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

C: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

31. The Elements of Change

(About an hour.
Type: Symbols evaluation and meaning, in a social context)

The aim of this activity is to encourage participants to reflect on the different elements of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony.

• Explain that all traditional cultures have coming-of-age ceremonies around the time of adolescence. Ask the group what kind of elements they might expect to find in these ceremonies.
• Give the members of the group the following outlines of coming-of-age ceremonies in some traditional cultures (please refer to details in the first part of this chapter).

  In traditional Aborigine culture, the entrance to male adolescence is marked by the “walkabout”, a test in which the individual boy is sent off to spend up to a year alone in the wild. There, he will need to use the tracking and survival skills that he has learned while growing up, in order to survive on his own. If the boy passes this test and returns to his tribe, he will do so as a new, self-confident young man, secure in his ability to play a valued part in the life of the tribe.

  In certain African tribes, part of the initiation into the next stage of life includes a test of the individual's hunting skills. A youth will have to bring back a particular animal that he has hunted alone.

  In some native American cultures, there will be an element of isolation, where a boy will have to go away and survive specific night adventures.

  In addition, many ceremonies might include ritual elements of physical pain, or physical marking, such as ceremonies where participants undergo blows, whipping, or the scarring of skin.

  In many cultures, there is a ceremony for girls relating to first menstruation. The girl is isolated for a number of days in a hut, or special area, where she waits until the blood flow has stopped, at which point a (female) ceremony is held to welcome her into a new, adjusted relationship with the tribal society.

• Ask the group whether there is anything that surprises them in the ceremonies.
  • Discuss why one culture might emphasise one element, while another culture might emphasise something else.
  • Do the examples (at least, for boys) have any common features?
  • Why do so many cultures have an emphasis on physical pain?
  • What do all these things tell us about traditional societies and their ceremonies?
    Emphasise the fact that societies reflect the things that are most important for them in their coming-of-age ceremonies.
• Move to the Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony:

  What are the elements that are central in the transitional rituals in the Jewish culture?
  Mention the features that are outlined above in the first part of this chapter:

  TORAH
  SE’UDAH
  DRASHAH
  TEFILLIN
  BLESSING

• Examine the separate elements and discuss why these are the central elements in the ceremonies around coming-of-age in Judaism. - What does this tell us about Jewish culture?
• Finally, divide the group into small groups and ask each group to suggest the elements that they would like to see in a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for them:
  • They should first consider the traditional elements and deciding which if any, of the elements they would keep, or discard? Why?
  • Secondly, what are the new elements that would make the transitional ceremony most meaningful for them?
• Share the ideas in the larger group and review the similarities and differences.