 CHAPTER
THREE - Adolescent Issues and Coming-of-Age
Ceremonies
A: BACKGROUND
7. Focus on the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony
For the moment, we turn our attention in male language to male
issues, in order to examine the origins and actual ceremony of
the Bar Mitzvah.
While the ritual ceremony is not in any way mandated by Jewish
culture itself, and does not represent a theological requirement,
it has clearly developed in response to deep emotional and psychological
needs - on the part of the child, the family and the community.
A good starting point to analyse how and why this happened, is
the sole existing source that testifies to a historical tradition
of a ceremonial observation to the coming-of-age of a boy - long
before the start of the more formalised ceremony, which dates
back to the Middle Ages. It is a Rabbinic text from Massechet
Sofrim, one of the minor Tractates included as an addition in
many editions of the Talmud, and tells of a practice that developed
in the days of the Second Temple, involving boys at the beginning
of their thirteenth year. [Note: In the whole of the Bible there
is no hint of any kind of a coming-of-age ceremony, nor this particular
ceremony.]
There was a good custom ( )
in Jerusalem. When a boy was twelve years old his father would
take him and bring him before every elder [a term of respect]
that sat in the Temple, in order that they should bless him,
strengthen him and pray that he should attain a life of Torah
and good deeds…
Massechet Sofrim
This is a type of customary ritual that appears to have developed
for boys approaching the turning point of age thirteen, or in
their thirteenth year. It was clearly felt that this was the time
when they should be recognised and pulled into the chain of tradition
in some way, in order to encourage the internalisation of the
traditional values that were considered so central to the Jewish
People.
Nevertheless, even if this event had the potential to be a powerful
and meaningful experience for the young participants – since
it took place in the Temple and involved a blessing from the esteemed
elders of the community – it fell a long way short of the
full fledged Bar Mitzvah ceremony that exists today.
The idea of a formalised ceremony developed in Europe in the late
Middle Ages. Details of the early evolution of the modern ceremony
of today are sketchy, but its origins were conceptual, rather
than accidental.
It appears to have coincided with a significant change in the way
that the Halachah (the Jewish law) perceived the question of young
people observing the law. As previously mentioned, there was a
Rabbinic school of thought that believed that young people could
and should be obligated by the law before the age of thirteen,
if considered ready for it.
This tradition lasted until the Middle Ages, at which point it
began to be seriously challenged by those who supported the concept
of a definitive or landmark age for all. Preceding this historical
moment, there had also been a steady trend in the Law, at least
within the Ashkenazi world, to limit “adult” mitzvot
for boys till the age of obligation – thirteen; this appears
to have elevated the status of the change to a point where a formal
ceremony started to emerge, or became a tool to support this approach.
[This school of thought might even have become dominant for reasons
connected to historical events affecting Jewish communities of
Europe and their limited ability to maintain centres of learning,
or educate the young generation - but that is a largely conjectural
approach.]
However, the development of the particular elements that comprise
the modern Bar Mitzvah ceremony itself, was gradual; the details
are unfortunately hazy. Suffice to say, over time a number of
different elements came to the fore; they stand today at the centre
of the formal ceremony that the tradition now calls the Bar Mitzvah,
which is the next topic of discussion.
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