Mazel Tov!
In our Bar and Bat Mitzvah section you will find unique items for your party. Find dancefloor give-aways personalized favors, gift baskets for your guests and paper goods for your brunch. See our theme section for more ideas on adding a theme to your Mitzvah!
History of Bar Mitzvah
Originally bar mitzvah meant simply "coming of age." The ceremony developed much later.
By Hayyim Schauss
Schauss traces bar mitzvah from biblical and talmudic times, when it meant simply reaching the age of majority, through later ceremonial observances of the occasion. Particularly interesting is his focus on customs surrounding the bar mitzvah ceremony, both in Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions. He also suggests why it became traditional for the bar mitzvah to read the maftir, the last of the section of the Torah portion on a Shabbat. Adapted with permission from The Lifetime of a Jew Throughout the Ages of Jewish History (UAHC Press, now out of print).
In the Bible, a man reached the age of majority at age 20, when he was eligible for war and taxation. In talmudic times, the age of majority was moved to 13, and in recognition of the son's change in status, the father pronounced a blessing in which he praised God for relieving him of responsibility for his son's conduct. But no celebration marked the occasion.
Talmud Allows Ritual Involvement of Minors
During the talmudic era and early medieval times, a ceremony made no sense, because a minor was permitted to participate in all religious observances as soon as he was considered mentally fit [to do so]. He was called up to an aliyah to say blessings over the Torah and was supposed to wear tefillin, or phylacteries. The minor was even encouraged to fast on Yom Kippur. Two years before he turned 13, a child fasted until noon, and a year before his majority, he fasted the whole day.
The distinction between a minor and one who had obtained his majority was theoretical. The latter did as a religious duty what a minor did optionally. The majority was not distinguished by additional religious duties and privileges, and therefore the attainment of majority could not be marked by any special observances. Until late in the Middle Ages, the attainment of majority was an uneventful date in the life of the Jew.
As Minor's Religious Rights Give Way, Age of Majority Gains Importance
Gradually, during the later Middle Ages, this situation underwent a change. The religious rights that the Talmud accorded to the minor were now restricted. He was deprived of the right to be "called up" to the reading of the Torah. He was no longer permitted to wear tefillin. The attainment of majority gained new importance as an attainment of new religious rights, and the ground was prepared for a ceremony around the bar mitzvah, as a boy 13 years old was beginning to be called.
In the 16th century, among the Jews of Germany and Poland, it was the accepted custom that a boy could not begin to wear tefillin before the day following his 13th birthday. This custom was modified in the 17th century. The boy began wearing tefillin two or three months before he became bar mitzvah, so that by the time he reached his majority he was well acquainted with the practice and rules of laying tefillin.
The right of a minor to be called up to the bimah, or pulpit, for the reading of the Torah underwent a similar development among the Ashkenazim (German and Polish Jews). As far back as the 13th century among the Franco-German Jews, the privilege of being called up for the reading of the Torah was withdrawn from minors. Only on Simchat Torah, the last day of Sukkot, could minors enjoy this right. The attainment of religious majority signified the attainment of the right to have an aliyah--to witness the reading of the Torah on the bimah and to recite the blessings over it.
These two religious rights, laying tefillin and being called up to the Torah, became the most essential features of the bar mitzvah observance. In the 16th century it was obligatory to call up the bar mitzvah lad to the reading of the Torah on the Sabbath coinciding with or following his 13th birthday.
Customs Surrounding the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony
In very cautious pious circles, the elders watched lest the bar mitzvah lad be called up to the reading of the Torah before he had attained the full age of 13 years. This might be the case, for example, if the boy's 13th birthday fell on the Sabbath. For safety's sake, the custom arose that still prevails today, that even on the bar mitzvah Sabbath, the boy was not among the seven men [and, in more liberal synagogues, women] called on every Sabbath to the reading of the Torah, but after them. He was called to the reading of the last paragraph of the Torah portion, the maftir, and of the haftarah, the portion of the Prophets that is read after the week's Torah portion.
The bar mitzvah ceremony was not confined to the synagogue. New features were added that shifted the center of the celebration from the synagogue to the home of the parents, such as the bar mitzvah feast and the bar mitzvah drasha (discourse). The party held on the bar mitzvah Sabbath was regarded as a seudat mitzvah, or religious feast.
The religious aspect of the bar mitzvah feast was enhanced in Poland, where the drasha was introduced. In Poland, the center of talmudic learning in the 16th and 17th centuries, there were precocious and highly gifted boys of bar mitzvah age who were capable of delivering an original casuistic discourse in talmudic law. Naturally, these boys were the exceptions, but there were many others who could, with the assistance of their teacher, accomplish this feat of learning. It was a test and display of talmudic knowledge. In many cases, the teacher prepared the drasha, and the boy learned it by rote and then delivered it.
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