Keeping it in the family
Bar mitzvah boy honors grandfather with Haftorah choice
RANDI BAROCAS
Staff Writer
Lenny Teplitsky
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The fact that Lenny Teplitsky never met his paternal grandfather won't stop the 12-year-old Scottsdale youth from paying tribute to him at his bar mitzvah, set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 8, at Beth El Congregation.
Lenny, who is named after his late grandfather, Leonard Henry Teplitsky, will read the same Haftorah portion his grandfather read at his bar mitzvah 56 years ago in Philadelphia - Amos 9:7-15. (In the closing lines of the Book of Amos, God promises to restore Israel "never more to be uprooted.")
"It was kind-of my idea (that Lenny do this)," says Perry Teplitsky, Lenny's father, "just as a way that (he) could pay tribute to his grandfather."
The plan has been two years in the making, as Perry Teplitsky had no formal record of his father's actual bar mitzvah date, synagogue location, what Haftorah portion (passage from the Bible not in the Torah) he had read, or whether he read directly from the Torah. He had to do some research to uncover the basic facts, he says.
With no remaining family members old enough to recall the details of the event, and his father's former synagogue long demolished, Perry was dependent on fragmented synagogue records that had been turned over to various historical societies in the Philadelphia area. The bulk of his research, he says, was conducted two years ago when he was back East visiting friends and family.
"Through some Jewish historical societies in Philadelphia, I was able to determine the Hebrew date of my father's bar mitzvah, but not the English date," Teplitsky says. "So we worked it backwards with the help of my rabbi here in Phoenix - Rabbi Rick Sherwin at Beth El - to determine what would be the same Haftorah portion my father read 56 years ago."
The idea to parallel some aspects of his grandfather's bar mitzvah with his own went over well with Lenny, who decided to take it a step further. In addition to reading the same Haftorah portion, Lenny and his father will wear the same ties that his father and grandfather wore at his father's bar mitzvah.
"When I was bar-mitzvahed, my father had two ties made - one adult and one child. At that time it was pretty corny," Perry Teplitsky says, "but nevertheless, it was something my father wanted to do. My mother (still) has those ties, and my son and I will be wearing them at his bar mitzvah."
Such connections to his grandfather are important to Lenny, he says.
"I never met my grandfather, and it's just special because I'll be wearing the tie that my dad wore, and my dad will be wearing the tie that his dad wore," says the seventh-grade Cocopah Middle School student. "I'm going to have my grandfather's tallit (prayer shawl) that he wore at his bar mitzvah (on the synagogue platform) during (my) service, too."
Although Perry Teplitsky was unable to learn whether his father read from the Torah during his bar mitzvah, Lenny also will read the Kedoshim portion from Leviticus.
Lenny's bar mitzvah also will hold special meaning for his mother, Susi Teplitsky, who has been studying for her own adult b'nai mitzvah later this month. She and Lenny have been going over their blessings and different Haftorah portions together, she says, each benefiting from a listening ear.
Susi Teplitsky said pursuit of her own b'nai mitzvah was partly inspired by her desire to impress the importance of a Jewish education upon her son.
"I think (my b'nai mitzvah preparation) shows him what being Jewish means to me as his parent - that I wasn't just sending him to school to learn," she says. "It's been fun. I get to do all the things he did, and I think that he admires that."
Rabbi Sherwin, who will officiate at Lenny's bar mitzvah, says all the familial ties in the ceremony are the Teplitskys' way of creating special memories.
"I think any time people find new ways to create memories - to continue old ones and create new ones - it is most meaningful," Sherwin says. "I think that when Lenny has a child of his own, he will be able to say, 'This is something that made my bar mitzvah special, and I will do whatever (I have to) to make your bar mitzvah equally as special.' "
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