Parashah

Anna's bat mitzvah parashah (Torah portion of the week) is Noach (Genesis 6:9 - 11:32). It will be read from the first of two Torah scrolls. The parashah relates the familiar stories of:

• G-d’s intention to destroy the wickedness of Earth by means of a great flood.
• the building of an ark by the righteous Noach as refuge for himself, his family, and pairs of every animal.
• the rain of forty days and nights, the coming to rest of the ark on Mt. Ararat after the rains had ended, the dove bearing an olive leaf which indicated the waters were receding, and the repopulation of the earth.
• G-d’s promise never to destroy the world again by means of a flood, symbolized by a rainbow.
• the building of the Tower of Babel.
• the beginning, several generations later, of Abram’s journey from Ur to Canaan.

Maftir

Anna's maftir, the concluding Torah reading, is specially selected for a Sabbath that falls on a New Moon. It will be read from the second Torah scroll. This reading (Numbers 28:9-15) describes the Sabbath meal-, burnt-, and drink-offerings and the New Moon meal-, burnt-, sin-, and drink-offerings.

Haftarah

Anna's haftarah, the concluding reading from the Prophets (Isaiah 66:1-24), is specially selected for a Sabbath that falls on a New Moon. Its theme is that God, in judging the world, balances justice with mercy. This haftarah announces that when the people Israel are gathered from exile "all flesh shall come to worship" the Lord "New Moon after New Moon", a prophecy, constantly renewed, of a unified humanity.