Saturday, February 7th, 2009, was a proud day for the Whitney family. After many months of hard work, Joshua received his Ner Tamid award, the religious emblem for Jewish Boy Scouts.
For several months, Congregation Brith Sholem's student rabbi, Ethan Bair, has worked closely with Joshua on the requirements for this award. As luck would have it, this weekend (Scout Shabbat) was the one weekend in February that Ethan was scheduled to visit our congregation. This was wonderful because that meant that Rabbi Ethan was able to make the presentation to Joshua personally.
To support Joshua, Tom Hogan (Joshua's Scoutmaster from Troop #1) drove down with his wife, Connie, to attend the service and presentation. Attending a synagogue service was a first time event for the Hogan family and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We are so happy that they were able to attend... it meant so much to us all that they were willing to make the drive from Logan and sit through a three hour Shabbat morning service.
Coincidentally, Tom Hogan received the "District Award of Merit" in Logan that same day at the Old Ephraim distict recognition dinner. I guess it is because Tom is the kind of Scout Master who is willing to spend 5 hours of his "day off" to support one of his scouts!
Here is Joshua's speech that he read to the congregation:
--- Ner Tamid Emblem Acceptance Speech---
Well, I have just received my Ner Tamid Emblem, but I’m sure a couple of you must be thinking, what is that? Well, it’s the religious emblem for Jewish Boy Scouts. The reason it is called the Ner Tamid Emblem, is that the actual Ner Tamid is the eternal light over the ark, and this award represents the eternal light of Jewish learning.
Working on this has been a good opportunity for me to learn more about Judaism. As I am working towards my Bar Mitzvah this summer, I found that much of the research has helped me prepare for my Bar Mitzvah.
To complete the requirements, I had to learn more about all aspects of leading a Jewish life. By studying the Torah, I found out about some early biblical history, and learning about the prayers helped me better understand what I’m saying when I attend synagogue.
By participating in group celebrations such as Sukkot, the Chanukah Party, and Simchat Torah with my congregation helps us all celebrate better as a community. We have more fun and we fulfill the commandments better.
At my synagogure, I have been attending Shabbat services at least twice a month. Once in December, I helped lead the service with my B’Nai Mitzvah class. This was not only good practice for our upcoming bar and bat mitzvahs, but also showed we have the ability to lead services and want to be involved in the synagogue. This is especially important here because we don’t have a full time rabbi, and so it’s up to the members to lead services the majority of the time.
Locally, I learned about many Jewish organizations that operate in Utah, such as: Hillel, Chabbad, the JCC, Jewish Family & Child Services, and the Jewish Federation (which helps support our religious school). These organizations help to strengthen our small Jewish community here in Utah.
As per many of the requirments, I learned about the geography of Israel, some of the founders of the modern state of Israel, such as: Theodore Hertzl, the Founder of Modern Political Zionism; Chaim Weizman, the first President of Israel; David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel; and Golda Meir, the first female Prime Minister of Israel; and important organizations that helped rebuild Israel, such as: the Jewish National Fund; Jewish Agency; and Histadrut. Without individuals and groups like these working together, Jews would probably still not have a homeland.
Overall, I would say that working on my Ner Tamid emblem was a great experience. I encourage other scouts within this congregation to work on their religious emblem also, because while doing it, I have become a more knowledgeable Jew, and a Jew who wishes to be involved in this synagogue.
Finally, here is a group shot of everyone that attended the Scout Shabbat service at Congregation Brith Sholem --- Saturday, February 7th, 2009.
From left to right: Jaques Behar, David Whitney, Gillian Whitney, Ridge Boyle, Max Boyle, Joshua Whitney, & Tom Hogan.
*Jacques Behar is a member of Congregation Brith Sholem and life-time Scouter. We were thrilled to have met him for the first time at this Scout Shabbat!
*Ridge & Max Boyle are members of Congregation Brith Sholem and scouts with Troop #4 & Pack #4 in Ogden.
* Tom Hogan is the Scoutmaster with Troop #1 in Logan.
