B'nai Mitzvah
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According to Jewish law, when Jewish children reach the age of maturity (13 years for boys and 12 years for girls in Orthodox synagogues, though it is mainly also celebrated at 13) they become responsible for their actions. At this point a boy is said to become Bar Mitzvah (Hebrew: בר מצוה, "one (m.) to whom the commandments apply"); a girl is said to become Bat Mitzvah (בת מצוה, "one (f.) to whom the commandments apply"), or Bas Mitzvah (in Yiddish pronunciation).
Before this age, all the child's responsibility to follow Jewish law and tradition lies with the parents. After this age, the children are privileged to participate in all areas of Jewish community life and bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics.
Jewish boys
The current way of celebrating one's becoming a Bar Mitzvah did not exist in the time of the Bible, Mishnah or Talmud. This ceremonial observation developed in the Middle Ages.
The current practice is that on a Sabbath on or after his 13th birthday, a boy may recite the blessings for the Torah reading, read the week's portion from the Torah (five books of Moses) and Haftara (selections from the books of the Prophets), and/or give a d'var Torah, which may include a discussion of that week's Torah portion. One may also lead part or all of the morning prayer services. Calling someone to say the Torah blessings is called an Aliyah from the Hebrew: עֲלִיָּה, from the verb alàh, עָלָה, meaning, "to rise, to ascend; to go up"). Precisely what the Bar Mitzvah should lead during the service varies from one congregation to another, and is not fixed by Jewish law. The Sephardic Jews tend to bring the boy into adulthood a little later than Ashkenazi Jews, waiting until after his 14th birthday. Notwithstanding the celebrations, however, males become entirely culpable and responsible for following Jewish law once they reach the age of 13, and have matured physically to the stage where two pubic hairs have grown.
Sometimes the celebration is during another service that includes reading from the Torah, such as a Monday or Thursday morning service, a Shabbat afternoon service, or a morning service on Rosh Chodesh, the new moon. The service is often followed by a celebratory meal with family, friends, and members of the community. In the modern day, the celebration is sometimes delayed for reasons such as availability of a Shabbat during which no other celebration has been scheduled, or the desire to permit family to travel to the event; however, this does not delay the onset of rights and responsibilities of being a Jewish adult, which comes about strictly by virtue of age. Not having a Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration does not make the child becoming an adult any less of a Jew. Although some people wish to be "Bar Mitzvahed" (as is often said incorrectly) as an expression of their faith, this has no religious significance.
Jewish girls
Except in Italy, no ceremony parallel to a boy's Bar Mitzvah ceremony developed for girls before the modern age. The Orthodox Jewish Italian rite for becoming Bat Mitzvah made a great impression on Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a rabbi who was originally Orthodox, became Conservative, and then became the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. Through his influence at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in New York, Jews from all branches of non-Orthodox Judaism learned about and emulated this practice, though at the time most Orthodox rabbis strongly rejected its usage, despite its Italian Orthodox background.
The first public celebration of a Bat Mitzvah happened on March 18, 1922 at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City for Judith Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. As the ceremony became accepted for females as well as males, many women chose to celebrate the ceremony even though they were much older, as a way of formalizing and celebrating their place in the adult Jewish community.
Today, most non-Orthodox Jews celebrate a girl's Bat Mitzvah in the same way as a boy's Bar Mitzvah. All Reform and Reconstructionist, and most Conservative synagogues have egalitarian participation in which women read from the Torah and lead services. Conservative Judaism is pluralistic, and a small percent of Conservative synagogues are still concerned about the halakhic propriety of women reading the Torah portion in public. The majority of Orthodox Judaism rejects the idea that a woman can publicly read from the Torah or lead prayer services. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a prominent Orthodox posek has opposed anyone attending a Bat Mitzvah and has referred to the ceremony as hevel, nonsense. The Sephardic rabbi René Samuel Sirat, who served as Chief Rabbi of France, has also opposed Bat Mitzvah. However, the public celebration of a girl becoming Bat Mitzvah has made strong inroad in Modern Orthodox Judaism and in some elements of Haredi Judaism, especially Chabad-Lubavitch. In these congregations women do not read from the Torah or lead prayer services but occasionally they will lecture on a Jewish topic to mark their coming of age, learn a book of Tanakh, recite the verses from other texts (such as the Book of Esther or the Book of Psalms) or prayers from the siddur.
Jewish "adult" responsibilities
Once a person is Bar or Bat Mitzvah, he or she has the responsibilities of an adult under Jewish law:
- He or she is responsible for his or her own actions (good or bad). Traditionally, the father of the Bar Mitzvah give thanks to God that they no longer have to carry the burden of their child's sins.
- He is eligible to be called to read from the Torah, and to participate in a Minyan (In Orthodox denominations, only males read from the Torah or participate in a Minyan).
- He or she can own according to Jewish law, what they possess.
- He or she is, in theory, legally old enough to be married according to Jewish law.
- He or she must follow the 613 laws of the Torah.
The idea of having this ceremony is it is the point in the adolescents life where they must take their faith as their own. They must realise that they cannot have faith by proxy, they must own it for themselves
Humanist Judaism's procedures
Instead of reading from the Torah, some Humanist Jews prefer to research, write, and present a research paper on a topic in Jewish history to mark their coming of age. [1] [2]
Second Bar Mitzvah
Among religious Jews, it is customary for a man who has reached the age of 83 to celebrate a second bar mitzvah, under the logic that a "normal" lifespan is 70 years, so that an 83-year-old can be considered 13 in a second lifetime. This practice is now becoming increasingly common among other denominations as well. [3] [4].
Bar/Bat Mitzvah gifts
As with weddings, it is common to give the Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebrant a gift to commemorate the occasion. Traditionally, common gifts included books with religious or educational value, religious items, writing implements, savings bonds (to be used for the child's college education) or gift certificates [5], [6]. Gifts of cash are commonplace in recent times. As with charity and all other gifts it has become common to give in multiples of 18: the gematria, or numerical equivalence of the Hebrew word for "life," ("chai") is the number 18. Monetary gifts in multiples of 18 are considered to be particularly auspicious and have become very common for B'nai Mitzvah. Many Bar/Bat Mitzvah also receive their first tallit from their parents to be used for the occasion.
Further reading
Oppenheimer, Mark. 2005. Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah across America. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0374106657
External links
- Bar/Bat Mitzvah curriculum in the Jewish Agency website - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Article on the First Bat Mitzvah Celebration of Judith Kaplan - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Entering Adulthood - the Bar and Bat Mitzvah - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Bar/Bat Mitzvah resources - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Encyclopaedia Judaica excerpt on Bar/Bat Mitvah - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Bar/Bat Mitzvah resources & community - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- Bar/Bat Mitzvah Calculator - Retrieved September 23, 2007.
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