Last Saturday afternoon, Audrey Shine celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at CSS. What made this particularly important not just to the Shine family, but to our entire CSS community, is that Audrey is the third generation of her family to become a Jewish adult in our community. Her father, Adam, had his Bar Mitzvah with our community, as did her grandfather Richard, who was the second Bar Mitzvah at what was then the Suburban Jewish Congregation.
As it was an afternoon Bat Mitzvah, the portion she read was the same one we will read this Shabbat. In her speech, Audrey spoke about the name of the portion Beha’alotcha, which means to lift up. The beginning of the portion describes the creation of the menorah, and the way the lights uplift the community. Audrey spoke about her parents, Adam and Catie, and the way they lift her up. Watching her entire family light up as she led the prayers and read from the Torah, I know Audrey helped lift them up as well.
With roots going back to the 1950s, Congregation Shir Shalom is still a relatively young community. Audrey’s great grandparents, Nathan and Evelyn Shine, were among the founders of Temple Beth Am, that means there have now been four generations of Shines in our community! What a milestone for them and for the entire community!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex