Before I begin my Dvar Torah I would like to thank Mr. Ephraim Bassan for tutoring me these past few weeks.

I’d like to thank my father for preparing me for my Bar Mitzvah and for all his patience with me.

I’d like to thank my mother for preparing this great seudah. You and your friends worked really hard and I really appreciate it.

Even though she is in Florida and won’t get this tape for a couple of days, I want to thank my Grandma Rita for giving me a great father.

There are three other people, who are even further away than Florida, but won’t have to wait for any tapes, because I know that you’re watching and listening today. Thank you Grandpa Sandy, Grandpa Al, and Grandma Elaine, for giving me such a great family. I hope I can make you all proud of me.

and I’d like to thank JEC and all my rebbeim and teachers for providing me with a good education that got me where I am today.

Of course, I have to thank Hashem for giving me such a great family and community.

And especially, Elly and Ariella - thanks for being the greatest brother and sister I could ever hope to have. Okay Ima, I said it. Give me the money!

Yesterday, in the Torah, we read about spies. In the movies, a spy is an action-packed adventurer, but in real life, he is a detective who works for his country by finding out information about other countries. Before the B’nay Yisrael entered Eretz Yisrael, Moshe sent spies to check out the land, and to come back and tell everyone what kind of place Eretz Yisrael was.

So they went, and they looked. And they saw a place that was very special and very holy. A place where everyone can grow to be as great as they can possibly be. Even the land and the fruit become great and wonderful.

They came back from Eretz Yisrael. They told everyone how wonderful Eretz Yisrael is, and they even showed them. "Look! We brought back this bunch of grapes!" Each grape weighed almost two pounds. It took eight men to carry just one bunch! And they said, "The people are big also! They are like giants."

But then, the spies told the people: "We saw giants there! We felt in our own eyes like grasshoppers compared to them. And that is how they looked at us, too." Some rabbis in the Gemara say that the spies actually overheard the giants mention that they saw human grasshoppers.

That was a big mistake! They made everyone afraid that the giants would kill them. They said that HaShem, who took them out of Egypt, would not be able to help us defeat the giants in the land of Eretz Yisrael. How could the people believe such crazy Lashon Hara?

The facts they told were true facts. The holiness of Eretz Yisrael does create giants. But it could have made the Jews into giants also! Their terrible sin was thinking of themselves as grasshoppers.

Maybe we can understand the story of the Israel Giants a little better, by listening to a story about one of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Until about fifty years ago, there were no blacks on any major league team in sports. In 1947, Jackie Robinson was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers as the very first black Major League Baseball player.

It was not easy for him. Many racist people attacked him physically, and even more people said bad things to him, and about him. Despite it all, he was careful to continue playing the best baseball he could, and became one of the greatest players of all time.

What kept him going was his attitude. He felt that he was no different than any other baseball player. On the day of his first official game with the Dodgers, his wife was excited to watch him play. Before he left for the stadium he gave her some advice: He told her, "There are going to be a lot of baseball players out there on the field. You'll have no trouble figuring out which one is me. ... I'll be wearing number 42."

The spies said, "We felt like grasshoppers, and that is exactly how they looked at us." The Torah is telling us that if you feel like a grasshopper, that is how others will see you.

If the spies would’ve had the confidence of victory, and strong faith in HaShem, then they would have seen themselves as excellent soldiers, and as Hashem’s chosen people, who could defeat any giant. But when they lost faith, they felt like bugs, and so they looked like bugs.

If we look at ourselves with pride and ability, then we are giants, too! But if we see ourselves as timid worms, then we hear our enemies calling us insects. Hashem didn’t just give us eyes to see the way things are, but He gave us vision to see the way things can become. You can't have the eyes of a giant when you have the vision of an insect.

Today is a very special day for me because I have many more responsibilities, like doing mitzvos and not doing averos. Everyone can count me in a mezuman and a minyan and as a grown up.

If I look at myself as a grownup by doing mitzvos and by going to minyan, then people will look at me as a grownup. Just like Jackie Robinson, who saw himself as a great ball player instead of as a black ball player. He had confidence in himself and played the best he could, and so everyone else saw him that way too, and he became one of the best baseball players in the world.

BUT, if, Chas V’shalom, instead of acting like a mature grownup, I see myself like a little kid and I continue to act like a little kid, then I will be like the spies. The spies saw that Eretz Yisrael was a wonderful and powerful place, strong enough to make the Jews into giants. But they knew that Eretz Yisrael would demand many difficult mitzvos, and they were afraid that they would not live up to those demands.

Today I am a Bar Mitzva.

If I look at it like the spies did, then I would not want to become a Bar Mitzva, because of the big responsibility and I’d be scared of it. But they were wrong, and I am not going to repeat the mistake they made. They thought of themselves as grasshoppers who would not be able to do those mitzvos. Me, I think of myself as grownup now, and if I do all the mitzvos and act like I grown up, I can be a giant too.

Thank you all for coming and sharing in my simcha.