I love to look at one particular picture from my son’s Bar Mitzvah which was over 20 years ago! During one point of the service Rabbi David and I sang to him. The picture is of my son looking up at me as I sang.

But the picture wasn’t taken by a photographer. This was a conservative shul and pictures were never allowed on Shabbat! That meant we couldn’t even take pictures before or after the service!   

So you are probably wondering how I have that picture! Did someone take it secretly? Well the picture was actually taken by my heart and put in my memory. And still to this day, each time I see that picture, my heart brings me back to that most precious moment!

In Congregation Shirat Shalom we also have the same rule about not taking pictures during the ceremony. You would think that being so alternative (we were even nicknamed the Rebel Temple when we first began!)  that it would be fine to take pictures during a Bar or Bat Mitzvah service. After all we allow them before the ceremony.

Well believe me, we have tried at various points throughout the years and even recently to allow pictures. And each time it has affected the energy in the room making it more difficult for us to create and maintain a sanctuary.

We all have had that experience of entering a regular synagogue or church sanctuary and feeling the quietness, the sacredness there. When a room is used time and time again for sacred ceremony, the Divine Energy builds up and is always present. Since we don’t have our own building we have to create that same feeling in a regular room. And yes, some places are more difficult than others. Before the service Rabbi David and I not only spiritually prepare ourselves to be channels of this Divine Energy but also energetically prepare the room as well. That sacred space then needs to be maintained throughout the service. 

When a child becomes a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, a new aspect of his or her soul is brought “online” and yes there is truly a shift in the child. There is also much Healing and Love from G-d that penetrates the hearts of each person in attendance. It is up to each individual how that is accepted. As servants and instruments of G-d, Rabbi David and I take the responsibility of creating an environment that allows this to happen very seriously!

During this past year there were two separate occasions where the photographer was quite upset with our policy of no pictures during the service.  After all, other rabbis allow it… We only have the utmost respect for other rabbis. How wonderful allowing pictures works for them!  But it doesn’t work for us. End of Discussion. Period.

Quite honestly we don’t understand ourselves why taking pictures with a camera even without a flash affects the sanctity of a service but a stationary video camera does not. So yes, we allow a video camera that remains stationary in the back of the room during the service. 

So until such time where our policy may change (as we are always open to all possibilities) pictures of the ceremony will just have to be taken by the Heart Camera.

But perhaps this is what G-d really wants. For each time those pictures are revisited, the Love of that moment is brought back into our world! 

And it  seems to me in today's world, we need as much Love as we can get!