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The Day the Bat Mitzvah Marched with the Torah

9 October 2013

By Rabbi Ralph P. Kingsley, October 2013

One of the memorable moments of my thirty-one year rabbinate at Temple Sinai of North Dade was the day that a Bat Mitzvah carried the Torah during the Hakafah on Shabbat morning for the first time. Not only was her face aglow, but so were the faces of the other young women who were at services that day. They understood that a new custom had been established and that they too would be permitted to carry the Torah from that day on. And so it has been. Today no one thinks twice about it. One wonders why anyone ever did. It is so natural and so wonderful.

 

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