Bar Mitzvah Videos & Photos
Aaron was called to the ¡§Torah¡¨ (i.e., called up to read in Hebrew from the Old Testament, written on a large parchment scroll and kept in the synagogue) on Saturday morning, 20 June 2009, at the Ohel Leah Synagogue on Robinson Road in Hong Kong. The synagogue was built in 1902 by the Sassoon Family in honour of their mother, Leah. It is a magnificent, Sephardic style synagogue, with a square podium in the centre of the synagogue. The men, including about 10 male relatives who had travelled from the US, Toronto, France, England and Israel, were seated on benches and chairs at the ground level all around the podium, while the women, including his mother, sister, two grandmothers, two aunts, and numerous cousins, were seated about 50 feet above him, on a three-sided balcony. Several women had come to join the celebration from as far away as South Africa and Australia . The synagogue was also full of local members of the Jewish community, as well as non-Jewish friends of the family.
Aaron had been practicing diligently for about 8 months under the supervision of the Ohel Leah's youth rabbi, Rabbi Sinai Burns, and was extremely well prepared. Wearing his prosthetic leg, he walked up the five steps of the podium with great pride and a surprising level of confidence. When the rabbi unrolled the scroll and found the place where they had stopped reading the week before, Aaron was ready. The trick about chanting from the Torah is that the Hebrew writing in the scroll has dropped all the vowels, which notify a reader how to sound out the Hebrew letters; nor are there markings which indicate how a word or phrase should be chanted. To read from the Torah, one must practice using a Hebrew text which has both the vowels and the markings for the chanting and memorize how to sound the words and how to chant the text. Not surprisingly, mistakes are not uncommon at all!).
Aaron chanted the first section of the Torah reading for that week to a silent, focused, yet nervous house that was on the verge of tears of joy. Many in the audience had been involved in the hectic activities 5 years before that saved Aaron's life. But Aaron's voice was strong and determined, reaching up to the balcony above him where his mother sat, frozen in great anticipation. Beginnings are always tricky, but Aaron overrode any fears in his heart and quickly brought relief to the hearts of his parents and family by hitting all the right notes. In fact, Rabbi Burns told Aaron that he had only made three mistakes in his entire reading, one fewer than his father had made at his Bar Mitzvah in Toronto, 45 years before.
Rabbi Sinai Burns read the 2nd ¡§parsha¡¨ (the weekly Torah reading is divided into 7 sections or ¡§parsha¡¨). David, Aaron's dad, who had been practicing for two months, chanted the 3rd parsha (the first time he had chanted from the Torah in 44 years!), Rabbi Sinai read the 4 th parsha and then Aaron read the 5 th , 6 th , and 7 th sections, followed by his ¡§maftir¡¨¡Xthe last section, often reserved for bar mitzvahs. He then read the ¡§haftorah¡¨¡Xa section from the Book of Prophets, whose content is deemed most appropriate to the message of that week's Torah portion. Also, before each ¡§parsha¡¨ was read, a relative was also called to the podium (or ¡§bima¡¨) to read a prayer that blesses the Torah. Relatives from Toronto (Arthur Resnick, Harvey Bongard), New Jersey (Steven Bass), California (Steve Poretzky), Israel (Zvi Anafi), David's professor of Chinese politics in Toronto in 1971, Dan Tretiak (who resides in Beijing), as well as David, were all called up to read the blessing. Other relatives were honoured by being invited to open or close the ark, where the Torah is stored, or to say benedictions for the State of Israel, for the leaders of Hong Kong and China , and for the soldiers defending of the State of Israel.
The day before, on 19 June, Aaron had put on his ¡§tefillin¡¨ (or phylacteries ) for the first time as a ¡§Bar Mitzvah.¡¨ Tefillin are two boxes¡Xone placed on the forehead, the second wrapped around the left bicep¡Xthat hold prayers, which religious Jews put on every morning (except the Sabbath) for the morning prayers. The ritual is based on specific commandments in the Torah. The service was held at the Chabad Synagogue, on MacDonnell Road , and was also attended by relatives and friends. The service was led by Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon, who had been pivotal in organizing the community to pray for Aaron when he had been sick in 2004.
Friday night, all our relatives joined with friends and members of the United Jewish Congregation (the Reform synagogue in Hong Kong where Rachel had celebrated her Bat Mitzvah 4? years before) for their regular Friday night service. The service was led by Rabbi Stan Zamek. The cantor was Julie Howard, the UJC's former cantor, who came specially from Australia to celebrate Aaron's bar mitzvah. Joy and her mother lit the Sabbath candles at the start of the service, Rachel sang some prayers with Julie, and Aaron and David led the blessing over the wine at the end of the service. Then Aaron's ¡§bubby¡¨ or grandmother from Toronto (Belma Zweig), hosted a dinner for all out-of-town guests, and a few very close friends and family in Hong Kong , at the Jewish Community Centre.
The religious service Friday morning and on Saturday were followed by meals sponsored by Rhoda Poretzky, Aaron's grandmother, and Aaron's parents, respectively. At the end of the service on Saturday, Aaron presented a ¡§commentary¡¨ (called a ¡§dvar Torah¡¨) on the significance of his Torah portion, while at the luncheon on Saturday, Aaron's uncle Steve Poretzky, Aaron's dad, David, and the Head of the Carmel School of Hong Kong, Edwin Epstein, all shared their thoughts with Aaron and the guests about the significance of this day in Aaron's life. Rabbi Martin van den Bergh, the senior rabbi of the Ohel Leah Syngague, had given Aaron a wonderfully meaningful and passionate sermon during the service, just after Aaron had completed his Torah reading.
There are no pictures of the events on Friday night or Saturday morning, as cameras are not allowed in synagogues during the Sabbath. We have, however, posted some pictures from the Friday morning ¡§tefillin¡¨ service, the breakfast at Chabad, and some of the family events that took place around the Bar Mitzvah.
The big ¡§bash¡¨ was held on Sunday night, 21 June, at the Marriott Hotel. Most of the pictures on the web-site, as well as a video, entitled ¡§The Big Day,¡¨ and a video of Rachel and Samantha Kriegel singing to Aaron, are from that night. Another video, made by Aaron's dad, with the help of Song Qi, a former HKUST student, called ¡§Aaron's Life,¡¨ was shown at the dinner and is here on the website as well. There are also a selection of photos from the evening, taken by Bobby Yip, a friend of the Zweig's, and his associate Garrige Ho.
We hope that you will share in our joy as you look at these pictures and videos, which celebrate this wonderful and important milestone in Aaron's personal and spiritual development.
Joy and David Zweig
An 11 minute video about Aaron's life , shown at his Bar Mitzvah celebration on June 21, 2009 in Hong Kong.
"The Big Day" is the video of the dinner at The Marriott Hotel on June 21, 2009.
"Rachel's Song" is the video of the song she and Samantha Kriegel sang to Aaron at the Bar Mitzvah dinner celebration.
Photos taken at Aaron's Bar Mitzvah: