Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

Since May of 1973, I have been fond of saying that I did not celebrate a Bar Mitzvah. Rather, I celebrated a "Bhar Mitzvah," because the Parsha of my Bar Mitzvah celebration was called "Bhar."

I celebrated my age of maturity in Israel at the Kotel on that particular Shabbat morning of "Parshat Bhar." For my parents, it would be the first and only time that they visited Israel.

In 1960, I was born just a couple of hours after Mother's Day had ended. Now, sixty years later, my Hebrew birthday fell out on Friday, my English birthday on Shabbat, and Mother's Day on Sunday.

Celebrating my Bar Mitzvah in Israel surrounded by the love of my parents and siblings, the beginning of the Parsha could not have been more appropriate. The Torah legislates that every seventh year, the land of Israel must lay fallow. The land must rest every seventh year, just as we celebrate a day of spiritual and physical rest every seventh day.

Right now, the land, in a universal sense, is not at rest. It is fighting a plague which tragically has impacted on so many lives.

Forty-seven years ago, a young healthy Morrison family celebrated a beautiful Bar Mitzvah in a young healthy land of Israel. Our prayer this year is that the land of our planet and all humanity rediscover youthfulness and good health.

I wish everybody safety and wellbeing.

Shavua Tov,

Rabbi Howard Morrison