Mitzvah Prep
Practice
Makes
Perfect
Time and effort — the only way to
prepare for b’nai mitzvah.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
O
ne piece of advice that b’nai mitzvah tutors share with new
students and their parents: To be successful on the big day,
nothing takes the place of practice to master the required
prayers and Torah and haftarah chanting it takes to earn one’s rite
into Jewish adulthood.
Ideally, preparations to become a bar or bat mitzvah are
designed to take the student beyond their milestone day and into
the larger role of becoming a full-fledged Jewish adult who pos-
sesses lifelong skills in Jewish prayer and reading Torah.
Therefore, informal studying for one’s bar mitzvah can start
years in advance with temple and synagogue attendance to famil-
iarize the child with Shabbat services and the sounds of Torah and
haftarah chanting.
But clergy and tutors have come to understand the shifting pri-
orities and realities for ever-busier Jewish families and realize the
student does the bulk of learning and exposure to b’nai mitzvah
preparation during the nine or 10 months leading up to their date.
Cantor Samuel Greenbaum of Congregation Beth Shalom in
Oak Park, who has tutored generations of b’nai mitzvah students,
believes in the importance of not judging a child’s Hebrew read-
ing skills in creating a comfortable environment for studying and
preparation.
“I accept where they are and go from there,” Greenbaum said. “I
tell my students that their bar/bat mitzvah will be an experience
they will remember for a lifetime. My personal goal for them is to
go beyond their own expectations.”
Ideally, Greenbaum said, the best way to prepare is for families
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to attend Shabbat services regularly in the years leading up to the
coming of age ceremony.
“I’m a realist and I understand the world in which we live, and
I try to have flexibility with the busy routines of parents and stu-
dents,” Greenbaum said. “Students generally, no matter which
Hebrew school they attend, have their first real exposure to the
chanting when they begin their training with me, which is usually
a year before their date.
“I encourage parents to also be part of the process by attending
services more regularly. Many times, they will undertake learning
how to chant Torah and will do so at the ceremony.”
One of Greenbaum’s former students, Teresa Rope Beckerman,
45, of Huntington Woods, described her and her husband’s
pride when their twin daughters, Brooke and Eden, celebrated
their b’not mitzvah last January, also under the guidance of
Greenbaum. Beckerman, a Hebrew immersion instructor at
Temple Emanu-El Early Childhood Community, said she believes
it is important for Jewish institutions to reinforce the idea that
Hebrew school is not the means to an end goal of having a bar or
bat mitzvah, but to learn the lifelong skills to become a practicing
Jew.
Beckerman said during their studies, the twins worked inde-
pendently — sometimes getting together with their friends who
were also practicing for their bat mitzvah to review the prayers —
and there was no need to pressure them to practice.
“It was never about [pleasing] us,” Beckerman said. “It was all
about wanting to make Cantor Sam proud of them on the bimah.”
Doron Vergun of Farmington Hills is a teacher at Adat Shalom-
Beth Achim learning community and is also pursuing her mas-
ter’s in Jewish education as she tutors children independently and
for Temple Israel. Vergun has noticed a decline in Hebrew reading
proficiency and the overall knowledge of prayers as temples and
synagogues trimmed their religious school hours. She tweaks her
lessons as best she can to meet the child’s ability.
“I find myself spending weeks at a time preparing students with
the prayers they should have known by the fourth or fifth grade —
or maybe they knew them but forgot them by the seventh grade
— before I even begin their Torah or haftarah readings,” Vergun
said. “That concerns me.”
Though there are no shortcuts, a tutor can ease a child’s dif-
ficulty with Hebrew by singing their readings into their phone for
memorization or, if need be, providing them with transliterated
Hebrew verses.
“I know my students do not shlep their binders with them
everywhere, but I do know they take their phones with them
everywhere,” Vergun said. “If that is the case, they can squeeze in
some practice time anywhere: on the school bus, at night or wait-
ing around at their sister’s gymnastics practice.”
Regardless of her students’ singing ability, Vergun assures her
students — especially boys with changing voices — that the ser-
vice is not meant to be a performance.
“I tell them, this is not an opera, and no one expects you to sing
like a cantor,” Vergun said. “What I do expect of them is that they
be disciplined and practice regularly. Proper preparedness will be
evident on the student’s big day when they are calm, prepared and
poised on the bimah.”
Cindy Kandel of West Bloomfield has been a tutor for 17 years
and offers students the “Six P’s” of success: partnership — among
parent, instructor and student; priority — the family’s full commit-
ment to placing importance on coming to all scheduled lessons;
passion on the part of the teacher for teaching an ancient tradi-
tion; consistent practice; patience and persistence.
“This is an easy formula for success, and there is no greater feel-
ing than watching a child ‘come into his or her own’ on the bimah
with confidence and pride in their accomplishment and, more
importantly, themselves.” *
If you are a GenXer, you remember pop-
ping a cassette tape into your recorder
to practice your Torah or haftarah lines
recorded by your rabbi, cantor or tutor.
Technology has changed how kids
prepare for their b’nai mitzvah. Though
nothing takes the place of a live tutor,
Torah training the high-tech way leaves
the student with more opportunity to be
fully prepared. Here, some favorites:
Bible-ort.org This free website is a
comprehensive go-to for quickly finding
a source to hear one’s portion chanted.
It features each sentence in Hebrew
on one side and the English translation
and Hebrew transliteration on the other.
Each screen includes the Stam letters as
they appear in the Torah.The drawbacks:
When the user clicks on the audio icon, a
recording window pops up, blocking the
verses. Also, the singing/trope melody
used in the software may not match the
local customary Torah chanting of your
synagogue.
LearnTorahTrope.com For the more
advanced learner who wants to un-
derstand Torah and haftarah trope, this
website offers free interactive lessons
on learning trope patterns to read any
portion, but does not contain individual
recordings of weekly readings.
Pockettorah.com Available as a
website and a mobile device app, this
popular Torah tool enables users to read
and hear every Torah and haftarah por-
tion. It contains the entire Hebrew text
(viewed with or without vowels), plus
English translation and links to a range
of commentaries, plus “on-demand”
audio, with a karaoke-like feature
highlighting each word of text as the
recorded voice chants it. With a swipe
of the finger on a touch screen, the view
changes from vowelized to Tikkun Stam
Hebrew with no vowels or trope. The
company’s next installment, wedit.com,
teaches users how to do traditional can-
tillation — a skill that can then be ap-
plied to chanting all Torah and haftarah
portions. Both apps are available for free
and funded with a grant from the Jewish
New Media Innovation Fund. Drawback:
Speed and melody can't be adjusted.
Trope Trainer is a more robust yet
expensive ($59.95-$164.95) training tool
from Kinnor Software (kinnor.com), avail-
able on CD, as a downloadable applica-
tion and a mobile app. It matches the
student’s ability as he or she learns by
adjusting the playback speed and read-
ing entire readings, individual sentences
or single words. Adjustable pitches and
vocal ranges can be customized to
match a student’s voice. Trope Trainer
can also be customized to the chanting
melody that best matches ones used by
the student’s congregation. Texts can be
printed out with or without vowels and
trope or color-coded according to trope
groups. Download as a single parshah or
a full program that includes all Torah and
haftarah readings, psalms, prayers and
all five megilot. *