Ethan chose AbilityPLUS to participate with and support during his preparatory journey to his Bar Mitzvah.
The AbilityPLUS staff and volunteers were very grateful for the opportunity to get to know Ethan and for his hardwork and generous donation.
Bar Mitzvah Speech
Welcome to my bar mitzvah and thank you for coming. I understand that it was a long and hard trip for a lot of
you to the north pole but we are extremely glad that you made it. I wanted to spend a couple of minutes
talking about my Torah portion and my bar mitzvah project.
My portion depicts Moses’s last speech as the Israelites are about to enter into Israel after wandering for forty years in the desert. The parshat or portion describes the consequences of bowing to false idles including the gods of money and selfishness regarding the world.
It tells that God would turn the land to fire and brimstone as well as making it unable to bare crops but
obeying gods laws leads to kindness for all people. Interestingly, this portion includes the fact that it wasn’t
only men at Moses’s speech it was also women and children. When I think about this it inspires me to include
everyone regardless of looks, gender, physical abilities, or social/cultural biases and Ability plus works to do
that every day.
Ability Plus is an organization that works to help people with mental and physical challenges
enjoy the outdoors of New Hampshire. For my bar mitzvah project I chose to raise money for AbilityPlus.
Through my efforts of hiking Mt. Washington I raised $1,175. When I summited on July 22, (2017) I climbed
with a team of individuals whose challenges include autism and recovery from a stroke. The experience
really showed me the power of a strong will and the benefits of inclusiveness.
Although there were differences between all of us I realized that by overcoming these differences and working together just as Moses did at the gates of Israel you can achieve great things. Thank you all for coming.
Ethan