NOTE: This speech was written entirely by 12 year old William Sheiner for the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah.  It is posted here as it was delivered.

When you were young, and your parents asked you to do your homework or chores, did you ever try to get out of it?  Make excuses to not do it?  Even talk back your parents about doing it?  I know I do all those things.  Go on, raise your hand.  Yep, that’s what I thought.  It’s somewhat of a Jewish tradition.  In today’s parsha, we see this behavior go all the way back to Moses.  Moses did all of those things to G-d when he was asked to lead the Jews out of Egypt.  But we know Moses to be the wonderful prophet who did lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

When G-d asks Moses to lead the Israelites, Moses gives G-d five excuses to try to get out of leading the Jews out of Egypt.  First Moses askes G-d, “Who am I to lead these people?”  Second, Moses says, “What if the Israelites ask your name, oh Lord?”  Third, Moses asks, “How shall I prove to them I spoke with you, oh Lord?”  Fourth, Moses says, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.  How shall I speak to the Israelites?”  Finally, Moses begs to G-d, “Send someone else, please send someone else.”

For all of these excuses, G-d has answers.  He tells Moses that everything will be alright, that G-d will be with him.  He gives Moses a name to call him by.  G-d gives Moses three miracles that he can do to prove to the Israelites that he spoke with G-d.  And G-d sends Aaron, Moses’ brother, who is a really good talker, to speak for him.  G-d provided Moses with more than enough support.  But Moses still begs for G-d to find someone else.  When G-d loses his patience, he gets furious.  After experiencing G-d’s rage, Moses finally gives in and accepts the responsibilities.

Why did Moses, our great leader, act this way?  Some rabbis think that Moses was too nice of a guy.  That he did not want to hurt Aaron’s feelings because Aaron was the older brother and should have had the privilege of becoming the leader of the Israelites.  The Talmud says that Moses was truly humble.  Moses might have felt that he wasn’t good enough to do the task.  Rabbi Shadal says that Moses thought that he was too old to get the job done.  Rabbi Nehori says that Moses thought that he couldn’t accomplish the task because he thought it to be impossible and that Moses was lacking confidence in G-d.

Elie Wiesel says that Moses tried to get out of the job because he was angry at the Israelites.  He didn’t want to help them because they didn’t appreciate what he did when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster.  Daniel Silver thinks that Moses could have actually wanted to do the job.  But he says Moses acted humbly because that could have been common behavior in the Middle East at that time when offered an honor.

My opinion is that Moses was nervous about taking this task because he did not know how to begin to convince Pharaoh to let the Jews go.  It just wasn’t typical behavior to go up to the most powerful man in the world and request of him to just let his slaves go.  Similarly, it is not typical behavior for a teenage boy to just get up and write a speech.  It’s more common to find us in our basements playing guitar hero or Lego star wars or other video games.

This relates to what T. Harv Eker calls in his book, The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, our comfort zone.  Our comfort zone is an area of activity that we feel comfortable doing.  Moses was not comfortable taking on new responsibilities such as the task of leading the Jews out of Egypt.  But when he finally got around to leading the Israelites out of Egypt, it eventually worked its way into his comfort zone and his comfort zone grew.  The lesson here is that in order to accomplish things, you have to say what Abraham said and what Moses said: hineni, here I am, and say, “I accept this responsibility and will start working on it.”  If you do this, nothing can stop you and you can accomplish really great things.

When I read about Moses making excuses to G-d about the task of leading the Jews out of Egypt, it reminded me of,….well,… me, when I was in 5^th grade.  In 5^th grade, I had to do a science fair project and I did NOT want to do it.  I argued and complained and begged and got absolutely nowhere.  Just like Moses, I tried everything I could to get out of doing my task.  So, I started the project.  It took me a long time, about a month, to finish it and I turned it in feeling pretty doubtful about doing well.

But I ended up with a 100 and second place in the school, which shows how gracious the universe can be if you face your fears, step out of your comfort zone and do the work.

I used to be terrified of heights.  So much so that I didn’t want to go on a roller coaster.  I did and I didn’t like the heights, but the ride was great.  So, I went on another and another, and now I’m still a little scared of heights, but I’ve tamed the fear and can enjoy the thrill of being up high.  Sometime after that I went with my Boy Scout troop on a rappelling camping trip.  I rappelled everywhere from 30 feet to 70 feet on that trip.  I had tamed my fear once again.

Almost every time you do something new, you feel uncomfortable.  But as you continue that action you get more and more comfortable and your comfort zone grows making you a bigger and better person.  But you can only grow when you’re uncomfortable.  So when you are uncomfortable, pat yourself on the back and say “I must be growing” and continue with that activity.

Being comfortable feels nice, but you won’t get anywhere.  You must be uncomfortable in order to grow.  Moses was uncomfortable with leading the Jews; I was uncomfortable with writing this speech.  Moses grew into a great leader and prophet; I’m growing into a Jewish man.  We both accepted being uncomfortable and did the right thing.  So, the next time you’re feeling uncomfortable about doing something, accept that feeling and do the right thing. You’ll probably grow.