CONSIDERING HISTORY
Periods of Jewish Change
Medieval Period
The Medieval Period, which existed between the 5th and 15th Century CE, saw great change in Jewish religious tradition and culture. This came through the advent of rabbinic texts and culture.[1] However, the bar mitzvah tradition did not exist in its current form at this formative time in Jewish history. Hayyim Shauss wrote that this was because the distinction between a minor and one with age of the majority was theoretical. During early medieval times, minors were able to participate in all religious observance when “considered mentally fit.”[2] According to Ivan G. Marcus, the Mishnah and Talmud state that this fitness is found at “an intermediate age”[3] when a father teaches his son to perform commandments. As it says in Sukkah 42a, “a minor who knows how to shake [the lulav] is subject to the obligation of the lulav.”[4] Thus, this Talmudic understanding suggests that the rites of a bar mitzvah are not intrinsically tied to one’s age or any specific age. However, Marcus notes that the bar mitzvah developed non-linearly over time, and primarily points its growth to become a ceremony for thirteen-year-old males to have originated in the German Empire in the eleventh century.[5]
[1] Butler, Diedre. “Module 7 Lecture 1 – Jews in the Modern World: The Enlightenment and the Jews.” Video Lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2020.
[2] Schauss, Hayyim. “History of Bar Mitzvah.” My Jewish Learning. Accessed June 23, 2020. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/history-of-bar-mitzvah/.
[3] Marcus, Ivan G. The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2004, 82.
[4] Sefaria, “Sukkah 42a:10,” Sefaria.org, Accessed June 22, 2020.
[5] Marcus. "The Jewish Life Cycle". University of Washington Press.
Jewish Enlightenment
During the Enlightenment period, individualism and personal conscience across society were emphasized as attempts were made to create discontinuity with the immediate past and create a new social political reality. The Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, was similar to that of the broader society. However, it particularly emphasized the idea of modernity as an opportunity for renewal and reform while still preserving Jewish life.[1] The bar mitzvah was one religious practice seen by some to require reform. As David Sorkin wrote, the bar mitzvah was seen by some teachers of the time in Germany to merely be a test of one’s ability to recite prayers and Torah readings. These teachers desired that students showcase their Jewish learning and moral development, and thus created the new concept of the “confirmation service”, which included speeches to demonstrate this learning.[2] This shift was in keeping with the ideals of Moses Mendelssohn, the father of Haskalah. Mendelssohn said that Judaism is a rational religion conducive to modernity.[3] The idea of the confirmation service is a translation of such thinking, whereby Jewish life and traditions are still preserved but modernist change is still applied.
[1] Butler, Diedre. “Module 7 Lecture 2 – Jewish Responses to Modernity.” Video Lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2020.
[2] Sorkin, David. The Transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, 128.
[3] Butler, Diedre. “Module 7 Lecture 2". Carleton University.
Denominations & Traditional Evolution
Hasidism
Hasidism is a form of Orthodox Judaism that emphasizes piousness and building a close relationship with God by putting “kavanah”, or heart and intention in Hebrew, into all religious action.[1] This is cited from Sanhedrim 106B, which states, “the Holy One … seeks the heart.”[2]In Hasidism, this is almost everything, as it is said that God is everywhere and in everything. In the context of the b’nai mitzvah, it is important that the gender roles of Hasidic religious study are examined. In Hasidism, while proper prayer schedules are not followed, as to differentiate from Orthodox Judaism, male and female roles in study are firm. Men in Hasidism are seen as “Torah warriors” and are the only people who can high scholars and rebbes, or spiritual leaders. Religious study in Hasidism is seen as a fraternal, spiritual, and emotional experience between men and their rebbe. Women are seen as “different but equal” and are less religiously educated than men. Instead, women in Hasidism emphasize modesty.[3] Due to these norms of religious study, the Hasidic bar mitzvah is of great importance, while a Hasidic bat mitzvah is considerably less so. Rather, while young men study in yeshiva, a boys only religious school, young women learn how to support a man’s study by doing all other duties outside the home. This is seen as equally holy work.[4] While we will discuss gender further and in more depth, in discussing Hasidism it is imperative that this is discussed as it is what make a Hasidic bar mitzvah noteworthy.
[1] Butler, Diedre. “Module 8 Lecture 2 – Hasidism: Key Issues.” Video Lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2020.
[2] Sefaria, “Sanhedrin 106b,” Sefaria.org, Accessed June 27, 2020
[3] Butler, Diedre. “Module 8 Lecture 3 – Contemporary Issues.” Video Lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2020.
[4] Butler, Diedre. “Module 8 Lecture 3 – Contemporary Issues.” Video Lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, 2020.
Denominations
As the variety of Jewish denominations shows, Judaism has always evolved as societies have. Among denominations of Jewish practice, bar and bat mitzvahs represents many of the differences that exist in their Jewish practices. Most notably, this is seen with the bat mitzvah. The bat mitzvah has been celebrated as a coming of age ceremony for 12-year-old young Jewish women – one year prior to that of Jewish boys – since around 1920.[1] The ceremony originated in the United States in Reconstructionist and Conservative synagogues, inspired by halakhic discussions on the lack of female coming of age ceremonies in the 18th and 19th century. The practice later spread to Reform synagogues and even some Orthodox congregations.[2] The bat mitzvah was preceded by the confirmation ceremony, a Reform tradition, which unlike the bar mitzvah allowed both males and females to participate. Denominations vary in their practice of the bat mitzvah, which has in turn influenced interpretations of bar mitzvah ceremonies. Orthodox b’not mitzvah will not include Torah reading by the bat mitzvah celebrant, instead opting for a limited ceremony which often includes a d’var Torah, or speech on the week’s Torah portion. However, more liberal bat mitzvah ceremonies would include a Torah reading. This has influenced modern bar mitzvah ceremonies in the emphasis placed on the d’var Torah and other elements of the ceremony that are not the Torah reading. As Hizky Shoham wrote, the bat mitzvah, and indeed the bar mitzvah, have been influenced by consumer culture and ulterior 'party' elements of the celebration. For the bar mitzvah, this is perhaps one of them.[3]
[1] Shoham, Hizky. “‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’: A Historical Anthropology of the Israeli Bat Mitzvah.” Jewish Culture and History 16, no. 3, 2015, 275–92.
[2] Shoham, Hizky. “‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’. Jewish Culture and History.
[3] Ibid.
The Role of the Synagogue
Synagogue
The bat mitzvah, as a relatively modern tradition, has in many communities come to be firmly rooted within the synagogue environment. This is due to the fact that the bat mitzvah came out of both the traditions of the confirmation ceremony as well as that of the bar mitzvah.[1] However, much like the history of the bar mitzvah, this has not been, and is not the case in all Jewish communities. According to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, some Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities celebrate bat mitzvah ceremonies with luncheons and other women-only events. Others that do take place in the synagogue may hold a ceremony with numerous synagogue traditions, but not a Torah reading.[2] Bar mitzvah ceremonies have also not always been intrinsically tied to the synagogue, as the history of the bar mitzvah has not been one based in the specific tradition of the ceremony itself. As aforementioned, the bar mitzvah ceremony has grown non-linearly to become a synagogue-based tradition. This began to become cemented during the Talmudic period as interpreted by Ivan G. Marcus. According to Marcus’ reading of Midrash Bereishit Rabbah, it is written that the father “said his blessing in the synagogue” when his son had read from Torah at the age of 13.[3]
[1] Shoham, Hizky. “‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’: A Historical Anthropology of the Israeli Bat Mitzvah.” Jewish Culture and History 16, no. 3, 2015, 275–92.
[2] Waskow, Rabbi Arthur O. “History of Bat Mitzvah.” My Jewish Learning. Accessed June 27, 2020. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/history-of-bat-mitzvah/.
[3] Marcus, Ivan G. The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2004, 91.
Prayer Traditions
Prayer is essential to the ceremony and traditions of the bar and bat mitzvah. The manner in which this has evolved over time, however, is of interest in understanding the diversity of b’nai mitzvah ceremonial practices. In Magen Avraham 225:4, it is stated that it a 13-year-old boy becomes a bar mitzvah when he “leads prayers or reads Torah on shabbat for the first time.”[1]Hayim Schauss defines this to consist of some combination of a full Torah portion reading, the reading of the final section of the portion, reading haftarah, or weekly Tanakh reading, and delivering a drasha, or interpretive speech on the Torah portion. Alongside this, many may wear a tallit, or prayer shawl, for the first time at their bar mitzvah, along with tefillin, or phylacteries, which is most common in Sephardic communities. [2] As this list suggests, the evolutionary nature of the bar mitzvah ceremony has created many interpretations of a religiously acceptable ceremony. This nature of interpretation is only furthered in the modernity of the bat mitzvah ceremony. Through history, bat mitzvah ceremonies have amounted to the aforementioned bar mitzvah prayer traditions, said readings from a prayer book instead of a Torah, or even the reading of the 10 commandments.[3] Additionally, bat mitzvah ceremonies have included drasha and other non-prayer-based presentations by the bat mitzvah girl.[4]
[1] Sefaria, “Magen Avraham 225:4,” Sefaria.org, Accessed June 27, 2020
[2] Schauss, Hayyim. “History of Bar Mitzvah.” My Jewish Learning. Accessed June 23, 2020. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/history-of-bar-mitzvah/.
[3] Hilton, Michael. Bar Mitzvah: A History. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2014, 93.
[4] Schauss. “History of Bar Mitzvah.” My Jewish Learning.