Noah Stern

Confirmation Service

– Noah Stern, May 20, 2018

Confirmation is celebrated on Shavuot, a holy day representing the giving of the Ten Commandments. Moses was given the tablets but then ended up destroying them when he saw the people had built the Golden Calf. So he went up again and received new tablets.

The giving of the Ten Commandments is akin to the Bar and Bat Mitzvah service. It was our first time truly interacting with Judaism so intimately and it is fully possible, after that service, to metaphorically “destroy” what we were given by not continuing in Confirmation Academy to celebrate our Confirmation. This service is like Moses accepting the tablets a second time, but this time have the knowledge last forever. This is why it is so interesting and important that Confirmation is celebrated on Shavuot.