I met Noam last year at the first group Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony for children from Beit Uri, a residential school for children with moderate to severe developmental disabilities. He was a beautiful looking child, who sat in the front row, restrained by two female caretakers. Later it became apparent why he was restrained. When Noam was excited he kicked out, or tried to hit.

The same day I met his mother Jeanette, who was taking photographs. She was such a delightful person that we formed an immediate connection in the way people do who work for the same causes and are moved by the same images.

When we met at her lovely home in a valley near Jerusalem, she gave me the photographs and said, "There is no way you can do a Bar Mitzvah for Noam." It was sort of a challenge, and I like a challenge and she knew it! I looked at Jeanette and didn't promise anything but said, "If anyone can teach Noam for his Bar Mitzvah, Gary can. We will try."

Gary Kayman, one of twenty teachers on the "Bar/Bat Mitzvah for the Special Child" program, began to go to Noam's school on a weekly basis. He started by handing out yarmulkes, and then tallitot. He slowly encouraged students to wear both, and then to stand up and kiss the Torah. This takes weeks of practice. Then he taught the children two picture symbols, one for God, and one for Torah.

Gary reported that Noam loved the synagogue symbols; he liked to wear a tallit and to kiss the Torah. He was more connected than some of the six other children who would be called up to the Torah in a group ceremony. That way, no one is in the hot seat alone.

Fast forward a year. I arrived in Nazareth Elite and see Jeanette and her husband Arthur, walking hand in hand with Noam, who is now 17-years-old. The two of them hold their son's hands, because he gets so excited to see them that he can rip the jewelry of his mother's neck. From the outside, it looks like a pastoral scene.

It takes a whole created community

There are many people involved in creating the possibility of a real Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony for children who cannot necessarily speak and who face behavioral challenges. The Masorti synagogue in Nazareth Elite welcomed this group with great joy. The local synagogue artist painted bright, wild scenes of Jerusalem and Torah. Christina Muso, the energetic synagogue president is also a special education teacher. She came to every rehearsal, personally got to know the Bnei Mitzvah. She welcomed all guests and read Torah, while holding the hands of each child.

One cannot say enough positive things about Noam's school, Beit Uri. Yossi, the principal, played the flute, blessed the group of parents, and held the hands of his charges. Zeev, the coordinator of extra curricular activities, who was in charge of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, and the classroom teachers, put a great deal into rehearsals, practice, learning and into making this a joyful event.

Gary, together with the school, had prepared Torah scrolls with each child's personal blessing written in picture symbols inside. So each child held his/her personal Torah and pointed to a personal blessing, as it was read out.

The Torah was taken out of the ark. It was handed from a graduate of last year's program to Noam. Noam held the Torah and kissed it. He kept his yarmulke on, and his tallit, and his tefillin, and he stood there before the ark, flanked by Rabbi Zvi Berger and Christina, but holding the red velvet Torah by himself.

Then he was called up to the Torah by Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement, who led the service with great sensitivity. Noam was so excited that he spat and tried to hit out. Gary gently took his arm, as his class teacher Ida held the other arm. Noam used a voice output communication device to say the blessings before and after the Torah reading. Jeanette held Noam's younger brother on her lap, with tears in her eyes, but with a great sense of something spiritual which was most pronounced. She smiled.

Noam's personal blessing was "Blessed are you, Lord our God, Master of the Universe, who gave me a mother and father who love me."

The second commandment is: Do not make a graven image (of God.) In our siddur, and in class, we use a picture- symbol of God, a cloud with rays of light and the number "1" etched on it.

Never was the presence of the Divine felt more clearly as the moments when Noam was embraced by Judaism on this special day in his life.

This group Bar Mitzvah is one of twenty-one such ceremonies this spring all over Israel. Each is tailored exactly to the needs of the participants. Last week we had one in a banquet hall, a normative Israeli experience, and one by a stream in nature, with ten children in wheelchairs who were brought down a steep cliff!