Teen Torah reader excels

Rebecca Bahar is the main Torah reader at Beth Radom Congregation.

TORONTO — Rebecca Bahar doesn’t exactly have your average part-time job.

That’s because the 17-year-old is a ba’alat korah.

Bahar became the main Torah reader at Beth Radom Congregation, her family’s synagogue, about a year and a half ago, when the job became available.

“A couple of years back, when our rabbi left the shul, we didn’t have anyone to read Torah,” said Cindy Joseph, who runs Beth Radom’s Hebrew school and is also Bahar’s aunt.

“Rebecca had learned for her bat mitzvah how to read Torah and had shown an affinity for it, so she tried it a couple of times.”

Bahar attended Associated Hebrew School until the end of Grade 8 and was confident in her abilities.

“I had a bat mitzvah when I was almost 14, and that’s when I learned the notes,” said Bahar, who’s now in Grade 12 at William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute. “When I was 12, I learned how to read Haftorah, too, and I’ve been teaching at the synagogue since Grade 9.

“I guess I have a knack for applying the tune, and I saw the symbols and could just register them and I knew the words.”

At first, her tenure was expected to be temporary. “It was sort of the idea of letting her help out until we had someone permanent,” Joseph said. “But when Rebecca showed she was really capable of doing it, we floated the idea of doing it on a more permanent basis.”

She may have been more nervous than her niece was. “I really was, because it’s a lot of pressure and you can’t make mistakes and everyone’s listening,” Joseph said. “I was worried people would be critical and not open to the idea of her being the reader.”

But the congregation, which is conservative and egalitarian, has welcomed Bahar with open arms. “They’re very supportive and very generous with compliments. They don’t treat me like a little kid, which is the big thing,” she said.

“They treat me like a professional, but in a warmer way,” added Bahar, who first stepped into the role when she was still just 15 years old. “I’ve grown up with these people, see them every week and I’m very close with them. It’s a very nice environment, and I’m not sure if I’d be able to do this in a different environment, because they’re so gracious here.”

She’s learning as she goes.

“Every few months I’d find that I would learn a new trick and it would help me so much,” added Bahar, who got the full-time role after a few successful consecutive weeks last year. “I’ve really cut down the time it takes me to learn [each parshah], so that has helped me ease the nerves.”

She still gets some butterflies, though.

“I always get nervous because it changes every [week],” Bahar said. “It’s performance. Everything is new, sometimes you’re dealing with a new audience, too, and every week is a new set and it needs to be learned accordingly.”

Her aunt praises Bahar’s ability to handle the stress. “It’s nerve-wracking for her and all people who have to read from the Torah,” said Joseph, whose on-bimah role is to correct the Torah reader.

“Usually, when she thinks she doesn’t have it down, it’s one or two mistakes,” Joseph said. “[But] she’s becoming quite the pro, and there are very few mistakes.”