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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!masscomp!trb
From: trb@masscomp.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Bat Mitzvahs
Message-ID: <195@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Feb-84 11:48:40 EST
Article-I.D.: masscomp.195
Posted: Mon Feb 27 11:48:40 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Feb-84 06:57:12 EST
References: <3005@yale-com.UUCP>
Organization: MASSCOMP, Littleton, MA
Lines: 28

I'd like to inform all of you who might not know, and remind all of
you who do, that the concept of bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah are
simply the Jewish passages into adulthood for boys and girls
respectively.  The Jewish equivalent of turning 18 in the US.

Literally, "bar" means "son," "bat" means "daughter" and "mitzvah" means
"commandment."  "Bar mitzvah" means "son of the commandments," i.e. one
who is obligated by the commandments.

Becoming a bar mitzvah means that a man has the obligations of manhood,
he's required to fast on appropriate occasions, he may be called up for
an Aliyah (to read from the Torah), he must wear Tefillin when he
prays, etc.

NOTE WELL!  Being a bar mitzvah has NOTHING to do with whether your
parents gave you a party.  I don't know how many times I've heard
ignorant Jews say "I was never bar mitzvahed" as though the party had
some significance.  The ceremony is only an acknowledgement of what
happens whether you celebrate it or not.

So you are not bar mitzvahed, you become a bar mitzvah.  I guess
the same people who are bar mitzvahed, eventually graduate.  The
transitive verbalization (gak!) "I was bar mitzvahed" is most common
and accepted, as is the notion that the cermony is the "bar mitzvah,"
though "I became a "bar mitzvah" is proper."  Remember, you are the
bar mitzvah (until you die), the party isn't really the bar mitzvah.

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274