To the “Shita” Bar Mitzvah group, who are entering an alliance with the movement:

 

Shita, Shita – how shall we bless you?

May you be strong on reaching this age!

May your name be as good as the name of your home

Lift the burden with honour and with love

And to the children…

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Choir:

The Sabbath fell on the Genosar Valley

It gave the true Torah to its people…

Here is the commandment

Reading the notes:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. [Deuteronomy, 30]

 

The Shita group has reached the great time of the age of Bar Mitzvah in which they are witnesses to the realization of the ancient scriptures that promise the Land of Israel to the people of Israel:

To Abraham in Haran:  The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (Genesis, 12:1-2)

 

And it was further said to Abraham:  “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you”, [Genesis: 13]

 

To Isaac:  “Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.  I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, {Genesis, 26]

 

And to Jacob: Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring [Genesis, 28]

 

To Joseph: I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.[Genesis, 48]

 

To the people in the desert: For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;  a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;  a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. [Deuteronomy 8]

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Choir and public:

And it shall come to pass on that day that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

 

The children shall say:

The name of our group is Shita (acacia tree) – like the name of Beit Hashita

About the Acacia tree that was in Israel in days of yore, the bible and the sources tell us so.

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A child reads: About the growth of the Acacia in Israel the names of places testify: Beit Hashita, which is mentioned in the stories of  Gideon, Shittim in the past – the Jordan opposite Galgal, the Shitim River is the Kidron River close to Jerusalem.

A child reads: “"For the framework of the Tabernacle, construct frames of acacia wood. [Exodus, 26:15].

 

A mother reads: This is what is written in Midrash Exodus: Why Acacia trees? The Holy One Blessed be He taught us respect through the generations. If a man wishes to build his home from a fruit bearing tree what would the King of Kings do, He said build another house: only use a tree that is not fruit bearing. {Exodus Rabbah]

 

A mother reads: In the legends of the destruction it was told that it was customary in Jerusalem: “When a son is born plant a cedar tree, and when a daughter is born plant an acacia tree – and when they marry make a bridal canopy from them. {Gittin Tractate].

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A mother reads: I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, [Isaiah, 41:19]

Choir: : I will put in the desert the cedar….

Girls singing:

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How bustling is the heart for girls of purity

The innocence will not return

However today we are closer to a radiant future

An awning of peace shall be spread and no more.

(Y. Sharet]
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You have planted melodies in me my mother and father

Forgotten melodies, songs

Seeds, seeds carried them to weeping –

Now they are rising and growing

Now they are sending branches of my blood

Their roots are integrated in my arteries

Your melodies my father and your songs, my mother

Are knocking on my youth and returning

Fania Bergstein/D. Zahavi

 

Children singing:

Here we have a melody

Please don’t be embarrassed

Let’s sing and let’s remember

The days of the past

Because we will still sing it

Our brothers and our sisters

When they were still children

Choir and public:

Here, this is a melody of happiness

And joy, and rejoice together

This is the way, this is the melody of happiness

Let’s rejoice

{Folk song)

 

Singing together:

Let’s see the sons, sons and the sons of the sons

Learning Torah and working

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Blessing by a grandfather or parent: blessing of the school and distribution of bibles, blessing by brothers and sisters

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Refreshments

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Recorder playing

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“What will I be when I grow up” / a game and dance in three pictures

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Final song