Walled Lake Schools

metro >> Jews in the digital age

invites you
to attend our

Community Performances

WL Central HS Performing Arts presents

"You Can't Take it
With You"

.1711

December 5-7, 2013
7:30 p.m., WL Central HS
Admission: $9/adult,
$8/student and senior citizens

For ticket information, go to
wlcstickets.com
or call 248-387-9160.

WL Central, Northern & Western HS
choirs, bands and orchestras present

Collage Concerts

•December 10, 2013 -
WL Western HS band & orchestra
•December 11-12, 2013 -
WL Northern HS choirs, band
& orchestra
•December 17 18, 2013 -
WL Central HS choirs, band
& orchestra
•December 19, 2013 -
WL Western HS choirs

-

For ticket information,
go to wlcstickets.com
or call 248-387-9160.

WL Northern HS Performing Arts Center to host

Holiday Pops with the Phil

Presented by the Huron Valley
Council for the Arts

December 13, 2013
WL Northern HS
Featuring the Michigan Philharmonic
with music director and conductor
Nan Washburn.

1.1(lICHIGAN

PHILHARMONIC

N. We al bum Ihr c.enor Cmoluao

For ticket information,
go to www.huronvalleyarts.org
or call 248-889-866o.

pm

WL Western HS Performing Arts presents

"Almost Maine"

February 6-8, 2014 •
WL Western HS

Tickets will be available for
purchase in January, 2014.
For ticket information,
go to wlcstickets.com
or call 248-387-9160.

WL Northern HS Performing Arts presents

A

"Tarzan - The Musical"

February 6-9, 2014 ---
WL Northern HS

Tickets will be available for
purchase in January, 2014.
For ticket information,
go to wlcstickets.com
or call 248-387-9160.

WL Central HS Performing Arts presents

"Fiddler on the Roof'

Fiddler
cke04.1 April 25-27 &
May 1-3, 2014,
WL Cental HS

Tickets will be available
for purchase March 2014.
For ticket information, go to
wlcstickets.com
or call 248-387-9160.

For more information and
additional show listings, go to
wlcstickets.com .

61420

30

November 28 • 2013

Al

Bar Mitzvah Prep
In The 21st Century

I

n the Coen brothers' movie A Serious
Man, we see young Danny practic-
ing his haftorah for his bar mitzvah
by listening to the cantor's rendition of
it on his record player. That scene was
undoubtedly sentimental for Jewish men
of a certain age who prepared for their
bar mitzvah by keying up the phono-
graph in their parents' living
room.
Bar mitzvah preparation
has come a long way since
the days of the record album.
In the 1980s and early 1990s,
cantors and bar/bat mitzvah
tutors recorded their voices
onto audio cassette tapes so
their 12-year-old students
could walk around the house
listening to the chanting on
a Sony Walkman. In fact, I
remember many nights falling
asleep with my black foamy
headphones on while I listened to the
late Cantor Larry Vieder of Adat Shalom
Synagogue repeating the Torah trope
(cantilation notes) and the long haftorah
for my bar mitzvah.
The mid-1990s saw the transition
from the audio tapes to music CDs
when bar mitzvah tutors began hooking
up microphones to the computer and
recording the bar mitzvah portion onto
blank CD-roms.
In recent years, we've seen bar and
bat mitzvah students receiving the audio
version of the haftorah and blessings
they need to learn via email, a concept
that anyone older than 30 would find
amazing.
The way Jewish teens prepare for their
bar or bat mitzvah has changed drasti-
cally thanks to technological innovation.
Not only has the audio format changed
over the years, but so too has the way in
which these young men and women are
being tutored.
I was recently at a retreat for Jewish
leaders where I met Todd Shotz, who
launched Hebrew Helpers several years
ago as a way to provide in-home, one-
on-one personalized bar and bat mitz-
vah instruction.
In addition to coordinating private
bar/bat mitzvah services for families
that do not belong to a congregation,
Shotz's company arranges for tutors to
work with children to prepare for their
b'nai mitzvah.
While many of his students are
matched with local tutors in the Los

Angeles area, he has also found that
he can help Jewish teens around the
country through Skype and other video
conferencing applications.
Shotz isn't the only one taking advan-
tage of this new technology to help stu-
dents prepare for their bar or bat mitz-
vahs. Even local tutors who frequently
meet with their students
in person are using Skype,
Apple's Facetime or Google's
hangouts to conduct reviews
with their students before the
big day.
Today's teens have such
busy schedules that it's not
always feasible for them to
meet with a tutor at the syna-
gogue, so late-night sessions
over the Internet are more
conducive.
A couple of mobile apps
have also changed the way
tech-savvy Jewish 12-year-olds train for
their bar or bat mitzvah.

Programs Differ

Rusty Brick's Tikun Korim lets teens use
their iPhone, iPad or Android device to
learn to read their bar or bat mitzvah
portion. The mobile app is an interactive
text of the Torah and haftorah with the
appropriate musical notes.
The layout is specially designed to fit
the iPad or iPhone (an Android version
was released a few months ago) and is
about half the height of a normal Tikun
(the book used for aiding in Torah read-
ing).
The app works in both landscape
and portrait mode. While in landscape
(horizontal) mode, it shows the Torah
view on the left and the ta'amim (canto-
rial notes) on the right, and portrait
(vertical) mode shows only one view at
a time with a quick toggle switch to flip
between the two.
A nice feature of Tikun Korim is the
bookmark feature for quick access to
the specific Torah portion the bar mitz-
vah boy or bat mitzvah girl is studying,
as well as the capability to record and
email a recording to the tutor.
This app also includes a chart of the
cantilation notes with each note's sound
provided by a professional bar mitzvah
teacher so that the student can learn to
chant the Torah reading on his own. The
app even has Megillat Esther for Purim
in addition to the entire Torah and hafto-
rah readings. There are both Ashkenazi

and Sephardi versions of all the chant-
ings. Tikun Korim sells for $19.99 in the
iTunes store and in Google Play.
Another popular app for bar mitz-
vah training is Kinnor Software's
TropeTrainer Mobile, which sells for
$24.99 in the iTunes Store (no Android
version is available). TropeTrainer
Mobile has the entire Torah, all the
haftorah readings as well as the five
Megillah readings. TropeTrainer also
boasts a state-of-the-art Hebrew speech
synthesizer that lets the student hear
every word with the "ultimate in chant-
ing precision and flexibility:'
TropeTrainer has nice navigation fea-
tures, such as the ability to jump directly
to any aliyah or chapter, and the font
is very easy to read. Both TropeTrainer
and Tikun Korim allow the user to view
the Torah readings in the font found in
actual Torah scrolls. TropeTrainer addi-
tionally has side-by-side English transla-
tions, which highlight the translation to
follow the Hebrew text.
Students are also able to adjust the
chanting speed, pitch, accent and vocal
range so they won't struggle to try and
match a pre-recorded voice. It features
more than 30 Torah chanting melodies,
including several selections for the spe-
cial High Holidays' melodies, plus two
dozen haftorah melodies.
Users have the option to turn on
colored highlighting of phrases from
the three most common trope groups.
Finally, TropeTrainer has a built-in
calendar to take the complexity out of
finding the appropriate reading for that
Shabbat or holiday. Both apps support
both the annual and triennial cycle
Torah readings.
Bar and bat mitzvah training has
no doubt advanced as technology has
advanced. While I'll always remember
the hours spent each day back in 1989
with my Walkman and the cassette
tape of my haftorah, my children will
likely be practicing for their bar mitz-
vah on their wristwatch synced with
their Samsung Galaxy Note or looking
directly into the Torah scroll while their
Google Glass provides the trope marks.
Now that's what I call tradition and
change.

❑

Rabbi Jason Miller is an entrepreneur,
technologist and blogger. He is the
president of Access Computer Technology
in West Bloomfield. Follow him on Twitter
at ®RabbiJason.

