Rabbi Maurice Michaels of Bournemouth Reform Synagogue is marking the 70th anniversary of his bar mitzvah by celebrating a second bar mitzvah at the age of 83.
This Shabbat, friends, family and members of the synagogue will be invited to join Rabbi Michaels as he commemorates this second coming-of-age ceremony at the shul where he now presides.
According to Psalm 90, a person’s normal lifespan is 70 years old, so reaching age 83 is akin to turning 13 in a new life – and becoming a bar mitzvah for a second time. While Rabbi Michaels noted that it was not very common to mark the occasion by celebrating, he said he was not one to miss out on such an opportunity.
“It is very, very special, because it’s a generational thing – you can feel the continuity that goes from one generation through to the next and the next. It’s part of what Judaism is about,” Rabbi Michaels said.
In keeping with the theme of intergenerational continuity, Rabbi Michaels noted that the guests at this second bar mitzvah would be “very different” from the first time around. “Instead of my parents and grandparents, now it’ll be my children and my grandchildren.”
Brought up orthodox, Rabbi Michaels said he and his family had always been actively involved in the Jewish community. His father was the president of East London Synagogue, which merged with Hackney Synagogue in 1993, and his mother was chair of the Ladies’ Guild.
A young Rabbi Maurice Michaels during his bar mitzvah in 1954.
Recalling his 1954 bar mitzvah at the East London Synagogue, Rabbi Michaels said he had woken up “totally and completely without a voice” the day before.
“My mother called up our local GP, who said: ‘It’s nerves, don't worry – tomorrow he’ll be fine.’ I had prepared the full Sidrah, and I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth on that day. But the following day, I croaked my way through, which was sad because I actually sang in the shul choir as a boy soprano. But I've been making up for it ever since.”
When Rabbi Michaels joined the reform movement in his 20s, he became heavily involved, firstly as chair of Oaks Lane Reform Synagogue in Essex before becoming a rabbi in 1996 and also teaching at Leo Baeck College.
As for his upcoming second go, he is especially grateful to be able to celebrate it at Bournemouth Reform, where he has presided for nearly a decade. “I feel very blessed to still have the energy and enthusiasm to be working for the community,” he said, adding that he would involve members of the synagogue in the bar mitzvah service.
The date of the celebration would be especially profound for his family, said Rabbi Michaels. “It is the date on which my grandson and his wife are due to have a baby, and we will become, for the first time, great-grandparents. I can’t think of a better way of celebrating.”
