Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah
Name
Institution
Date
In the Orthodox Judaism and Jewish community, bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah are commonly used to denote Jewish coming of age. Bar a word in Aramaic (which used to be vernacular of Jewish people literary means son while Bat means daughter. Mitzvah pervades the two words bar and bat meaning commandment or law (Goble, 1981). Technically, the phrase means ‘son of commandment’ and ‘daughter of commandment’ respectively. According to Jewish law, these terms are given to boys and girls alike to refer to their change of legal status given to them at a specific age to denote graduation from childhood to adulthood. This status is however is not achieved through having a special occasion or ceremony in the synagogue or elsewhere (Goble, 1981).
From a traditional perspective of the Jewish Law, children do not have an obligation to observe the commandments even though they are highly encouraged to do so in preparation for their adulthood responsibilities. It is until at the age of 12 years and one day and 13 years and one day for girls and boys respectfully those children become obliged to observe the commandments (Murray & Jenner, 2002). The bar mitzvah ceremony therefore marks an official transition and assumed obligations for the child. However, it should be noted that there is no necessity for the ceremony to consider one a bar mitzvah or a bat mitzvah. Prior to reaching the bar mitzvah status, parents are held responsible for their child’s actions. Reaching the age automatically lifts the responsibility from the parents. Henceforth, a child bears their responsibilities regarding the laws of Jewish rituals, tradition and ethics. In addition, they are able to participate in every aspect of the Jewish community social aspects. Orthodox Judaism requires the father of the bar mitzvah to thank God for lifting the responsibility of another soul from him (Murray & Jenner, 2002).
Today, bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah have become central concept to Jewish life cycle and highly revered that it is ubiquitous to find many books including the Webster dictionary. Contentions have been raised though with the dictionary meaning that fuses the concept with the age factor. Traditionally, this connection is incorrect as initially, the maturity of children between the ages of 10 and 13 years were strictly theoretical. This was changed later between the 14th and 16th century in Germany and Poland. Children were prohibited to read from Torah – the first five books of the Bible. The bar mitzvah had and has a central role in the Jewish culture. Below, we look at the role of the scripture in the service as well as a description of the ceremony and the participants (Greenspoon, Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick, 2010).
Role of the scriptures
First of all, a child who have not reached bar mitzvah is bound to restrictions regarding how much they can read from the Bible. For this reason, the Bible plays very important role in the whole ritual. Whereas the Bible gives the minimum age for religious accountability at 20, the Talmud pushes the limit downwards to the age of thirteen. The origin of the bar mitzvah celebration according to this is therefore not biblical. Albeit of this, the Bible’s role cannot be underestimated as it is the central scripture in which their religious laws are stipulated.
According to Judaism, the Bible’s first five books, referred to as Torah provide the basic religious commandments that should be followed by the Jewish community. Religiously, boys become responsible at the age of thirteen. At this age, they are expected to read the Torah and understand what is required of them at this age (Marcus, 2004). Basically, bar/bat mitzvah denotes enlightenment in matters of religion in Jewish community. It also means to grow according to the Jewish traditions and respecting every Jew. In addition, it means being responsible of the world. Torah is used as the guide for the Jewish people. Thus the scripture acts as an important part of the Jewish community as it gives and defines the traditions and the character of the Jewish people (reformjudaism.org par 3-5).
The ceremony
The origin of bar mitzvah as seen discussed above is not biblical. Initially, children were counted for purposes of reaching a quorum of the needed ten children for the certain prayers. So, reaching the age of thirteen had no association with rituals or celebrations. A drastic change would then occur between 14th and 16th centuries. Minors were no longer required allowed to read the scriptures from Torah on to be in the minyan (the quorum needed for prayers). It is at this point that the bar/bat mitzvah became a defining ritual in the life cycle of the Jewish community. This ritual meant that once a boy reaches bar mitzvah, they can be called to read the scripture from Torah. The main concept of the ritual is to receive the honor of aliyah – the honor to bless and read from the Torah. In addition to this, other elements were added to the ceremony such as engaging in a discourse of the Torah so called d’rashot. Some synagogues in the late 17th and 18th century permitted students who were already accomplished to lead the service as well. After the initiation into the bar mitzvah, a boy becomes son of the commandment i.e. they become subject to the commandments (jewishwebsight.com par 5).
Essentially, one becomes eligible for the ceremony once the age of thirteen and one day and twelve and one day for boys and girls respectively. This is usually celebrated on the Shabbat with nearest proximity to the child’s twelfth or thirteenth birthday. These celebrations are arranged a couple of years prior to the child’s time for the rite. This gives the family enough time to prepare for the ceremony as well as enough time for the initiate to prepare for the reception of the status. In most cases, the liturgical participation is similar where some may incorporate some more things for the students. There are less standardized ways of conducting the ceremonies. This makes the ceremonies to be very flexible and open to changes in the services whereas others are strict on the adherence of the rules. They are highly dynamic in such a way that children with special needs and wishing to become bar/bat mitzvah are always accommodated. The ceremony is very dynamic in the way it is conducted but three elements remain universal; the aliyah, the speech and the celebration (jewishwebsight.com par 5).
The aliyah basically refers to the act of being called up at the bimah for recital of the blessings for the Torah or to read from the scroll. The bar/bat mitzvah reads from a minimum of three verses to the maximum of chanting or reading the entire Torah portion for a week. There is however no consistence regarding the reading as some may read only form the haftarah, a selection of prophets selected for a week’s portion to reading from both the Torah and the haftarah (Murray & Jenner, 2002).
On the material day, as a custom, there may be honoring of the boy’s or girl’s relatives with the aliyah. In such a case, relatives from parents to extended family may be called upon to help with the recital of Torah blessings where they...