Title: Bat Mitzvah
General Information about Item:
- Initiation Ritual
- Culture: Judaism
- Informant: Sarah Alpert
- Date Collected: 2018
Informant Data:
- Sarah is from Newton, Massachusetts. She was raised by two Jewish parents who are no longer very religious. She rarely celebrates holidays, except for the major ones like Rosh Hashanah. She never really thought of herself as a Jew, but when she saw all of her Jewish friends getting Bat Mitzvahed, she knew she wanted one too. To her, in order to consider herself a Jew, she had to be Bat Mitzvahed. Sarah currently attends Dartmouth College and is 19 years old. She no longer celebrates any Jewish holidays, but she is very happy she was Bat Mitzvahed.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: I collected this folklore from Sarah Alpert, a 19 year old student at Dartmouth College. She is a close friend of mine and one of the few Jewish people I know at Dartmouth. She is a member of Hillel, the Jewish community at Dartmouth. I asked her to tell me about Jewish initiation rituals, and she told me about Bat Mitzvahs. Sarah learned about Bat Mitzvahs from a private tutor as her family did not belong to a synagogue. She invited most of her classmates and family members to the ritual, which she performed when she was 12. To her, this was a rite of passage into becoming a woman. She was proud, and said that she felt more like an adult following the event.
- Cultural Context: The Jewish culture is centered around a tight knit community. It is very important to Jews that the culture is passed on, even if they are not very religious themselves. Therefore, it is very normal for a non religious Jew like Sarah to get a Bat Mitzvah just to stay a part of the community. Even though she is not religious, Sarah said she felt like the ritual made her feel grown up.
Item:
- At the age of 12, girls can be Bat Mitzvahed. This ritual is almost identical to Bar Mitzvahs, but it is the time when a girl becomes a woman. Most girls study in Hebrew school, but some like Sarah study with a private tutor. The girl must read a section of the Torah that is assigned for the day of the Bat Mitzvah. Just like in Bar Mitzvahs, the girl is separated from her family. She must pass the test of reading from the Torah, and then is incorporated as a woman in the Jewish community. To Sarah, this ritual had nothing to do with making her parents happy, but was a way for her to become a woman in her own eyes.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Sarah: Bat mitzvah, which is the girls of the little apartments of is basically the coming of age. Money for. Jewish. Teenagers. It occurs when you’re. Supposed to be twelve year old told you’re too old for a girl. Whereas it’s thirteen years old. For a boy or maybe the opposite I forget and we have to do we have to learn a section of the Torah that corresponds to the date on what’s your. That takes place you’re about to start when it takes place and you essentially have to memorize how to read the Torah scripture straight from the Torah. Then you also have to read the corresponding piece of scripture that I like the criticism that’s actually up from the exact word for it. And you have to like the ceremony entails reading these sections from like a platform above the congregation and once you do read all the necessary parts and to sail the necessary prayers you’re considered a part of the ceremony usually by older family members. I think it depends on where you’re from. It’s about taking place but for mine at least I am but in most of my life all my immediate family and then. Some of my other relatives but not too many people. Then most I mean American teenagers at least would invite their friends from school. And I think since most Jews tend to go to camp also their camp friends and. Say. The impact on the impact on me. I am not a very religious person so I would say it had a spiritual effect on me. I would say that I always considered apartments a rite of passage. Just because I grew up in a Jewish community and had Jewish friends and I honestly didn’t know if I would want to have a Bar Mitzvah until I started hanging out with people who were all having them and I went to something else like this seems like an important stage in my life. So I had a Bar Mitzvah based off that. And I think for me I felt strange being the center of so much attention. I was the main concern for me during the event. That was why I was worried about having one. But I think overall I’m glad I did have a bar mitzvah because I think it didn’t necessarily define my transition from childhood to adulthood. It made me feel more of a complete Jew. And. Made me feel like I have more full right to say that I identify with being Jewish.
Me: Was it difficult to like memorize or learn how to read the Torah. Do you feel like they were testing you.
Sarah: I had a private tutor because I felt I didn’t belong to a synagogue. So for me I was pretty relaxed. My tutor was really nice shoes and woman who have done this with many kids before it’s over like me but from mostly secular families who still wanted to have a Bar Mitzvah ceremony and I usually enjoyed my sessions. I tried really cute cats from the rapper house and we just kind of had a little bit and then go through the day’s lesson and I mean there’s at a time in my life when I didn’t have much homework so it was like a weekly hour I spent reading and memorizing and I think from what I can remember learning the Torah wasn’t too bad because like once you recognize the patterns.
- Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah was very important to her. She felt like it was difficult, and she said it was a coming of age event for her. She invited all of his friends and family, and she had a big party afterward. While she is not very religious, she still felt like it was important to have a Bat Mitzvah.
Collector’s Comments:
- I could tell that Sarah really cared about her Bat Mitzvah. It made her family very proud, and she definitely felt like she had grown up following the ceremony.
Collector’s Name: Evan Muscatel
Tags/Keywords:
- Bat Mitzvah
- Initiation Ritual
Comparison:
- Comparison within the subgroup: Sarah is from a family of reform Jews; however, the ritual is almost the same across all types of Judaism. The Bat Mitzvah must read from the torah and she is celebrated as an adult after. This is common among all jews. However, reform jews must be 13 to have a Bat Mitzvah, while other sects of Judaism only require the girl to be 12.
- Comparison with the rest of the subgroups (Written by Katarina Nesic): The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. Some of the subgroups focus on various ethnic groups while others focus on groups within Dartmouth. The initiation rituals of the groups within Dartmouth usually have the purpose of welcoming new members into their community and are symbolic. Ethnic-based group rituals have the purpose of testing the new members. Additionally, ethnic groups’ initiation rituals tend to be related to religious practices. Initiation rituals of Dartmouth groups are not religious in character. What all groups have in common though is the fact that the process of initiation creates closeness with the rest of the group and makes one feel completely immersed into the group.