with Jewish gefilte fish and Tibetan momos, but also with a depth of religious understanding and observance.
B’Shalom,
Jim
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