Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class

by Maura Lerner Fisher

You wouldn’t think it would be easy for someone who grew up in a Protestant home to teach other adults how to chant Hebrew from the Torah. But for Cantor Tamar Havilio, it’s the most natural thing in the world.

As a convert to Judaism herself, she has a special reverence for the Hebrew language, which she started learning in her 20s. And that’s one of the reasons she decided to create the Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class, a new class at Bet Shalom just for adults who want to prepare for a bar or bat mitzvah of their own.

The class began in September and is designed for members who never had the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony as youngsters. Instead of one-on-one coaching, these students share the entire experience as a group — learning to read Hebrew, mastering the tropes for chanting Torah, and, eventually, sharing the bimah in a joint b’nai mitzvah ceremony.

To Cantor Havilio, learning to chant Hebrew is a skill that most people can master at any age. But it’s also much more than that. “I really do believe that’s something magical,” she said. “I think that the Jewish spirit lives in the letters.” That applies equally, she says, to “born Jews” who never learned Hebrew growing up and to those who embraced Judaism as adults.

In her own case, the Cantor says, learning Hebrew was surprisingly easy. She decided to convert while still in college, and eventually she was an ordained cantor teaching other adults — including rabbinical students — how to chant from the Torah.

One of her most moving experiences was in Israel, when she found herself teaching the tropes to two women who had survived the Holocaust. “It was very emotional,” she said.

When asked why she thinks it’s so important to learn this ancient ritual, she began singing a 19th-century Yiddish song, Oyfn Pripetchik (“On the Hearth”), about teaching children the alphabet. “It has this whole verse about when you’re old, you’re going to find strength in the letters,” she said. “There’s so much history, there’s so much of what we are as Jews, in the letters.”

Although the first class is already underway, she said newcomers are welcome to join. “The emphasis,” she said, “is on creating a space for people to learn Hebrew, learn about their Judaism… and kind of be nurtured further in their Jewish journey.” If you’re interested in joining the class, contact Suzy Lurie at suzy.lurie@betshalom.org or Cantor Havilio at cantor.havilio@betshalom.org.