Rabbi's Messages

Becoming B'nai MItzvah

on Sunday, 24 January 2016.

A Bar Mitzvah is not something you have. It’s something you become.

Yes, I know we all say “I had my Bar Mitzvah,” or “My daughter is having her Bat Mitzvah.” We’re all saying it wrong.

The Hebrew “Bar/Bat Mitzvah” means “Son or Daughter of the commandments.” It is a statement of having reached a certain age (traditionally 13), at which one is capable of taking on responsibility for Jewish actions and choices. Before that age, we are beholden to others to care for our spiritual needs. After that age, we take it upon ourselves.

The truth is, every Jewish person becomes a Bat or Bat Mitzvah automatically at the age of 13. Every Jewish person – by virtue of reaching the age of majority – takes on responsibility for fulfilling the ethical and ritual commandments of Judaism. We are responsible to give tzedakah to the poor and to do our part in repairing the world. We are responsible to shape a meaningful Shabbat practice, and to think deeply about the meaning of prayer and kashrut and God in our lives.

We are responsible to keep on learning.

The members of Kol Ami’s Adult B’nai Mitzvah class have taken that responsibility very seriously over the last 18 months. For a year and a half, they have met weekly to discuss and debate. To learn about history and ritual, to wrestle with God and ethics, to share beliefs and practices with one another.

And along the way, something extraordinary happened. A group of 13 people morphed into a community – building relationships with one another that will last long past the end of the program. This is Relational Judaism in action.

On February 6 at 10:30am, 13 remarkable individuals will be called to the bima – many of them for the first time – to chant Torah, to lead us in prayer, and to celebrate the learning and building they have done. We hope you can join us.

If you are interested in joining the next cohort of Adult B’nai Mitzvah, slated to begin this September, please contact Rabbi Streiffer.

In Pirke Avot, it says, “Turn the Torah around and around, for everything is in it.” May we never stop learning. May we never stop growing. May we never stop challenges ourselves to be our best.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Micah Streiffer