Gabriel Isobell - Dvar Torah

Shabbat shalom everybody and thank you to my family,friends and everyone else who came here today to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah today.

My portion is called Parashat BO and it can be found near the beginning in the book of Exodus. It is about the last 3 of the ten plagues, G-d hardening Pharaoh's heart, Moses and Aaron negotiating with Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and Moses and Aaron not giving up when they were dealing with Pharaoh and his hardened heart. 

Probably the thing i am most impressed about, is the way Moses negotiated with Pharaoh, even when G-d hardened Pharaoh's heart which made it extremely difficult for Moses to try and free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but  finally after the tenth plague, the death of the first born, Pharoah let the israelites go, the thing that  i admired the most was Moses perseverance and  the way  he did not give up even after many failed attempts to negotiate with pharaoh.

This reminds me of the many times in my life that I have persevered for something important.My favourite example of this is the derby between sunningdale primary and milnerton primary that we do every year at our school, for the last few years we have lost but after perseverance we finally won in 2024 just like moses and aaron persevered and the Israelites were finally able to leave  Egypt after 430 years of slavery.  

I admire Moses for being a good leader because he did not give up on the Israelites. This reminds me of Nelson Mandela who fought for democracy and finally was able to banish apartheid in 1994. Looking at Moses negotiating skills i would say i am very much like Moses, when im negotiating. When negotiating you need to know what you are talking about, you need to have courage and perseverance,and belief that what you are negotiating about is true , Sometimes I feel like I have to channel my inner Moses - like during break time my friends and I (looking at friends) are  always negotiating with our lunch  .Another thing when negotiating you must be reasonable because trade a apple for a kitkat cause its just not fair.

The final words of my Maftir הֽוֹצִיאָ֥נוּ יְהֹוָ֖ה מִמִּצְרָֽיִם:  reminds us of how G-d brought the Israelites  out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remembering is a big part in jewish holidays because on many holidays we remember all the things that our ancestors did. Remembering doesn't have to  just be remembering the work that you had to study, it can be remembering memories as well , one of my favourite memories is my grannies birthday, every year on her birthday we would get cupcakes from the same bakery every year we still do it even after she had passed away.

On my Bar Mitzvah I am inspired by these many themes that have come out of my torah portion such as Moses' courage, perseverance, his negotiating skills and him not wanting to give up for the Israelites; these are some of the many qualities that Moses had. I hope to carry this quality throughout my life just like Moses did. Shabbat shalom everyone and once again thank you everybody for coming.