SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer
hen Temple Beth El congregants listened
to the words of their new Torah being
read for the first time last Shabbat, the
voice they heard was that of bat mitzvah
Charna Segal.
That the Torah was used for the first time on Jan.
1, 2000, was by no means the most unusual part of
the service. That honor went to Segal and her two
daughters who shared the bima at a triple bat mitzvah
ceremony.
Cantor Stephen Dubov says he thinks the reading
of a new Torah by three women in the same service
may have taken place "for the first time in the history
of the universe."
Amanda Segal, 13, and sister Jennifer, 12, had sepa-
rate dates originally to become bat mitzvah, but "my
mom had the idea to have me and my sister do it
together," Jennifer says.
Then Mom got to thinking. Growing up in an
Orthodox home, she says she studied for years and
years but could never have a bat mitzvah. After discus-
sions with her daughters, the planned b'not
mitzvah (daughters of the commandment)
grew by one more.
Now Charna Segal says the experience
has been a wonderful way for her family to
bond.
"I like the idea of the word 'bonding,"'
Cantor Dubov says. "There is a beautiful
warmth between these family members
that comes across on the bima — even
with the upstaged father," he adds.
Dad Randy Segal relishes that role.
Speaking before the event, he says he
wanted to see his children in the limelight,
his wife secondary and himself a far-dis-
tant fourth.
Charna Segal says she's realized in recent
years how important her religion is to her,
especially in raising her children. She
wants them to know their "religious back-
ground and to see how important it is to
be Jewish."
The Segals thoroughly enjoy their
involvement at Temple Beth El, she adds.
For her husband, it is a place
that gives his family music in a
congregation full of warmth,
with clergy who offer an under-
standing of the whats and whys
of Judaism.
Amanda and Jennifer, in sev-
enth and eighth grades, respec-
tively, at Orchard Lake Middle
School in West Bloomfield, also
attend Temple Beth El's Hebrew
Right: Facing the ark are
Amanda, Charna and Jennifer Segal
Inset: Amanda, Jennifer and
Charna Segal pause during a rehearsal.
High School and belong to Cantor Dubov's Bar/Bat
Mitzvah Club. They study with temple teachers under
the direction of Alan Lowen, who also met for six
months with their mother.
Charna Segal, a fluent Hebrew reader, says learning
to chant from the Torah was new to her and required
slow practice — "word by word, verse by verse."
Cantor Dubov says he and Lowen divided the
Torah portion and the service into three parts as
equally as possible, with 95 percent of the service done
by the Segals.
The cantor decided the first aliya (call to read the
Torah) would go to Charna, saying, "If she had had
her bat mitzvah at the right time, she would have gone
first."
At the service, additional aliyot were read by Randy
Segal, Amanda and Jennifer, and their grandparents,
Faye Bloom and Lorraine and Irving Segal.
Following the Torah reading, each bat mitzvah pre-
sented a personal interpretation of what it meant to
her.
When it came time for family members to offer
words to the b'not mitzvah, Charna and her husband
spoke to their daughters; then he spoke to his wife. He
,
,•
' bar on Jan. _i_ m didn't mark only
Raugural chanting of a new
Beth El Torah. Its reading
with the first day of the
adversary year of the temple,
t for which the Torah was
orah was written by Dr. Eric
ew York-based sofer, or mas-
Two years in the making,
was completed with the
f temple members. More
*viauals received the
bolically scribing letters,
their hands on Dr.
Wrote.
designed by tem-
ool students, Rabbi
says 700 singing and
M embers gathered
nctuary to symbolically
Orah." He described the
ony as "very much akin
orah with bakafot
sm '`Nskr ith the Torah), with all
chiding the new one."
supervision of Thomas
empk executive director,
ers Fred Simon and
en, a Connecticut artist
ioned to create the
c olored cover. The art-
iided to capture the scene
f paradise.
onoring the anniver-
emple, Rabbi.Syme offers
Tetus for the creation of
"T is my personal belief
ongregation is responsible
a \Thick for the creation
this generation, to
destroyed, burned by
"A Torah lasts 300 years.
le thing to under-
Torahs we are using
#..old, to think back on
ag-ort in the world then
older than the United
on the temple's new
rabbi says, Our great-
reat-grandchildren could
prah. And I think everyone
.was part of this [Torah dedica-
Oa ceremony stood in awe of what
this Torah will see. It is a messenger to
our jewish future."
Shelli Doi:fman