What is a Bar Mitzvah?

bar mitz·vah
Pronunciation: bär-'mits-v&
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized B&M

1 : a Jewish boy who reaches his 13th birthday and attains the age of religious duty and responsibility
2 :In Jesus' day boys of twelve had their Bar Mitzvah and were, in many cases, tested on their knowledge and belief in the Temple. Look at the story of Jesus in the Temple ( Luke 2 v41-52 ) in this light. He had come up to Jerusalem for his first Passover, and may well have had his Bar mitzvah while the family was there. In Jewish culture, the quality of a persons questions is seen as the best measure of his understanding and maturity. Remember how the scribes were amazed at his questions!

Nowadays a young man has his Bar mitzvah on the Shabbat after his thirteenth birthday. He has to recite a portion from Torah, read and pray.

"Shema Israel" is an important scripture for this day. It starts, "Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad" "Hear O Israel, the LORD your God The LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6 v4-9) It goes on to exhort Israel to love GOD wholeheartedly and teach their children well. It also speaks of binding GOD's word to ones arms and forehead. The young man will do this pictorially as part of the service with his Tefillin, which are the small black boxes on long leather straps which contain portions of the "Sh'ma Israel" passage.

A father is responsible for his son's actions until his Bar mitzvah. During the ceremony he says, "Praised be he who released me from punishment for the actions of this one." This led to a famous quote, "Until the thirteenth year I talk to my son about God; after his Bar mitzvah I talk to God about my son."
 

According to Jewish law, when Jewish children reach the age of maturity (12 years for girls, 13 years for boys) they become responsible for their actions. At this point a boy is said to become Bar Mitzvah (בר מצוה, "son of the commandment"); a girl is said to become Bat Mitzvah (בת מצוה, "daughter of the commandment").

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.

It is common in Jewish culture to celebrate the coming-of-age transition. In popular usage, the terms "Bar Mitzvah" and "Bat Mitzvah" are often mistakenly used to refer to the celebration itself; however the term actually refers to the boy or girl. The event is often misunderstood to be a rite of passage by which a Jewish boy or girl becomes a Jewish adult, but in fact it is merely a celebration of the adulthood that came about automatically by virtue of age. The ceremony itself does not change the status of the celebrant nor does it imbue any additional rights or responsibilities beyond those which were automatically imbued on a boy's 13th (or girl's 12th) birthday.

The term Bar Mitzvah (בר מצוה) is typically translated as "son of the commandment", and Bat Mitzvah (בת מצוה) as "daughter of the commandment". In Biblical Hebrew, however, the word "bar" or "bat" (the latter pronounced "bas" in Ashkenazi Hebrew) could also mean "subject to," e.g., a particular tax, penalty, or obligation; therefore a more accurate translation of the term may actually be "subject to commandment." The plural form term for people of obligation is B'nai Mitzvah (or B'not Mitzvah if all the people are female), though when referring to multiple celebrations, many mistakenly say "Bar" or "Bat Mitzvot."

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 becoming Bat Mitzvah in the same way as a boy's becoming 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. Many girls in the non-Orthodox movements celebrate becoming Bat Mitzvah at age 13, like the Jewish boys, rather than at the actual age 12.

The majority of Orthodox Judaism rejects the idea that a woman can publicly read from the Torah or lead prayer services, but the public celebration of a girl becoming Bat Mitzvah has made strong inway 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; however Orthodox girls will lecture on a Jewish topic to mark their coming of age, learn a book of Tanakh or seder of Mishnah, recite the verses from other texts (such as the Book of Esther or Psalms) or prayers from the siddur.

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 medieval times.

The current practice is that on a Shabbat shortly after his 13th birthday, a boy may recite the blessings for the Torah reading, read from the Torah (five books of Moses) and Haftara (Selections from the books of the Prophets), and give a d'var Torah, a discussion of that week's Torah portion. One may also lead part or all of the morning prayer services. Calling the boy to say the Torah blessings is called an aliyah (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 their 14th birthday. Notwithstanding the celebrations, however, males become entirely culpable and responsible for following Jewish law at the age of 13.

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.

Many Jewish boys do not have a Bar Mitzvah celebration, perhaps because the family is too poor or do not belong to a Synagogue or Shul (a Jewish worship house), or perhaps because they are hidden Jews in the diaspora. In this case the 13th birthday can be considered the child's coming 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 an expression of their faith, this has no religious significance. ("Bar Mitzvahed" is an incorrect use of the term as a participle. The proper way to say it is "to become a Bar Mitzvah".)