Terumah

This will forever forward be a special parsha for me.  I read the first aliyah at Mincha this past Shabbat. This was a terrifying, yet very awe-inspiring moment.  I know several of my friends feel that it is inappropriate for women to participate in services.  I disagree.

This past April, a good friend of mine asked me to read at the Bar Mitzvah of her oldest.  I had to decline due to a lack of skill.  It was sad not to be able to share in the joy and specialness of the day like that.  I made a promise to myself never to be in that position again. 

Studying parsha is good and interesting.  Listening to being read on Shabbos morning is special. But actually being up there reading it myself from the sacred parchment was so much more spiritual. To me it marked a change in my relationship to HaShem in a similar manner as becoming Bat Mitzvah did.