In everyday language the bar mitzvah is often described as a "party" or a "ceremony" for thirteen-year-old Jewish boys. In reality the term indicates first of all a legal and religious condition: that of someone who has become responsible for observing the commandments. The ceremony came later, and its history shows well how a change of status can slowly turn into a rite.
The meaning of the words
Bar mitzvah is an Aramaic and Hebrew expression meaning "son of the commandment"; bat mitzvah is the feminine counterpart, "daughter of the commandment". It denotes a person subject to the mitzvot, the commandments of the Torah and of rabbinic tradition.
The age of responsibility
Rabbinic literature sets the age of religious majority at thirteen for boys and twelve for girls. A famous passage of the Mishnah, in the tractate Pirkei Avot, lists the ages of life and states: "at thirteen, for the commandments".
The essential point is that this condition is reached automatically, on attaining the age, even without any ceremony. A Jewish boy of thirteen is bar mitzvah simply by having reached that age. From that moment he is personally responsible for his actions before religious law.
What changes
For a boy, entering majority brings some concrete changes in religious life:
- he can be counted in the minyan, the minimum quorum of ten adults required for certain public prayers;
- he can be called up to read the Torah during the synagogue service, in the ceremony called aliyah;
- he begins to wear tefillin, the small boxes containing Torah passages bound to the arm and head during morning prayer;
- he is required to keep fasts and other commandments as an adult.
The birth of the ceremony
Ancient sources do not describe a particular ceremony for this passage. There was, however, a blessing spoken by the father, recorded in the Midrash Bereshit Rabbah: "Blessed is He who has freed me from the punishment of this one". The sense is that, from that moment, responsibility for the son's faults no longer falls on the father but on the son himself.
The ceremony proper developed mainly in the late Middle Ages, particularly in the Ashkenazi communities of Central and Eastern Europe. Its core was simple: the boy was called up for the first time to the reading of the Torah on the Sabbath after his birthday. Over time other elements were added:
- the reading of the haftarah, a passage from the Prophets;
- a short commentary, sometimes learned;
- a festive meal with the community and family.
The bat mitzvah
For girls, religious majority had always existed in law, at twelve, but it was not accompanied by a comparable public ceremony. The first forms of celebration appeared in modern times, in some European communities.
One date has remained famous: in 1922, in New York, Judith Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist movement, celebrated what is often described as the first public bat mitzvah in the United States. During the twentieth century the ceremony spread across many streams of Judaism, in different forms: in Reform and Conservative communities girls read from the Torah as boys do; in Orthodox communities celebrations with a talk, a study session or a party prevail.
A particular rite of passage
Compared with many other initiation rites, the bar mitzvah has a distinctive feature: it does not confer the new condition but recognises and celebrates it. There are no painful ordeals, isolation or secrets. The "margin" is represented instead by the period of preparation, in which the boy studies for months the chanted reading of the text, the blessings and the commentary.
The pattern of rites of passage can still be recognised:
| Stage | Elements |
|---|---|
| Separation | End of minor status, the father's blessing |
| Margin | Months of study and preparation |
| Aggregation | Call to the Torah, inclusion in the minyan, community celebration |
The value of the word read aloud
The centre of the rite is the public reading of a sacred text. The young person stands before the community not with a display of strength, but with the ability to read, chant and interpret. Adulthood here coincides with taking on responsibility towards a tradition written and interpreted by generations.
In short
- Bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah denote the condition of one who is subject to the commandments.
- Religious majority is reached at thirteen for boys and twelve for girls.
- The condition is automatic; the ceremony recognises it, it does not confer it.
- The public rite developed mainly in the late Middle Ages in Ashkenazi communities.
- The public bat mitzvah spread in the twentieth century, starting from the 1922 case in New York.
