JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ar mitzvah, bat mitzvah
is an equal sense of simḥah for boys and girls as they reach
juridical responsibility; he recommends celebrating the girl’s
12th birthday in some liturgical fashion. He declared that even
though it was not the custom in his community (Baghdad)
to make a se’udat mitzvah, nonetheless the event should be
celebrated on that day and the girl should wear special (Sabbath)
clothing. If at all possible, her father should buy her a
new dress so that she could say the benediction sheheḥeyanu
on the occasion of her bat mitzvah.
ISRAEL. In Israel it became customary to celebrate a girl’s 12th
birthday with a party. It was called a bat mitzvah but there was
rarely any liturgical or synagogue component. In the early 21st
century, often all the girls in a class prepare for a group celebration
after studying relevant material throughout the school
year. Some synagogues and schools do enable a ritual format
for girls while some families go to Rachel’s tomb or other sacred
sites for a party. Tourists and Israelis who desire a liturgical
and Torah element for a girl’s bat mitzvah may go to the
Western Wall to pray with the Women of the Wall.
NORTH AMERICA. There are reports of various forms of bat
mitzvah ceremonies in the American Midwest as early as
1907, but the best-known bat mitzvah ritual was created in
1922 by Rabbi Mordecai *Kaplan for his daughter Judith Kaplan
*Eisenstein. Although innovative in concept and held
in a synagogue, it was not identical to a contemporary bar
mitzvah which would have included an aliyah and the ritual
recitation of a haftarah. Rather, Judith Kaplan read a section
selected by her father from a printed Ḥumash (Five Books of
Moses). The egalitarian bat mitzvah format, identical to a bar
mitzvah, is not documented until 1940 and did not spread
across North America until after the 1960s. The history of
these ritual performances developed along denominational
lines. Initially, the Reform movement was divided over any bat
mitzvah rite as many congregations preferred a group confirmation
ceremony for girls and boys at age 15 or 16. However,
by the early 1960s, many North American Reform congregations
offered prepared girls the option of bat mitzvah as well
as confirmation. Although these early benot mitzvah generally
read from the Torah scroll, their liturgical roles were often
less than those of a bar mitzvah. Within the Conservative
movement of the 1950s and 1960s there was debate as to
where to place a ceremony for girls and what its content should
be. During the 1970s and 1980s, the ritual celebration of bat
mitzvah became ensconced within Reform, Conservative, and
Reconstructionist congregations. At the beginning of the 21st
century, most benot mitzvah in the Reform, Conservative,
and Reconstructionist movements perform the same liturgical
roles as a bar mitzvah, including reading from the Torah
scroll and recitation of a haftarah. For some the ceremony is
held on Friday night; but for most it takes place during Sabbath
morning services.
By the 1970s many in Orthodox movements also sought
ways to fit a bat mitzvah into the established order of worship
in ways that were halakhically permissible. One option, es-
tablished by Hebrew day schools in response to an Orthodox
preference for home- or school-based rituals for girls, was a
group bat mitzvah celebration. Another choice was to hold a
ceremony in the synagogue at a time when no prayer services
were taking place. An alternative possibility was to celebrate
the bat mitzvah at a separate women’s prayer service during
which a non-liturgical reading from the Torah could occur.
Even in contemporary ḥasidic and ḥaredi communities some
format for the recognition and celebration of a girl’s initiation
as an adult Jew now exists
The major impact of bat mitzvah celebrations has been to
increase the level of women’s Jewish education and synagogue
ritual participation. By the first decade of the 21st century adult
bat mitzvah ceremonies had also become a common occurrence
in synagogues of all denominations.
LEGAL RESPONSA. Rabbi Moses *Feinstein forbids the use
of the sanctuary for an official bat mitzvah. He does allow a
special birthday kiddush in the sanctuary, adding that the girl
may say some appropriate words there after services; he also
permits some form of public celebration in synagogue social
halls or in the family home. Rabbi J.J. *Weinberg recommends
a modest home-based celebration to strengthen the girl’s education
and attachment to Jewish traditions. A number of 20th
century rabbinic decisors, including Rabbi Y. *Nissim, (Noam
7:4), Rabbi Ovadiah *Yosef (Yabi’a Omer 6:29.4, Yehaveh Da’at
2:29, 3:10), and Rabbi Chanoch Grossberg (Ma’ayan, 13:42), assert
that a se’udat mitsvah (obligatory festive meal) is held in
honor of a girl’s bat mitzvah on her birthday. Rabbi Abraham
Musafiya, writing in the latter part of the 19th century (first
printed in Noam 7 (5724, 1964) p. 4), claims that there is no
difference between a boy and a girl in terms of the obligatory
nature of the festive meal and that this festive meal is customarily
held for boys and girls in France.
RELATED BLESSING. At the time of a bar mitzvah blessing
a father traditionally says Barukh she-petarani me-onsho shel
zeh, indicating that he has been released from responsibility
for his son’s acts. There is disagreement within Orthodox Judaism
whether this blessing is also recited for a girl. Some decisors
claim that a father cannot say it on the occasion of a bat
mitzvah since he is not obligated to teach his daughter Torah.
Others claim that the girl’s coming of age at 12 years requires
the same parental blessing as that for a boy at thirteen years.
Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef favorably quotes Rabbi A. Aburbia, who
recommends saying the blessing without God’s name (Yabi’a
Omer OH 6:29, p. 98).
[Norma Baumel Joseph (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: L. Loew, Lebensalter (1875), 210–22, 410ff.; I.
Rivkind, Le-Ot u-le-Zikkaron. Toledot Bar Mitzvah (1942), incl. bibl.;
Assaf, Mekorot, 4 (1943), 108, 114, 127; Sadan (Stock), in: Dat u-Medinah
(1949), 59ff.; ET, 4 (1952), 165–8; M.Z. Levinsohn-Lavi, in: Sefer
ha-Yovel shel Hadoar (1952), 42–46; C. Roth, in: A.I. Katsh (ed.), Bar
Mitzvah (1955), 15–22; J. Nacht, in: Yeda-Am, 17–18 (1955), 106–11; Joseph
Manspach, Minhag Bar Miẓvah, ed. by A.M. Habermann (1958);
B. Yashar, Le-Vat Yisrael be-Hagiyah le-Mitzvot (1963); S.B. Freehot,
166 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3