USCJ: TPI 2: Putting "Mitzvah" Back into the Bar/Bat Mitzvah

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Timely Program Ideas

TPI 2: Putting "Mitzvah" Back into the Bar/Bat Mitzvah

How many times have you been told by a friend, relative or a fellow congregant that they are attending a bar or bat mitzvah, while what they really mean is that they are attending the party celebrating the simcha? It is a sad reality of our time that the party has become the central focus, rather than the service and what it should represent for the child who is becoming a Jewish adult.

Even the child, and his or her family, often feel that the party is what is important and that the service is only something to be survived. The planning for the party is usually elaborate and expensive, and people spend more time on the seating plan than on sharing and studying the true meaning of the bar or bat mitzvah for the child and for the entire family.

Yet, the party should be a celebration and recognition of a change in the child as he (or she) moves from childhood to Jewish responsibility. The bar (bat) Mitzvah ceremony is a recognition that the child is now responsible for his actions, and is fully obligated to perform the mitzvot as an adult Jew.

The bar or bat mitzvah, therefore, should not be an end, but a beginning. It should be the start of even greater participation within the synagogue and the Jewish community. Students need to be prepared to understand their new responsibilities, and then be given a chance to fulfill them as adult members of the community.

Many Conservative synagogues across the country have confronted these issues and have developed innovative programs to help bar and bat mitzvah students understand their new responsibilities as mitzvah-obligated Jews) and to enable them to play a fuller role in the synagogue community. This issue of Timely Program Ideas will focus on some of these programs.

13-Step Mitzvah Program

One congregation developed a mitzvah program as part of their bar and bat mitzvah curriculum. The synagogue realized that the bar/bat mitzvah is symbolic of the obligations of Jewish adulthood. They therefore wanted their students to get into the habit of actively doing mitzvot. Each student and his or her family were asked to learn together and then to practice thirteen different types of mitzvot.

The program was described in a small booklet produced by the synagogue on large index cards. One side of each card describes each mitzvah in general terms, including Biblical and rabbinic sources. On the back, the cards include several different suggestions as to how the mitzvah can be observed.

Front: "These are the deeds which yield immediate fruit and continue to yield fruit in the world to come: honoring one's father and mother, performing deeds of loving-kindness, attending the house of study morning and evening… but the study of Torah is most basic of them all. (Shabbat 127a)

Back: A) The story of creation is found in the first book of the Torah. Study the story and read a commentary about it. What questions come to mind when you read the story? B) Prepare a D’var Torah on the weekly Torah reading and teach it to the fifth or sixth grade. C) Start a Jewish library in your home with the purchase of at least three books that you and your parents will read. (The rabbi or educational director should approve your choices.)

Blank cards are also included after each mitzvah so that the student and his family can describe how it felt to observe it.

It is important that teachers periodically check to see how the students and their families are doing. Teachers can also provide guidance to help students to understand and perform the mitzvot.

While copies of this booklet are available from the Circulating Library of The United Synagogue (212 533-7800, ext. 2620), this is an easy but effective program to reproduce. Use these and/or other categories of mitzvot. Then develop your own implementation ideas.

This type of program will help students (and their families) to understand the concept of mitzvah and to begin to understand what it means to be a Jewish adult.

(Ideas for the implementation of many of the steps are included in It's a Mitzvah by Rabbi Brad Artson, published by the Rabbinical Assembly and Behrman House.)

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Tzedakah Projects

Beth-El Zedeck of Indianapolis, Indiana, has developed a program to help bar/bat mitzvah students understand the importance of the mitzvah of tzedakah. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Family Seminar at Beth-El Zedeck includes a required tzedakah project. Families choose among a variety of service-oriented programs in the community. Many young people have helped at a shelter for homeless people and at the Family Support Center.

Congregations should identify possible Tzedakah projects within their community These could include food collection for the hungry, helping in a homeless shelter, gathering toys for children in shelters, volunteering at a children's hospital, or organizing a special tzedakah collection in the synagogue (e.g., a raffle, or a service auction, or a sponsored event, with the money going to a cause selected by the students.

Insure that the projects are appropriate for teens. Check with the agencies to make sure that they welcome student volunteers.

Make sure that there are enough opportunities for all the students both to have choices and to Participate. Some options will be for individuals, while others may work better if they are done by a group of students. Teachers or other adults should supervise and provide guidance for the students throughout the program.

Opportunity should be given at the end of the year for the students to make presentations to the whole school and to their parents. Displays about the student's tzedakah project can also be posted at the entrance of the synagogue on the Bar Mitzvah day so that guests can see the mitzvot that the student has been doing.

Synagogues should make sure that tzedakah opportunities are available (and strongly encourage students to participate) during the post-bar mitzvah years. This will help to keep them in the mitzvah habit.

Temple El-Emeth of Youngstown, Ohio, established a post-bar/bat mitzvah tzedakah collective. Several years ago, the congregation provided seed money to begin the program. The young people have raised funds through a variety of projects. They meet quarterly to determine allocations to appropriate agencies.

The synagogue in Youngstown provided $1200 as seed money for the project. It was stipulated that the collective would give either the interest earned or $250 (which ever was higher) to tzedakah.

The student participants in the tzedakah collective- have two obligations. 1) They have to investigate local, national and international charities. They then must decide how the grants will be used. 2) Each year, they are expected to raise money to add to the fund. This can be done in a variety of ways, e.g., raffles, auctions, sponsored walks or swims.

The students learn through action about the importance of tzedakah and about the need for each of us to work to make it a priority in our communities.