I hate to be the
one to break the news to the rest of the Goys out there, but Moses did
not have a Bar Mitzvah. Neither did any of the patriarchs or prophets.
Neither did Jesus. Neither did anyone else until about the 14th century, when
the ceremony was devised.
The Bar Mitzvah ("Son of the Law") is a celebration of a young man's
coming of age according to Jewish law - the taking on himself of the
responsibility for his own actions in regards to his duty to God.
Normally this is when a boy reaches the age of thirteen, but any man -
born or converted Jewish - can have a Bar Mitzvah at any time in his
life. If you recall the episode of 'Touched by an Angel' with Kirk
Douglas, his character, an old men, had a second Bar Mitzvah alongside
his grandson, who was celebrating his first Bar Mitzvah.
It also marks the fact that the young man has been sufficiently trained
in the Torah and Talmud so as to understand the Law and the covenants,
and it marks the time in life he is able to begin wearing the
Tallit and Teflin - it
is a great moment in a young boy's life when he first dons these, and I
have been told that often a father's or grandfather's Tallit and Teflin
are offered for the boy to wear - marking the handing down of the Law
and the centuries of tradition to the next generation.
Most Bar Mitzvah ceremonies contain five elements:
1. The Bar Mitzvah ("Son of the Law") is called up to recite the
blessings chanted over the Torah, before and after the reading. He often
reads or chants the final verses of the portion of the Torah read that
week.
2. The Bar Mitzvah reads or chants a selected portion of the Prophetical
books ("the Prophets", as we Christians call it) with the appropriate
preceding and concluding benedictions.
3. A parental blessing is pronounced: "Blessed is the One who has freed
me from responsibility for this child's conduct."
4. The Bar Mitzvah delivers an interpretive speech, usually on the Torah
reading for the day.
5. The Bar Mitzvah feast celebrating the event.
Most Bar Mitzvahs are held in conjunction with Sabbath services, but
they can be held on any occasion when the Torah is read.
A rabbi once outlined in a class I attended three values celebrated:
One, the young man has achieved an educational level in which he has
learned enough from the Torah to publicly share it with others. Second,
an inter-generational connection has been established by following in
the path of his father and grandfathers. And Third, he has been
challenged - and has accepted the challenge - to take a personal,
responsible stand to live according to the religious and moral standards
of the Law of Moses.
Although there is historical evidence that ceremonies marking a young
woman's coming of age existed in medieval Germany, the formal
ceremony known as Bat Mitzvah came
about in the 1920's in the United States. Celebrated mostly by Reform
and Conservative Jews, it holds an equivalency to the Bar Mitzvah
ceremony.
The Confirmation ceremony was developed
mainly by the Reform movement in 19th Century Germany to replace the Bar
Mitzvah ceremony and is normally held on or about a boy's sixteenth
birthday. In addition to Torah and Talmud, a young man also studies
contemporary Jewish ethics, modern Jewish problems, and the nature of
the contemporary Jewish community.