Chapter 2

By Steve Israel

To Chapter 4

CHAPTER THREE - ADOLESCENT ISSUES AND COMING-OF-AGE CEREMONIES

A: BACKGROUND

1. Introduction
2. Adolescence – A Major Jewish Turning-Point
3. A Life Cycle Crisis? Time for a Ceremony
4. Strange Ceremonies: Coming-of-Age in Different Cultures
5. Coming-of-Age in Judaism – Which Age is This?
6. “All Change!” – The Concept of the Automatic Change
7. Focus on the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony
8. What’s in a Bar Mitzvah – Examining the Central Elements
   8a. The Torah and the Haftarah
   8b. The Se’udah – Celebratory Meal
   8c. The Drashah or Dvar Torah – Speech
   8d. Tefillin and Minyan
   8e. The Bar Mitzvah Blessings
9. Bring on the Girls – The Big Bat Mitzvah Question
10. The Mature Bat (or Bar) Mitzvah
11. The Times They Are A-Changing: Examination of Implications
12. Recognising the Problem: Vulgarity as a Symptom
13. Proposing Solutions: Ceremony in Search of a Meaning
14. Other Options: Changing the Age

B: PRIMARY TEXTS

15. The Stages of Life According to Judaism
16. The Difference Between Before and After – The Stage of Responsibility
17. Thirteen – A Time of Moral Development
18. Mitzvot According to Development – The Other Point of View
19. An Early Coming-of-Age Custom
20. The Source of Tefillin
21. The Congregation’s Blessing
22. The Father’s Blessing
23. A Father’s Responsibility
24. Letting the Children Go
25. The Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s Blessing
26. Girls and Torah – The Controversy
27. Ostentatious Bar and Bat Mitzvah Celebrations
28. Reaching Out to the World
29. Judaism Without G-d? The Need for a New Framework

C: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

30. Changes
31. The Elements of Change
32. Responding Morally
33. Changing Boys, Changing Girls
34. Parental Responsibilities – Parental Blessings
35. Ostentation – the Great Bar/Bat Mitzvah Question
36. Thirteen Years – Thirteen Tasks
37. Coming-of-Age – But at Which Age?
38. Parents and Children – Transmission

D: Bibliography and Links