And so the baton passes…..

A lovely and very meaningful part of the Barmitzvah and Batmitzvah ceremony is passing the Torah (scroll) through the generations. When the Torah is removed from the Ark, many communities invite the grandparents and parents of the child to the pulpit to physically hand the Torah from one generation to another, symbolizing the chain and continuity of the Jewish tradition within families. 

At the batmitzvah of our granddaughter and barmitzvah of our grandson, both sets of grandparents were present to hand the Torah from one to the other to the parents and to the young person. It was very moving.

There are other more mundane things that happen that make you realise that the responsibility for other things is also passing.  I have written before that my mother always made the chopped liver for our Jewish holidays.  She died a few months before Passover and the realisation that I would have to make it was not only a punch in the gut about how much I missed her but also a panic as there was no recipe. I managed, at least I knew what it should taste like and I make it every holiday.

This year I realised that the baton is passing further.  Our daughter made challah for their New Year in Switzerland as I did for ours. Traditionally it is not the usual long plaited loaf but is round.  Hers was so stunningly better than mine – no prizes for guessing which was which.

We went to our son and family to celebrate. He cut the apples and Number Two granddaughter drizzled the honey. We had a delicious roast chicken and trimmings and Number Two granddaughter, with a little help from Mum, made banana bread with chocolate chips  (the New Year is all about starting with sweetness so you can’t have too much of it.)

 

FaceTime isn’t the same as being together but the baton is passing – we are very blessed with our family.