CHAPTER THREE - Adolescent Issues and Coming-of-Age Ceremonies

C: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

30. Changes

An hour to an hour and a half.
Type: general and self-clarification

The aim of this activity is to consider the changes that occur around adolescence and to examine the self-image of adolescents going through these changes.

• Open with a short general introduction to the question of life cycle changes. Ask the group to list the times of life they identify as major turning points, why each of those times is seen as a turning point and what the nature of the changes are. Make sure that the stage of adolescence appears in the list and explain that the changes that occur at this stage will be the focus of the activity.
• Each member of the group should spend a few minutes listing the personal changes of all kinds (physical, emotional, psychological) that happened to them (or are happening to them) in the years of adolescence. Ask them to state as precisely as possible the age that they were at the time of each of the changes. Explain that their list will remain totally private and will be seen by no-one but themselves.
• Now they should pair up, preferably with someone with whom they feel comfortable, and share whatever they feel willing to share from their list, considering what changed for them and when. Since this is such a sensitive subject it should be stated explicitly that they only need discuss the items and issues with which they feel comfortable.
• In the framework of the whole group, raise the subject of ceremonies:
  - Why do just about all cultures produce some kind of ceremony around the adolescent period?
  - What is a society trying to say to the participants in such a ceremony?
• Raise the question of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony.
  - What is the traditional meaning of the ceremony?
  - What is it saying to the participants?
• Share with the group the following source (a Mishnah) from the Talmud.

  A girl eleven years and one day – her vows must be examined [to see if she understood the significance of what she was doing]. If she is twelve years and one day her vows are valid...
  A boy twelve years old and one day – his vows must be examined. If he is thirteen years and one day old, his vows are valid…
  When they are younger than this, even though they say, “We know in whose name we have vowed it”… their vow is no vow. But when they are older than this, even though they say, “We know not in whose name we vowed it”… their vow is a valid one…
  Mishnah: Niddah 5:6

• Examine the source.
  - What is it saying?
  - How does it see the transitional point?
  - What is the person at the second age stated (a girl of twelve and a day, a boy of thirteen and a day) regarded as accountable for that they were not accountable for a year or even a day earlier?
• Ask the group whether they feel that they were ready for this type of responsibility at that time of life? Explore in which ways or areas they felt they were ready, and for which they felt they were not. Summarise those responsibilities that they think they were capable of taking on at that stage.
• Individually, group members now write their own version of the Mishnah, reflecting the responsibilities they feel that boys or girls of that age are capable of assuming.
• Share the outcomes.
• Conclude with this quotation about changes in the life of man and the questions below:
  He used to say: At five years old one is fit for the Scripture, at ten years for the Mishnah, at thirteen for the fulfilling of the commandments, at fifteen for the Talmud, at eighteen for the marriage canopy, at twenty for pursuing [usually understood as pursuing a calling], at thirty for authority, at forty for discernment, at fifty for counsel, at sixty to be an elder, at seventy for grey hairs, at eighty for special strength, at ninety for bowed back; and at a hundred, a man is as one who has already died and has passed from the world.
  Mishnah: Pirkei Avot 5:21
• What does the text say about age thirteen (and what does it imply about age twelve for a girl)?
  - Why the emphasis on mitzvot?
  - What does that say about Jewish culture?