This video presents two Bat Mitzvah girls performing “L’Dor Vador” (From Generation to Generation), a song composed by Josh Nelson as part of the “passing the Torah scroll” ceremony, in which the Torah is symbolically passed from the grandparents to the parents to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrant. The lyrics, shared below, emphasize the role each of us play in the chain of Jewish tradition.
L’dor Vador
We are gifts and we are blessings, we are history in song
We are hope and we are healing, we are learning to be strong
We are words and we are stories, we are pictures of the past
We are carriers of wisdom, not the first and not the last
CHORUS:
L’dor vador nagid godlecha
(From generation to generation, we will tell of Your greatness)
L’dor vador… we protect this chain
From generation to generation
L’dor vador, these lips will praise Your name
Looking back on the journey that we carry in our heart
From the shadow of the mountain to the waters that would part
We are blessed and we are holy, we are children of Your way
And the words that bring us meaning, we will have the strength to say
CHORUS