Dear family and friends,

The Torah portion I have read today is named ‘Vayera’. It tells us three stories. The first one of them tells us about the messengers of G-d telling Abraham and Sara that Sara will give birth to a child in a year time. The second story tells us about the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and about the difficulty of finding righteous people in an evil time. The third, tells us about the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Out of these three, there are two stories that really teach a valuable lesson in life.

The first story is the destruction of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is very hard to imagining that the lives of ten righteous people could save a whole city. The moral of this story is the importance of being a good person. The second story is the sacrifice of Isaac. Although Abraham did not kill his son, Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac for what he believes in. There are a lot of points of view in this story. There is the traditional interpretation that god tested Abraham to see how far he would go for his believes. But I just believe that if you believe too much in anything, it can turn against you.

Changing subject, I would like to talk about a very important subject: A Bar-Mitzvah. A Bar-Mitzvah is not only a ceremony indicating a boy’s thirteenth birthday, but it is also a right of passage, a right of passage from childhood to manhood in the Jewish faith. Ever since we got the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the Jewish traditions were meant to carry on throughout the generations. And today, I am standing here, after reading my Torah portion and interpreting it, I am very proud to become part of the Jewish congregation. Just as the ten commandments weren’t meant just for the generations standing at Mount Sinai, but for all of the generations to come as well, just as I will pass the Jewish traditions on to the next generation to come.

I would like to thank deeply all of the people who helped me prepare for this ceremony by helping my study my “Alya Latorah”, those who encourage me to try my hardest and do my best, those who helped in putting this whole event together. So, Dad, Mom, family members and Rabbi M. Thank you all. I’d like to take the chance to thank the Cantor Martin on teaching me reading my Torah portion as well as lot of things about life and and also, for being such a wonderful and enchanting person. Thank You!

Last but not least, thank you all of you for coming to the event itself making it all more special for me.

Thank you for coming and have a nice day.