Celebration!
Odd, though, for it is about
Taking on a burden.
Responsibility.
Doing what is right.
The party obscures, but the undertaking
Is somber.
Sobering.
Yet one celebrates.
Kristofferson wrote/Joplin sung:
“Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”
On Broadway, Charlemagne’s son comes to see the world differently:
“And if I’m never tied to anything, I’ll never be free.”
Here is a secret:
Doing things because one must is a higher value
Than doing the same thing out of desire.
It is easy to do
What one wants,
Harder to fulfill an obligation.
He has grown, he is ready, we rejoice in pride.
Rabbi Elazar ben Simeon said:
“A man must see to the needs of his
Son until he is 13. From there onward, he must say: ‘Blessed is
He who released me from the responsibility for this one.’”
Yet we will never feel released.
We will never feel separate.
We are bound together.
We once dreamed he would do great things and perhaps he shall.
With age comes wisdom,
And we care less now about great things.
We care about goodness.
So it is written:
May your heart conceive with understanding,
May your mouth speak wisdom and your tongue be
Stirred with sounds of joy.
May your gaze be straight and sure, your eyes be
Lit with Torah’s lamp, your face aglow with
Heaven’s radiance, your lips expressing words
Of knowledge, and your inner self alive
With righteousness.
And as you struggle to find the right path
May you always remember wherever you go,
No matter how distant or how near,
The path is illuminated with love.
L’Chaim