Marga's drash which she read and spoke from at her Bat Mitzvah:

Shalom, and thank you for coming to share this important day in my life.

My Torah portion, Bereshith, contains many illustrations of trust. Trust is knowing, sometimes thinking that you can believe what someone says, and them having the same feeling towards you. Sometimes the trust was kept, sometimes it was broken. Perhaps the first example of trust was how G-d trusted Adam and Eve to take care of the Garden of Eden.  

The Midrash teaches us that entire earth is the now the Garden.  In another example, G-d trusted Adam and Eve to obey the command, not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, warning that they would die if they did.  This indicates that the level of trust may not have been so strong, since it wasn’t just trust, it was trust that was enforced with possible punishment.

Eve trusted the snake, and ate from the tree, after the snake had persuaded her to do so.  This shows that sometimes we think we can trust people when we really can’t.  People we think of as friends can and unfortunately sometimes do betray us, even though we originally thought they wouldn’t, because that’s what friends AREN’T for, of course sometimes one person only assumes the trust.

After the snake deceived Eve, she coaxed Adam into eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, too.  We often believe that we can trust the people we love.  Most of the time we can, but as in every other aspect of life, we are sometimes wrong, and the trust is broken.  When G-d created the world, G-d said that everything was good, but when G-d created man and woman G-d didn’t say that they were good.  Was this supposed to mean that G-d was trusting us to develop and become a prosperous people?  Or that G-d wasn’t sure of what G-d wanted us to become?  People have many different opinions.  This is a question that remains answered, because unfortunately no one actually knows G-d, so we can’t find the answer.  After these examples of broken trust happened, G-d was in the Garden and called out to Adam and Eve, "IYEAKA," Where are you? Since they had eaten from the Tree, they knew they would be in trouble, and were trying to hide from G-d, so that Adonai wouldn’t recognize them (they became embarrassed about being naked).  When G-d realized what they had done, Adonai decided to punish them.  The major punishment was that they were banished from the Garden, and were not allowed back.  The punishment for men alone was to have to work the land, even though it was poor land, and hard to work.  Women were punished by having to go through extremely painful labor during childbirth.  The Snake’s punishment was having its legs taken away so it had to slither to get around.

These illustrations of trust are an illustration of the way Judaism teaches us to live moral and ethical lives.

Pretend that you and three of your closest friends went to on a hiking trip, and had only two bottles of water.  So, you’re stranded in the middle of a forest with little to no food, and have to share it with three other people.  Each person would have to trust the other three not to drink more than they were supposed to in order to have enough water until you get rescued.  Now, suppose you, or one of your friends does betray the trust and drinks more than allowed, therefore the trust is broken.  Your friends would no longer trust you, and they’d probably give you very little water from there on.  The consequences of taking more than your share, betraying the trust is someone going thirsty or even dying.  Try and imagine a world without trust.  There would be no friendship, and no peace would exist, there by making the world a very unhappy place to live.  I’m glad there is such a thing as trust, and hope everyone maintains it, so we all can make the most of life, and not have to worry about ruining friendships.

To get to this special time in my life, many people trusted me.  First and foremost are my parents.  Whenever I’ve had a question, or needed help with anything, you came and helped me.  

Mom you are a very special lady.  I feel honored to have you as my mother.  After all you’ve accomplished, I hope to be able to keep up with you once you’ve finished your Graduate Program.  I love you, and thank you for all those laughs we’ve had together.  

Dad, Abba, the coolest dad I know! You are always there to make sure I was doing my homework, and studying my Torah and Haftorah portions.  All those Saturday mornings you came into my room and woke me up so I could go to Temple with you have been some of the best days of my life.  Look where all those mornings have gotten me! I love you, and thank you for introducing me to Judaism.  You have no idea what an impact it’s had on my life! 

Both of you are the best parents I could ever want.

My brother Josh, hmmm what can I say?  I love you, even though I don’t say it often enough.  Even though we have had our little fights, I do appreciate all you’ve done for me.  You helped make me the strong-willed (sometimes-stubborn) person I am today.  When you come over nowadays, you even trust me with the remote control. THANK YOU!

Papa, wow, I don’t have the words to express how lucky I feel to have you as my grandpa.  Whether it was going to the mall, or Barnes and Noble, or anything else, you were always there, willing and ready to go.  Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, I love you a lot. 

Grandma & Grandpa Roberg, so much of our celebrating this weekend would have never happened without your party planning expertise.  I trusted you to help make everything come together, and you trusted me to be ready for this day, and made sure my parents were also ready!  I love you both tremendously and thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this happen. 

Grandma and Grandpa Stolar, whenever I come to visit you, I always feel at home.  We definitely don’t live close enough!  The many times we’ve come to visit you in Las Vegas have always been a blast.  I love you both a lot, and thank you for always being the best grandparents possible. 

This congregation has been something very special to me ever since I first walked through the door five years ago.  It provided me with not only a place to worship, but many friends, and now that I think about it, they all mean a lot to me.  I know I won’t be attending this congregation forever, but whenever I set foot in it, I will always feel welcome.  Thank you for being such a big part of my life.

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