Recommend a bat mitzvah reading?

[oldangelmidnight]

Can anyone recommend any LC passages or lyrics to read at a bat mitzvah?
My daughter is going to have a bat mitzvah ceremony soon and I’m looking for a way to participate. I’m not any kind of believer so I would feel disingenuous reciting a prayer. I wonder if y’all know anything secular but appropriate to the occasion.

[LisaLCFan]

Wouldn't it be better to choose something that has meaning for you, rather than something recommended by a total stranger? Is your daughter into Leonard Cohen? Are you? Why Leonard Cohen? (I am not sure that much of what he wrote is really appropriate or applicable to a 12-year-old girl!). If you really want a Leonard Cohen lyric or poem, Google is your friend, but I would be more inclined to search for "Secular Poems for Bat Mitzvah" and see what you get. Good luck!

[lizzytysh]

Hi oldangelmidnight (that's an interesting name that you've given yourself) ~ Welcome to the Forum!!

If you're able to introduce what you're about to read, so as to contextualize it, I have a suggestion that I'd certainly feel comfortable with reading for this ceremony for a 12-year-old girl. It's short, yet memorable, and it's one that can serve her well as she goes and grows through her teenage years, as well as throughout her life as an adult. You can personalize it for her to fit the situation and her life best. It can provide her with hope, encouragement, strength, and perspective during trying times and disappointments, as it has for many of us. It's a lyric that will hold up forever for her.

(It's also short enough and the words themselves beautiful enough that you could have them engraved or inscribed on something as a meaningful memento for her to keep and display and see when most needed.)

The lyric is:

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"

All the best to you.

~ Lizzie