Jewish Cultural Society Bar and Bat Mitzvah Handbook The Secular Bar/Bat Mitzvah The Jewish Cultural Society embraces members with a wide variety of backgrounds and orientations to Jewish life. We include many committed members of the Secular Humanistic Judaism movement as well as many who have joined JCS for other reasons. It is understood that within a class there may be varying orientations towards Judaism and towards the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony. Therefore, there is room in every program and in every ceremony for each child to express his or her own feelings and the orientation of the individual family. What is a mitzvah? Judaism is different from other religious civilizations because membership in the group is not determined by belief. Not even the creed written by the great rabbi Maimonides was adopted as a test of one's Judaism. Judaism is a way of life, a way of life based on action rather than on belief. A mitzvah, or commandment, is not a thought or a belief, but an act. A mitzvah is an obligation. There are two sorts of obligations: obligations to God and obligations to other people. Even among religious Jews, the first sort is subordinate to the second. (One cannot ask forgiveness from God on Yom Kippur until one has first obtained the forgiveness of the person one has wronged.) As members of the International Federation of Secular and Humanistic Jews, we are concerned with the second sort of mitzvah, our obligations to each other and to our community. What is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah? A Bar or Bat Mitzvah is a person who has reached the age at which he or she is expected to assume the obligations of an adult Jew. At this age, the person's parents are no longer responsible for the child's moral and religious behavior. (Perhaps this stems from the wisdom of the ages -- if you haven't instilled your moral code into your child by the time the child is thirteen, you've lost your chance.) What is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony? The Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a public performance of one act required of the adult Jew as a symbol that the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is now an adult Jew and has agreed to perform the obligations of an adult Jew. Traditionally, the symbolic ceremonial act is the aliyah, being called up to the reading of the Torah. A Secularist ceremony may include a symbolic act, but it is of a moral, rather than a religious, nature. A Secularist Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony should include an avowal by the Bar/Bat Mitzvah that she or he understands the moral obligations incumbent on an adult Jew, and should also include a statement of willingness to accept these obligations. The JCS Bar/Bat Mitzvah Theory The Jewish Cultural School's Bar/Bat Mitzvah program is a flexible program of study and action leading to a ceremony (usually a group ceremony) designed by the B'nai Mitzvah, their parents and the Society Director. Each program of study and each ceremony is different, however, the program does have certain attributes which do not vary. The process is designed to: * welcome the individual into the worldwide, historical and local community of Jews. * reflect Jewish tradition and the modern Jewish milieu. * be relevant to modern Judaism and reflect ethical, intellectual and Humanist principles while allowing room for diversity of viewpoints about Judaism. * convey that being Jewish means not only knowing about Judaism, but also acting as a Jew, inculcating the concept that a mitzvah is an obligation and that Jews have responsibilities to themselves, their families, the Jewish community and all humanity. * provide an opportunity for students to discover for themselves which elements of Jewish life provide meaning for them. * develop a sense of community within the class. An important component of the coming-of-age of the new Bar and Bat Mitzvah is the follow-through on his or her changed status in the Jewish community. Our B'nai Mitzvah members have voting rights within JCS and may run for Board of Director positions and sit on committees. We encourage them to do so. Implementation The actual Bar/Bat Mitzvah program consists of five major elements: curriculum, group activities, tsedakah, individual study and the ceremony, which presents a distillation of the other four. Curriculum The Bar/Bat Mitzvah program is a two-year program beginning in the sixth grade. The general curriculum for the sixth grade year is Eastern Europe. The children learn about the self-governing Council of the Four Lands in Poland in the late Middle Ages. They go on to study shtetl life and then the Enlightenment and the movements arising from the Enlightenment (Zionism, Reform and Secularism). The final component to the sixth grade curriculum is a unit on Holocaust and Resistance. Certain activities, such as visits to a Reform and a Humanist Shabbat service and a visit to the Holocaust Center in Detroit may be required as part of the curriculum although they are not part of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Of course, the specific emphases will differ from year to year. The seventh grade curriculum includes basic Judaism, Secularism, and ethics. During this year the students interview leaders of the various Jewish movements and pose questions to each. Each student asks a particular question of each leader and presents her or his understanding of the each movement gained through hearing the answers. The entire two-year program also includes attention to: * contemporary Jewish issues (including Ann Arbor events, developments in Israel, the former Soviet Union, etc.), * ethics (particularly discussion of what the class gets involved in as group tsedakah projects) * culture (art, food, films, literature, music, dance) * holidays and rituals (increasingly sophisticated consideration of the holidays and specific exploration of non-holiday rituals such as the Bar/Bat Mitzvah and the Jewish wedding). Group Activities The students will engage in group activities which contribute to the growth of a sense of membership in a Jewish group. At least one group tsedakah project shall be undertaken each year. In past years the sixth grade class has often helped with the Hadassah Lox Box and the seventh grade class has participated in the CROP walk (financing anti-hunger projects), but each class may decide for itself what group tsedakah project to undertake. Parents, students, teachers and other members of the JCS community are invited to propose tsedakah projects to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah students. We encourage each class to create a mission and challenge for itself. The decisions are made by the class participants and their parents and the classroom teacher and the Society and School Directors. We encourage the class to engage in educational activities as a class. In addition to attending lectures or theater performances that relate to their curriculum, past classes have also engaged in social activities, such as movies, pizza parties, camping and skating. They have sometimes fixed Shabbat dinners for themselves or their families. Parents, class members or teachers arrange these activities. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah class generally presents a gift to the school at the end of the year. Group activities to produce the gift have been highly successful. Both our large Chanukah menorah and the Jewish history hanging are the result of group Bar/Bat Mitzvah efforts. Other classes have donated books, cooking equipment, and candlesticks. The extent of parental involvement in the group activities varies from year to year. In general, the parents, students and teacher feel that they are all engaged in a cooperative venture together. Tsedakah Each student will contribute significantly to the community. Thirty hours is the JCS minimum, although students commonly find their work so worthwhile and fulfilling that they tend to work many more hours than required. Fulfilling the community service requirement provides the students with several benefits. First, the student is often doing an adult job and tends to be treated like an adult by the others with whom s/he is working. Since the Bar/Bat Mitzvah marks a coming of age, the chance to be treated as an adult is particularly gratifying. Second, the students learn that one person can make a difference. Finally, the students connect being Jewish with something that is important and interesting to them. Our concern is not only the good of the community, but the growth of the person through service to others. Projects are chosen by the students with the help of their parents and the Society Director. Students are encouraged to define a social issue interesting to them and then identify and agency or individual project which has to do with that issue. The project need not be within the Jewish community but must reflect Jewish values and ethics. The project must be completed before the ceremony. One project for the entire time is preferable, but several (perhaps related) projects might be acceptable. Students may begin their service as early as the summer before the first school year of Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparation. The service may be done in a more concentrated span of time, if the project warrants it. We prefer to see a sustained effort over a longer period of time. Projects are approved by the parents and the Society Director. Each student keeps his or her own project journal. No external checks are made. Projects involving menial labor are not proscribed, but must be carefully evaluated. Students may not do work which would normally be done by a paid worker nor work which accomplishes routine tasks which would be performed in the normal course of activities whether or not the student contributed his or her efforts. Works should be of direct benefit. For example, improvement of hiking trails is okay but washing dishes in a nursing home is not. Fund raising for established organizations will not generally be approved since it is difficult for the students to see the direct benefit their labors have on the community or on the lives of others. Individual Study Individual study is required of each student. Students are expected to produce and present at least four major written projects which exhibit concerted, sustained effort and independent thought and analysis. (As a guideline, papers are expected to be about 1000 words and should include several references.) One project will be an analysis of the student's Torah and Haftorah portions. The other three projects may include cultural and historical topics, including, for example, a family history, a biography, the study of an event or a time period, the study of the Jews of a specific place, Jewish music, dance, art, literature and theater. Two or more minor projects may be substituted for some of the major projects with the approval of the parents and the Society Director. See the following descriptions of previous Bar/Bat Mitzvah programs for some examples of projects. Ceremony There may be one or more ceremonies each year, depending upon the size of the class and the wishes of the participants. Successful and meaningful ceremonies may include as many as five participants. Individual ceremonies may be held. Each Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony is planned by the students and their parents with the assistance of the Director. The ceremony includes roles for the students, their families and representatives of the Jewish Cultural Society. The entire membership of the Jewish Cultural Society is invited to the ceremony. Most ceremonies include several of the traditional JCS elements: a candle-lighting ceremony, a statement by the parents and one by the grandparents, music, a group presentation (which can be songs, drama, dance, etc.) and an individual presentation by each student. The music includes at least one Yiddish and one Hebrew song which should be chosen by the class. A light reception usually follows the ceremony. The style of the ceremony and any celebration afterwards is a matter of personal choice, however, many parents have questions about what is appropriate. Our JCS traditions are flexible, but most of us don't have parties you might mistake for a wedding. We tend to have moderate, fairly low-key affairs. There is usually a small reception for all who attend the ceremony. Families may serve challah and wine, or may add cakes, fruit, hors d'oeuvres, etc. Many families also invite relatives and friends to a meal or party, which may be in the home or at a restaurant, hotel or hall. Some families also have a separate party for the kids, which might even be elaborate enough to include a disk jockey. Although the parties tend to be moderate, we remind you that Mazon, the Jewish food aid organization, would be pleased to receive 3% of the amount you spend on the celebration. Many of our Bar/Bat Mitzvah students donate 10% of their monetary gifts to charity. Often they donate to the organizations for which they performed their community service. Some previous bar/bat mitzvah programs 1986 In addition to the thirty hours of community service (tsedakah), the class attended an all-city Junior High Retreat. They completed thirteen month-long projects, producing either a written report or an artistic representation on each topic. The topics included: Our JCS community, our local Jewish community, the Secular and Humanistic Jewish movement, the general community, the world Jewish community, Jewish history, Jewish literature, Jewish language, Jewish art, Jewish music or dance, Jewish food, Jewish ritual and celebration, and Looking Ahead. These projects were usually presented at a Friday evening or Sunday morning potluck attended by the students, families, the teacher and the director. This class also went skating together and made a Shabbat dinner at the teacher's home. 1988 The members of this class did their individual study during the seventh grade class only and completed four projects: a report on any aspect of Jewish history, a project on any aspect of Jewish culture (one girl made challah, a boy choreographed a dance to Israeli music, and another student researched Jewish naming practices), a study of the Torah and haftorah portion that corresponded with each child's thirteenth birthday, and a discussion of the Jewish justification of their tsedakah projects. These projects were presented at Friday evening dessert potlucks. This class went to movies and had pizzas together. The students and their parents also attended cultural events together. 1990 In 1990, the first individual Bat Mitzvah took place. In addition, a group Bar Mitzvah program was held. This class studied their Torah and haftorah portions and each Bar Mitzvah wrote one extensive research paper. (One boy learned all about ancient Jewish instruments. One studied and presented in a monologue the life of Mayer Amschel Rothschild.) This class concentrated on community service as a group. They participated in a yearlong bottle collection to benefit the Hunger Coalition. They walked on the CROP walk, helped deliver Hadassah Lox Boxes, helped to deliver Meals on Wheels, ran booths at the community Purim carnival as well as doing their individual 30 hours of service. In their sixth grade year this class took a group trip to Chicago to see the Spertus Jewish museum and other points of interest. 1992 The 1992 Bar/Bat Mitzvah class completed four projects in the sixth grade year and four in the seventh grade year. Projects included reports on a famous Jew, a report on some aspect of history, two culture projects ( one each year) a presentation of the Torah and Haftorah portions and a presentation about the community service activity. Class members also participated in the Lox Box and CROP walks. 1993 The 1993 Bar/Bat Mitzvah parents were the first to give a greater choice to the students. In addition to the Torah reports and the discussion on the various movements, the students were given seven categories and were required to choose three of them to research over the sixth and seventh grade years. The categories were: culture, history, biography, current events, literature, family history and Israel. Some of the topics presented at this group's potluck dinners were: Jewish gangsters, the Rescue of the Danish Jews, the Rise of Nazism, the Warsaw Ghetto, the laws of kashrus, Jewish musicians and the Book of Daniel. Students also presented biographies of Golda Meir, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Harry Houdini. One student made her own Jewish cookbook and distributed copies to the class members. 1996 The students in this class organized their individual reports by time period. They presented four papers over two years. In the first year, they presented one paper dealing with a topic in recent times (1914 to the present) and one dealing with modern, but not recent times (1500 - 1914.) The second year they presented one project about early times (70 -1500) and their study of their Torah portions, which includes some Biblical and post-Biblical history (1500 b.c.e. - 70 c.e.) Within these confines, each student chose at least one historical and one cultural topic to present. The Bar Mitzvah by Robert Lincoln Kutzik September 24, 1972 The topic which I have chosen for my Bar Mitzvah study is the Bar Mitzvah. I chose it because this custom is almost universally observed by religious and nonreligious Jews alike. The expression Bar Mitzvah itself is not a Hebrew expression but an Aramaic one meaning literally "Son of the Commandment, "but it actually means a person who observes the commandments or laws of the Bible which, according to tradition, number six hundred and thirteen. The term -- or even the idea -- of the Bar Mitzvah does not appear in the Bible. In fact, the Bible implies in Exodus and Leviticus that the age of legal responsibility was twenty years or older. Exodus talks about a census that was taken in which only those aged twenty or older were to be counted. The Talmud also is silent with regard to Bar Mitzvah at the age of thirteen. However, it mentions the term Bar Mitzvah twice. Both times the reference is to a person of any age who observes the commandments or laws of the Jews. The Talmud, when referring to a boy of thirteen, does not use the word Bar Mitzvah but Bar Onshin, which means one who is punishable; for at thirteen the child becomes legally responsible for any wrongdoing he may commit. But the Talmud also says that a man must be twenty years or older to serve as a judge or to inherit real estate. The Talmud comments on a verse of Genesis saying that Jacob and Esau both went to school until the age of thirteen. Afterwards Jacob continued school but Esau became a "dropout." Also, Talmudic legal rulings hold that a man is responsible for his son's education until the son is thirteen. However, this reference makes no mention of a Bar Mitzvah ceremony or the assumption of new responsibilities by the 13-year-old. Although one part of the Talmud called Ethics of the Fathers states "at thirteen the age is reached for the fulfillment of mitzvos," boys observed the various mitzvos that are associated today with Bar Mitzvah well before the age of thirteen. The Talmud says a minor -- of any age -- may be called to the Torah for an aliyah, which means the honor of being called to make a blessing at the time that the Torah is read. In 1100 c.e., six hundred years after the Talmud was written, Maimonides indicated that when a boy is mature enough to understand the significance, he may be called to the Torah, put on tephillin, etc., whatever his age. On the other hand, when a boy was thirteen he had to assume the responsibilities of citizenship in the Jewish community, including paying taxes and voting for the elected officials who were members of the town council which governed the Jewish community. Unless the 13-year-old was one of the few who continued in school he was expected to go to work and -- pretty soon -- to get married. This new status as a full-fledged citizen of the adult Jewish community is the real meaning of becoming Bar Mitzvah. The first recorded use of the term Bar Mitzvah in its modern day sense is that of Rabbi Mordechai ben Hillel, a German legal authority of the thirteenth century. All other references to the Bar Mitzvah appear after this date. From them we know that it had become the custom that on the Sabbath after the boy's thirteenth birthday a Bar Mitzvah celebration took place. The boy was called to the Torah for the first time, usually for the maftir aliyah, which means he had the additional honor of chanting a portion from the Prophets. When the boy finished his father would rise up and say, "Blessed be He Who has freed me from this responsibility." After the service the parents provided a seudah, or meal, for relatives and friends in their home. The meal was often followed by a speech by the Bar Mitzvah boy in which he showed how well he knew the Talmud. Soon the seudah -- banquet or party -- became very elaborate. In fact, such parties became so elaborate that in 1595 in Crakow, Poland, a communal tax was placed on it in order to discourage extravagance. These are the origins of the Bar Mitzvah as we know it today. The modern Bar Mitzvah is still generally celebrated on the first Sabbath after the boy's thirteenth birthday. In the synagogue usually he chants a portion of the Prophetic writings called the Haftorah. Sometimes he chants the entire section of the Torah designated for that Sabbath and occasionally he leads the congregation in worship. While this usually takes place on a Sabbath it can also be on Monday or Thursday mornings, or at the beginning of a new Hebrew month, that is, any time when the Torah is read in the synagogue. But whenever the Torah reading takes place, as in past centuries, it is followed by a party or banquet for family and friends. Since the self-governing communities which Jews lived in throughout their history until the last century or so no longer exist, and since the age when people go to work and marry is now so different, the community and social responsibilities which were the major part of being a Bar Mitzvah have disappeared. So modern Jews concentrate on the minor part connected with the synagogue and other religious activities like putting on tephillin. The Bas (Bat) Mitzvah is an innovation developed by American Jews in the twentieth century. Some people say it was invented by the great American Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan. However, it cannot be considered the idea of any one person or even a few. The Bas Mitzvah was evidently created to provide a more Americanized--liberal status of equal rights for Jewish women, especially since the Christian Confirmation is for both boys and girls. Bas Mitzvahs mainly take place in Conservative and Reform congregations. (Note: since this writing, Reconstructionism has become a greater-known movement in Jewish life. Reconstructionists also practice the Bat Mitzvah.) Some Conservative synagogues let girls hold the Bas Mitzvah on Saturday like the boys, but most have not yet allowed that. The Friday evening service is the most usual time for the Bas Mitzvah ceremony. The Bas Mitzvah will often chant the Haftorah, but it is not necessarily the one assigned for reading on that Sabbath. The Bar and Bas Mitzvah has not only been influenced by the Christian practice of Confirmation, in being for girls as well as boys, but is generally confused with it. This is why most Jews believe it is a religious rather than a communal event. The Confirmation is a religious ceremony in which people (usually teenagers) swears that they believe in their religion. The Bar Mitzvah is entirely different from the Confirmation. First of all, when a Jew is at the age of thirteen he or she automatically becomes a Bar or Bas Mitzvah. When children are born to Jewish parents they are automatically Jewish whether they later believe in the Jewish religion or not. Unlike the Confirmation, the Bar Mitzvah is not a religious ceremony. In the words of the scholar Rabbi Theodor Gaster, "it is in no sense a sacramental rite." Then what is it? It is the way the Jewish community recognizes that an individual Jew is now a citizen of the Jewish community with certain rights and obligations, much as an American citizen can vote and is legally responsible for his actions after a certain age. But many less religious and secular Jews believe the Bar Mitzvah is religious because part of it nearly always takes place in a synagogue. The reason it usually takes place in a synagogue is that the person who is Bar Mitzvah is now entitled to read the Torah. Since reading from the Torah is considered an honor and in large communities is reserved for the most prominent citizens (who are generally older people) it became the custom to give the young citizen, that is, the Bar Mitzvah boy, a chance to read from the Torah. This is the only connection between the Bar Mitzvah and the synagogue. Further proof of this is that it has always been celebrated in the home with a banquet, that is, a big meal with singing, etc. And it is here -- not in the synagogue -- that the Bar Mitzvah boy traditionally made a learned speech on some subject from the Torah. In spite of contemporary criticism of the Bar Mitzvah banquet, the fact that it is the main part of the Bar Mitzvah celebration is brought out by the recently published Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion, which states that the banquet is a Seudat Mitzvah, which means a feast celebrating the fulfillment of a religious commandment, and that the participation of the Rabbi in addressing the Bar Mitzvah boy in the synagogue is "of comparatively recent origin." The reason why the modern rabbi could make himself part of the Bar Mitzvah ceremony is because it is a relatively new tradition which there is no prescribed ceremony for. Therefore, although it is customary for part of the Bar Mitzvah to take place in a synagogue, in connection with the Torah reading, it does not have to. Although it is customary for it to take place on a Sabbath, it does not have to. My Bar Mitzvah here today is therefore in this tradition of the Jewish people since I now stand before a congregation of Jews and demonstrate that I am committed to being a citizen of the Jewish community and upholding those of its customs and values which will maintain the improve the Jewish community and humanity. These are the mitzvahs which I pledge to observe now that I am Bar Mitzvah.