The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020

Home , Avraham Gombiner, David Golinkin, Mikveh, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Yitzhak Nissim, Yitzhak Yosef

David Golinkin (SCHECHTER INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES)

In 1928–1929, the Hebrew writer A.A. Kabak (1880–1944) published a well- received trilogy titled Shlomo Molkho, whose eponymous character is based on the false messiah Solomon Molkho (ca. 1500–1532) of Lisbon. The first volume offers an account of Solomon’s life as a child. At age five, his parents are killed by the Inquisition for practicing Judaism, whereupon he is placed in a monastery. Years later, the family’s faithful servant Ferdinand comes to the monastery; there, in secret, he gives the boy nightly lessons in Hebrew and Torah: “Thus Ferdinand prepared the boy for the day when he would become Bar Mitzvah. On that day, [he] would enter the sacred covenant of his people . . . The night before the big day, Ferdinand reviewed all the prayers and blessings of the Bar Mitzvah ceremony.” When the day arrives, Solomon is taken by a wealthy man to his palace. There they enter a pit leading to a large cellar, where Solomon finds a congregation of crypto-Jews wrapped in tallitot. He is called up to the Torah: “Rise, Solomon, son of Meshulam Molkho!” Later, the prayer leader makes a short speech, which sounds like what a rabbi would say to a bar mitzvah boy today. It’s a very moving story, which is why Azriel Eisenberg included an English translation in his popular The Bar Mitzvah Treasury in 1952.1 There is only one problem—such a story could never have happened, because Sephardic Jews did not begin to observe what we call a bar mitzvah ceremony until the 20th century.2 One of the challenges of studying any Jewish custom is that we tend to view it in an anachronistic fashion: we think that what we do today is what was always done. Therefore, in this essay we shall begin with the prehistory of the bar mitzvah ceremony followed by an overview of the four basic components of the bar mitzvah ceremony before the year 1800, as suggested by Michael Hilton,3 and then a description of six major changes that occurred in modern times. At the conclusion, we will list a series of other changes that have occurred in recent decades, all of which require further study.

David Golinkin, The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 In: No Small Matter: Features of Jewish Childhood. Edited by: Anat Helman, Oxford University Press (2021). © Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197577301.003.0012 The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 189

The Pre-History of Bar Mitzvah

Originally, the mishnaic tractate Avot had five chapters; the sixth, titled “Perek kinyan Torah,” was added later in order to provide six chapters for recitation and study in the interval between Passover and Shavuot.4 At the very end of the tractate Avot (5:21), R. Yehudah ben Teimah is purported to have said: “Five years old for Mishnah, ten years old for Bible, thirteen years old for mitzvot . . . .” This passage caused numerous rabbis and scholars over the course of many centuries to believe that the source for a boy becoming a bar mitzvah at age 13 is the Mishnah, which was edited in Eretz Israel some 1,800 years ago. Yet, in truth, this passage is a very late addition to the tractate. The rabbis quoted in Ketubot 50a are unaware of it; it appears after the standard “Yehi ratzon” ending of many tractates; and it’s missing from four of the most important manuscripts of Avot. Many medieval rabbis such as Maimonides (d. 1205), R. Menahem Hameiri (d. ca. 1315), R. Yitzhak Abarbanel (d. 1508), R. Shlomo Ha’adeni (d. ca. 1624), and R. Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller (d. 1654) did not have this passage in their copies of Avot or stressed that it was a late addition. Indeed, all modern Talmud scholars have reached the same conclusion.5 Furthermore, in a classic article published in 1990, Yitzhak Gilat provided con- clusive evidence that this appendix to Avot could not possibly have been part of the Mishnah, since the statement “thirteen years old for mitzvot” is contradicted by numerous passages both in the Mishnah and elsewhere in Tannaitic literature.6 According to the Tannaim (ca. 70–200 C.E.), certain mitzvot are required in infancy, others as soon as a minor (katan) is old enough to properly understand or perform what is required, others at age 12 (girls) or 13 (boys), and others at age 20. For example, “a minor who knows how to speak, his father teaches him Torah, keriyat Shema, and Hebrew” (Tosefta Hagigah 1:2, ed. Lieberman, p. 375). “A minor who no longer needs his mother is obligated to dwell in a sukkah”; Shammai the Elder required his newborn grandson to dwell in the sukkah (Mishnah Sukkah 2:8). A young boy who can ride on his father’s shoulders or hold his hand is obligated to ascend to Jerusalem with his father on the three pilgrim festivals (Mishnah Hagigah 1:1). Furthermore, two of the standard features of today’s bar mitzvah ceremony are that a bar mitzvah boy begins to put on tefillin at or shortly before age 13 and that he has his first aliyah to the Torah right after turning 13. These later customs are directly contradicted by well-known passages in Tannaitic literature: “a minor . . . who knows how to take care of his tefillin, his father buys him tefillin” (Tosefta Hagigah 1:2); “A minor reads from the Torah [in public] and translates [the Torah reading] into Aramaic [in public]” (Mishnah Megillah 4:6); “Our Sages have taught: All go up for the count of seven [who read from the Torah], even a minor . . .” (Megillah 23a). In other words, not only does “13 years old for mitzvot” contradict numerous passages in Tannaitic literature, but two of the standard features of the bar mitzvah ceremony are in direct opposition to Tannaitic halakhah. Throughout the centuries, various rabbis and scholars have adduced sources to “prove” that age 13 is the age of mitzvot and that our modern bar mitzvah ceremony is of ancient lineage. Here are two well-known examples. 190 David Golinkin

According to some editions of the tractate Soferim, there was “a good custom in Jerusalem [for parents] to teach their minor sons and daughters [to fast on Yom Kippur], eleven years old [to fast part of the day], twelve to fast the entire day” (Soferim 18:7, ed. Higger, pp. 318–319). Furthermore, some editions of this tractate even have the reading “thirteen” instead of “twelve.” Saul Lieberman, however, has pointed out that six manuscripts of Soferim have the reading “one year old [to fast part of the day], two years old to fast the entire day.” This agrees with the approach of Shammai the Elder that even minors are required to fast on Yom Kippur.7 Thus, this source actually contradicts the claim that boys should start fasting at age 13. Similarly, Rabbeinu Asher (Germany and Spain, 1250–1327) states in a responsum that the age of 13 for bar mitzvah is “halakhah leMoshe misinai,” “a law from Moses at Sinai.” This assertion has no ancient basis.8 Other “proofs” for the age of 13 are equally problematic.9

Four Standard Characteristics of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony prior to 1800

In order to understand how the bar mitzvah ceremony changed after the year 1800, we must first delineate what existed beforehand. As Michael Hilton has pointed out, four standard features of the bar mitzvah ceremony developed over the course of the centuries.10 These are presented below in chronological order.

Barukh sheptarani mei’onsho shel zeh

The blessing “Barukh sheptarani mei’onsho shel zeh” (Blessed is He who has absolved me of the punishment of this one”) is based on a passage in Bereishit Rabbah (63:10, ed. Theodor-Albeck, pp. 692–693).11 R. Elazar b”r Shimon learns from Genesis 25:27 that “a person should take responsibility for his son for 13 years; from that point forth, he should say: ‘Blessed is He who has absolved me from the punishment of this one.’ ” Although it is not clear that R. Elazar b”r Shimon intended this as a legal ruling, medieval rabbis thought that he did. The following rabbis ruled that a father should recite this blessing when his son reaches the age of 13: R. Yehudah ben Barukh (Germany, ca. 1075); R. Yehudah ben Yakar (Provence, France, Barcelona, ca. 1175); R. Yitzhak ben Abba Mari (Provence, d. 1193); “The rulings of the rabbis of France” (ca. 1250); Rabbeinu Avigdor Tzarfati (France, ca. 1260); R. Shimshon b”r Tzadok (Germany, ca. 1300); R. Aharon Hakohen of Lunel (Provence, ca. 1300); R. Ya’akov Moellin (Maharil) (Germany, d. 1427); glosses on the Custom Book of R. Isaac Tyrnau (Germany, ca. 1425ff.); R. Yisrael Isserlein (Austria, d. 1460); R. Moshe Isserles (Cracow, d. 1572); the Christian Hebraist Johannes Buxtorf (Basel, 1603); R. Yosef Yuzpa Hahn (Frankfurt, d. 1637); and R. Yosef Yuzpa Kashman Segal (Frankfurt, d. 1759).12 The sources above differ as to the wording of the blessing and as to whether one should recite just “Barukh” or the normal formula “Barukh atah hashem eloheinu The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 191 melekh ha’olam.” Some of them say that the blessing should be recited after the son reaches the age of 13 years without saying where or when this should be done. But some of the early sources say that the blessing was recited “the first time that his son stood up in public to read from the Torah.” Rabbeinu Avigdor says that a father must recite the blessing when the son is thirteen years and one day old, when he stands up to read from the Torah, and that the father needs to place his hands on the son’s head while reciting the blessing. The Maharil and the glosses to R. Isaac Tyrnau talk about a boy who is “bar mitzvah,” the boy reading Torah for the first time, and the blessing barukh sheptarani. It is clear from the above sources that this blessing was widely used in Germany, France, and Provence from ca. 1075 until it was codified by R. Moshe Isserles (Rema) in the Shulhan Arukh ca. 1570, after which it became a standard custom of German and East European Jews.13

The Aliyah to the Torah

As mentioned above, according to the mishnah in Megillah and other talmudic sources, a minor may read from the Torah in public. Indeed, José Faur published an exhaustive study in 1985 in which he showed that Yemenite and some other Jewish ethnic groups continue to call children up to read from the Torah and to recite the Torah blessings.14 In Germany and Eastern Europe, the halakhic authorities slowly but surely did away with this practice and ruled that only a boy aged 13 years and one day may read from the Torah and recite the blessings. Ya’akov Gartner uses this fact to explain some of the sources mentioned above regarding the blessing of barukh sheptarani: “Because of this new practice of not calling a minor up to the Torah, the Ashkenazic custom (minhag) found in the first aliyah of the young man who reached the age of 13 an appropriate opportunity to recite a blessing whose purpose was to signify that the young man is now a bar mitzvah.”15 In other words, Ashkenazic Jews in Germany and France decided to connect the father’s blessing for a child who just turned 13 to the child’s first aliyah after turning 13. The 13th-century description of Rabbeinu Avigdor already sounds like a dual ceremony, while the 15th-century descriptions of the Maharil and the glosses on R. Isaac Tyrnau include both items—the barukh sheptarani blessing and the aliyah—along with the term “bar mitzvah.” As time went on, this first aliyah occurred on Shabbat morning, with the boy leading the opening formula (zimun) for the Grace after Meals and serving as the prayer leader (sheliaḥ tzibur) the night before or on Shabbat morning. This was the custom of R. Yisrael Isserlein (Austria, d. 1460) and R. Yosef Yuzpa Hahn (Frankfurt, d. 1637).16 R. Yuzpa Shamesh (Worms, 1604–1678) has left us a full-blown description of a “classic” Ashkenazic bar mitzvah:

A thirteen-year-old young man is called bar mitzvah. . . . On the Shabbat right after he is thirteen and one day, most of the bar mitzvah boys are the ḥazanim during the reading, to read the weekly portion in public [= as Torah readers]. . . and the young man is obligated 192 David Golinkin

to be called to the Torah [= to recite the blessing]. And when the ḥazan . . . makes a “mi sheberakh” [prayer] for the young man, his father goes up to the [Torah reading] tower, and places his hands on the head of the young man, his son, the bar mitzvah, and says: “Barukh atah hashem eloheinu melekh ha’olam shepotrani me’onsho shel zeh” . . . silently, and then the father returns to his place in the synagogue. And there are some bar mitzvah young men who have a good voice and are proficient to pray in public, and they pray at the beginning of Shabbat “Barekhu” and the Shabbat morning service [shaḥarit] and the additional service [musaf], either all of them, or whichever services they can . . . 17

As time went on, various Jewish communities enacted rabbinic ordinances (takanot) regarding whether bar mitzvah boys could read from the Torah and whether the aliyah of a bar mitzvah boy takes precedence over that of a bridegroom or the father of a newborn child.18

A Festive Meal

There are three early sources that might indicate an obligatory festive meal (se’udat mitzvah) in honor of a bar mitzvah. However, each of these sources is problematic:

• In 1981, Arnaldo Momigliano published an English translation of a Latin autobiography by Judah ben David the Levite, who was born in Cologne ca. 1107 and converted to Christianity at the age of 20, whereupon he took the name Hermannus. At the beginning of his autobiography, Hermannus recounts a dream he had at age 13 in which the “Roman Emperor Henry V” gives him gifts and hosts him at a banquet at his palace. Momigliano suggests that this could be the earliest evidence for a bar mitzvah party in Germany, as it includes a banquet, presents, and maybe even a speech. However, as Hilton points out, the dream was designed simply to give a Christological message.19 Furthermore, the first solid description of a bar mitzvah party in Germany is from ca. 1550 (see below). Therefore, Momigliano’s theory is anachronistic, explaining a dream from ca. 1120 with a custom first described in 1550. • Rabbeinu Avigdor mentioned above (France, ca. 1260) makes an enigmatic statement in his commentary to Genesis 21:8: “to make a party for his son on the day when he is thirteen years old.” However, it is not at all clear what he is talking about, since this statement appears as a comment on the “great feast” (mishteh gadol) made by Abraham when his son Isaac was weaned. Therefore, this text requires further study.20 • The “Zohar Ḥadash” says that “from 13 years old and upwards, it is incumbent upon tzadikim to be joyous of heart as on the day of entering the ḥupah.”21 It also relates that R. Shimon bar Yohai made “a great feast” for his son R. Elazar when he turned 13.22 Indeed, these two passages have been discussed by many modern scholars.23 The problem is that, according to Gershom Scholem and most scholars, “the Zohar” was written by Moses de Leon, who died in Spain in 1305. But how could the Zohar describe a special se’udah for a bar mitzvah if there is no evidence that the bar mitzvah existed in Spain at all, or even among the descendants The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 193

of Spanish Jews, until the 20th century! Yisrael Ta-Shema asserts twice that these two passages reflect German-French influence on the Zohar in the 13th century, and his theory was repeated by Ivan Marcus and Michael Hilton.24 I do not find this theory convincing. In order for the Zohar to reflect a German-French custom of having a bar mitzvah feast, we would need evidence of such a feast in the 13th century, yet the only evidence given by Ta-Shema is the one enigmatic sentence by Rabbeinu Avigdor cited above. Therefore, I would like to suggest a different explanation: “Zohar Ḥadash” was first printed in Salonika in 1597 on the basis of various additional manuscripts of Zoharic material. By 1597, the idea of a se’udat mitzvah at a bar mitzvah was probably already well-known (see below). Therefore, it could be that these two passages reflect the late 16th century, not the late 13th century in Spain.25

Five major texts led to the great popularity of the se’udat mitzvah for a bar mitzvah, beginning in the 16th century. The first is the aforementioned Zohar Ḥadash. The second is the Yam shel Shlomo, written by R. Shlomo Luria in Poland in 1546 (he died in 1574) and first published in Prague in 1616–1618. In his comments on Bava Kama 7:37, he notes that the Ashkenazim—that is, the Jews of Germany as opposed to Poland—make a se’udat bar mitzvah. He adds, however, that he is not sure this is a good custom since, while the child might have reached the age of 13, he might not yet be at the age of puberty as defined in the Talmud.26 The third text is the Yalkut ḥadash by R. Yisrael ben Binyamin of Belsitz, which was first published in Lublin in 1648 and subsequently reprinted many times. In the Likutim section (no. 29), he says that it is an obligation (ḥovah) to make a se’udah for a bar mitzvah, just as on the day one enters the ḥupah, and he refers to the Zohar Ḥadash. In the Magen Avraham commentary on the Shulhan Arukh (Oraḥ ḥayim 225, subparagraph 4), R. Avraham Gombiner (Poland, d. 1683) quotes the Yalkut ḥadash verbatim as well as the Yam shel Shlomo. Finally, R. Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (Vilna and Frankfurt, d. 1712) quotes the Zohar Ḥadash in his Kav hayashar, published in Frankfurt together with a Yiddish translation in 1705. He adds that it is a “great obligation [ḥiyuv gadol] to make a se’udat mitzvah and a joyous occasion [simḥah]” on the day of a bar mitzvah.27 Since four of these works were bestsellers, especially the Magen Avraham and Kav hayashar (the latter was printed at least 84 times, frequently with the Yiddish translation), they helped spread the importance of the se’udat mitzvah at a bar mitzvah. Indeed, the popularity and excesses of this se’udat mitzvah in Poland, Germany, Lithuania, and Italy can be traced in the “sumptuary laws” designed to limit lavish ex- penditure, which are found in the takanot of 21 different communities between 1595 and 1793.28

The Bar Mitzvah Sermon

The first to mention the bar mitzvah sermon derashah( ) was R. Shlomo Luria mentioned above. Indeed, as Hilton suggests, he may be the source for the derashah.29 194 David Golinkin

Following an involved discussion as to whether it is legitimate to hold a se’udat mitzvah for a 13-year-old boy who might not have reached puberty, he comes up with a solution: “And in any case it appears that where they teach the young man lidrosh [= to give a derashah] on the meal related to the event [of bar mitzvah] it is no worse than the dedication of a new house” [which he had proved, in a previous passage, to be an occasion marked by a se’udat mitzvah]. In other words, if the boy gives a derashah, then the feast will be considered a se’udat mitzvah even if he has not reached puberty. R. Avraham Gombiner, in his Magen Avraham, summarized this ruling of R. Luria. We know from Isaac Rifkind’s bibliography of 229 printed bar mitzvah derashot or books of derashot from 1585 until 1940 that such sermons were very popular.30 The general style, even to a certain extent until the Holocaust, was pilpul, a very learned and complicated disquisition on Talmud, halakhah, and the Shaagat Aryeh by R. Aryeh Leib Ginzburg (d. 1785). Indeed, the involved allegorical derashah on Genesis 14 published by R. Ephraim Lunshitz in Lublin in 1590 still managed to arouse the wrath of R. Leopold Löw in 1875.31 This type of derashah, often given at home by the bar mitzvah boy, was captured in a beautiful painting created by Moritz Oppenheim in 1869.32

Six Major Changes in the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony after the Year 1800

Now that we have seen the four basic components of the bar mitzvah ceremony in Germany, France, Eastern Europe, and Italy, we are in a position to see what changed after the year 1800, and why.

From Bar Mitzvah to Confirmation Back to Bar/Bat Mitzvah

In general, over the course of 200 years—from 1817 until the present—the Reform movement went from bar mitzvah to Confirmation and back to bar/bat mitzvah.33 In the Conservative movement, Confirmation was practiced alongside bar mitzvah, probably from the early 1900s until the 1980s. In Orthodox synagogues, Confirmation was adopted as early as the 1820s, but bar mitzvah remained the dominant custom. The Reform movement adopted this custom from the Lutheran Protestant church. In addition to the general tendency in early Reform to imitate Christian practices, the leaders of Reform wanted an alternative to bar mitzvah because they did not believe in the binding nature of mitzvot. They wanted the children to confirm a religious creed as opposed to committing to observe mitzvot. They also wanted to develop a ceremony for girls, and bat mitzvah had not yet been invented.34 The Confirmation ceremony underwent a long development. The first Jewish Confirmation was held at the new Jewish Free School in Dessau in 1803. At the beginning, it took place in Jewish Free Schools for boys or in private homes. Leopold Zunz—one of the most important modern Jewish scholars—was confirmed in this fashion in 1807, at the Jewish Free School in Wolfenbuttel, when he was 13 years old. Originally, the ceremony was done at the age of 13 in lieu of bar mitzvah, and it The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 195 took place at the end of the school year as a form of graduation. The purpose was to initiate boys and, later, girls as a group into the Jewish faith. It consisted of learning a Jewish catechism, being tested on the catechism, and a group ceremony. Reform leaders began to confirm girls in Berlin in 1817 and in Hamburg in 1818.35 By 1822, the ceremony was moved to Reform temples. Beginning in 1811, the preferred time for Confirmation was Shavuot, “the time of the giving of the Torah.” In a typical ceremony, the synagogue was decorated with flowers. Sometimes the children marched into the sanctuary carrying flowers and offered those flowers asbikurim (first fruits). The boys wore black and the girls wore white. The ceremony consisted of a brief oral examination, a declaration of faith by the children, a reading of the Ten Commandments from a Torah scroll, the rabbi blessing the children with the Priestly Blessing, impressive music and choral singing, a sermon by the rabbi, and a speech by one of the children.36 The ceremony spread from Germany to Copenhagen in 1817; to Charleston, South Carolina in 1825; to France in 1841, where it was called initiation religieuse; to St. Thomas (then part of Denmark) in 1843; to Italy in 1844, where it was modeled on the Catholic Confirmation; and to New York in 1846. R. Ya’akov Ettlinger, a leading Orthodox rabbi, was originally opposed to Confirmation in 1830. He later changed his mind and gave the central sermon at the Confirmation held at the Great Synagogue of Altona in 1866, since the ceremony was now enforced by Prussia, which had recently annexed the province of Schleswig-Holstein.37 Confirmation was adopted by Orthodox synagogues in Italy, England, and France, beginning in 1844.38 According to a survey done in 1932, 74 percent of Conservative synagogues in the United States held Confirmation ceremonies on or near Shavuot. By 1948, “virtually all” Conservative congregations held Confirmation ceremonies on the first day of Shavuot or very close to it.39 In some Conservative synagogues, it was called Consecration, but that name never really caught on.40 In some Orthodox synagogues, Confirmation for girls was called Consecration or Bat ḥayil.41 As time went on, the age was moved up to 14–15 and then to 16–17. This was done because older children could learn and understand more, and also as a way of keeping children in Jewish schools as long as possible, since most children stopped their Jewish schooling after bar mitzvah.42 In 1890, Rabbi David Philipson fought to abolish bar mitzvah and to adopt Confirmation inall Reform temples in the United States, as did Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler in 1913.43 The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) manual of 1928 and 1959 devoted 19 pages to Confirmation and one page to bar/bat mitzvah. In 1941, Isaac Landman could still write in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Confirmation ceremony, which generally attracts congregations that overflow the synagogues, is one of the chief contributions that Reform Judaism has made to the evolu- tion of Jewish education and Jewish religious ceremonies in the American synagogue.44

However, bar mitzvah began to return to Reform Judaism in the United States by popular demand. Between the end of the First World War and 1950, many Reform temples reintroduced the bar mitzvah ceremony, and Reform rabbis began to debate the pros and cons of the issue.45 Hilton relates that when he was confirmed in England in 196 David Golinkin

1966, there were no bar mitzvah ceremonies in the British Liberal movement, but by 1982, every Liberal synagogue had reintroduced bar mitzvah along with the new bat mitzvah option.46 By 1979, the Reform movement’s Gates of Mitzvah: A Guide to the Jewish Life Cycle devoted three paragraphs to bar/bat mitzvah, followed by two paragraphs about Confirmation. In that same year, Rabbi Walter Jacob and the CCAR Responsa Committee wrote a responsum in favor of bar/bat mitzvah, while continuing to en- dorse Confirmation. The responsum begins as follows: “Bar and Bat Mitzvah are, virtually, universally observed by Reform Jews.”47 By 2001, Rabbi Mark Washofsky’s Jewish Living devoted four pages to bar/bat mitzvah and less than one page to Confirmation. Finally, in 2015, the new CCAR rabbi’s manual devotedeight pages to bar/bat mitzvah and one page to Confirmation. Where Confirmation has survived, it is sometimes called kabalat torah, receiving the Torah, based on an article by Abraham Joshua Heschel, but it appears that this ceremony will eventually disappear altogether.48 Why did the pendulum swing from Confirmation back to bar mitzvah? I believe there are four reasons:

• The Reform movement started moving back toward the observance of mitzvot with the Columbus Platform of 1937 and the San Francisco Platform of 1976, so that bar mitzvah now made sense. • As we shall see, a new celebration—that of bat mitzvah—developed in the United States, starting in 1922, and spread quickly. By the 1970s–1980s, bat mitzvah girls in the Conservative and Reform movements could have the exact same ceremony as bar mitzvah boys, including having an aliyah, reading the Torah and haftarah, leading the services, and giving a derashah. Thus, there was no longer a need for an egalitarian Confirmation service.49 • Modern, Western Jews preferred the individual bar/bat mitzvah ceremony to the group Confirmation.50 • Finally, as we shall see, the bar/bat mitzvah celebration often included endless presents, elaborate parties, and trips abroad. This probably led many children to tell their parents that they too wanted a bar/bat mitzvah.

Bat Mitzvah

There is a vast amount of literature on the topic of bat mitzvah.51 I have chosen here to focus on four specific aspects: the pre-history of the bat mitzvah ceremony before 1922; the “first” bat mitzvah ceremony; the rapid spread of the ceremony, first in the Conservative movement and then in the Reform movement; and finally, how bat mitzvah was adopted by Orthodox Jews beginning in 1944, despite opposition from some very influential halakhic authorities poskim( ). In Bar Mitzvah: A History, Hilton devotes all of Chapter 4 to bat mitzvah, yet almost all of the ceremonies he describes, beginning in 1817, are group Confirmation The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 197 ceremonies for girls, usually on Shavuot, as described above, rather than individual bat mitzvah ceremonies in which the girl has a se’udah or reads from the Torah or haftarah on a Shabbat in close proximity to her 12th birthday.52 As far as I know, there are only five sources that discuss something akin to bat mitzvah before 1922, but most of them do not hold up to careful scrutiny. As I have explained elsewhere, R. Avraham Musafiyah (Split?, mid-19th century?), wrote in an unpublished responsum:

He who makes a se’udah on the day that his daughter reaches the age of mitzvot, namely, 12 years and one day, it seems to me that it is a se’udat mitzvah as for a boy at 13 years and one day, for what is the difference? And this is a correct custom, and so do they make a se’udat mitzvah and a day of joy in the cities of France and other towns for a boy and also for a girl, and the practical halakhic implication is that if you are invited, you should go.53

Since there is no evidence of a bat mitzvah ceremony in France in the mid-19th century, whereas there is ample evidence of Confirmation ceremonies for boys and girls beginning in 1841, as shown above, I now believe that R. Musafiyah was referring to a Confirmation party rather than a bat mitzvah party. A second source from the 19th century—much more well-known and widely quoted—is that of R. Yosef Hayim of Baghdad (1833–1909) in his very influential Ben ish Ḥai. This book of halakhic sermons was first printed in 1899–1904, but the author explains in his introduction that it contains sermons from 1870 onwards. In his derashah on parashat Reeh, he states that a boy is obligated to perform mitzvot at age 13 plus one day, at which time his father should recite barukh sheptarani. The father should try to make a se’udat mitzvah for his friends and family. The most important of the invitees should put their hands on the boy’s head and bless him with the Priestly Blessing (birkat kohanim), and the boy or the father or a scholar should give a derashah. The boy should wear a new garment and recite the sheheḥeyanu blessing, and if he cannot afford new clothing, then he should recite the blessing on a new fruit.

And also a girl, on the day she is obligated to observe mitzvot [namely, 12 years and one day], even though they are not accustomed to make her a se’udah, even so, she should be happy that day and wear Shabbat clothes, and if she can afford it, she should wear a new garment and recite sheheḥeyanu and also intend [the blessing] to include her entry into the yoke of commandments.54

It should be stressed that R. Yosef Hayim is not reporting about an existing custom; he is inventing a new custom, which includes joy, Shabbat clothing, and reciting she- heḥeyanu on a new garment. In 1893, R. Meir Friedmann (Ish Shalom, 1831–1908), a leading midrash scholar of the 19th century and one of Solomon Schechter’s teachers, wrote a responsum in German on “Participation of Women in Worship.” After discussing the halakhic sources on women singing and on aliyot for women, he expresses his opposition to Confirmation for girls. He writes: “Wouldn’t it be better to call our girls as bar mitzvah [sic] to the Torah exactly like the boys?... It goes without saying that one must erect a covered staircase directly from the women’s gallery to the bimah, so that those called 198 David Golinkin up can ascend and descend without being seen.”55 I am not aware of anyone actually trying to implement this specific suggestion, but within a few decades, there were bat mitzvah girls in the United States having aliyot on the Shabbat of their bat mitzvah. In 1902, Dr. Yehezkel Caro, the Reform rabbi in Lvov (Lemberg), held some sort of celebration for girls at his temple—an innovation that was adamantly opposed by the local Zionists. Dov Sadan, who published a Hebrew article about this episode based on an account that appeared in the Russian-language Jewish periodical Voskhod, called it a “Bat Mitzvah.” However, Hizky Shoham points out that the original Russian text uses the word “Confirmation.”56 The earliest bat mitzvah in which a girl actually read from the Torah might have been that of Ida Blum (born 1908) in Calumet, Michigan ca. 1920. She recalled later in life being tutored by her father and reading a section from the Torah scroll at her Bat Mitzvah.57 On March 18, 1922, Judith Kaplan, the eldest daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983), had what is often referred to as the first bat mitzvah. There are con- flicting accounts as to what exactly transpired. Judith was 12 and a half at the time. Although people were invited in advance, the actual ceremony was only improvised on Friday night. On Shabbat morning, after the regular Torah and haftarah reading, Judith, who was sitting in the men’s section with her father, stood up below the bimah after the lifting of the Torah, recited the blessing before the Torah reading, read part of the portion of Kedoshim (Leviticus 19–20) from a printed Bible (ḥumash), and then recited the blessing after the Torah reading.58 Purists argue that, technically, this was not a bat mitzvah ceremony since Judith did not read from a Torah scroll and did not read the actual weekly portion of that Shabbat. I believe they are missing the point. Other than the little-documented example of Ida Blum, this might have been the first time that an individual girl aged 12+ stood before a congregation and read publicly from a ḥumash with the Torah blessings. In any case, even if the ceremony was not technically a bat mitzvah ceremony, it became an important precedent, given that Mordecai Kaplan was both a leading intel- lectual and a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary who was regarded as a role model by many rabbinical students. In 1933, Rabbi Kaplan complained in his diary that there had not been “a single Bas Mizvah” at his synagogue for two years, until the one that had taken place that morning.59 Yet what began as a trickle soon became a mighty stream within the Conservative movement, which quickly spread to the Reform and Orthodox movements. At the Rabbinical Assembly convention held in 1932, Rabbi Morris Silverman re- ported on a “Survey of Ritual” that he had conducted among 110 Conservative rabbis:

In regard to the question of the Bas Mitzvah ceremony, the ceremony should have been explained [in the survey] in view of the fact that some know nothing of its existence and had confused it with the Confirmation ceremony. The Bas Mitzvah is an individual ceremony for the girl and corresponds to the Bar Mitzvah ceremony of the boy. After a year of training and study of Hebrew, the girl, upon reaching the age of 12 or 13, is called up to the pulpit after the Haftara, reads in Hebrew and English the prayer “Make pleasant we therefore beseech Thee, etc.,” then reads a portion of the Bible in Hebrew and English, which The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 199

in some congregations is followed by a brief original address which the Bas Mitzvah has written herself. Then she is welcomed by the Rabbi. In some cases, a certificate is given the Bas Mitzvah or the Bas Mitzvah signs a pledge in advance. The benediction by the Rabbi concludes the ceremony. Prof. Kaplan has originated this ceremony and it is now followed in 6 congregations according to the replies. Three plan to introduce it in the near future, and 2 others intend to use it at the Friday Night Services.60

This is a very important report. On the one hand, we learn that ten years after the first bat mitzvah ceremony, most Conservative rabbis did not yet know what it was and only 6 out of 110 rabbis who filled out the survey (5 percent) conducted a bat mitzvah ceremony, as opposed to 74 percent who did Confirmation.61 On the other hand, three more planned to introduce it on Shabbat morning and two on Friday night. The report also supplies a number of important details regarding the bat mitzvah ceremony in the 1930s. By the time of Rabbi Morris Goodblatt’s “Survey of Ritual” in 1948, more than 33 percent of Conservative synagogues had a bat mitzvah ceremony, and according to Marshall Sklare in his classic work Conservative Judaism (1955), 51 percent of synagogues had instituted the ritual, even though, usually, only a small group of families in those synagogues availed themselves of the ceremony.62 By 1962, when Rabbi Aaron Blumenthal published a detailed survey based on 264 Conservative synagogues, 85 percent conducted individual bat mitzvah ceremonies, 7 percent held group bat mitzvah ceremonies, 4.5 percent held both, and 3.5 percent held none. Of the individual ceremonies, 66 percent were held on Friday nights, 11 percent on Shabbat mornings, 13 percent on both Friday night and Shabbat mornings, and the rest on Sunday evening, weekday afternoon (minḥah) services, or Festivals.63 By 1995, it appears that all Conservative synagogues held Shabbat morning bat mitzvah ceremonies.64 The ceremony itself was also transformed over the course of time. As hinted in Rabbi Silverman’s report, in many Conservative synagogues the bat mitzvah girl read the haftarah on Friday night. This was done because women and girls did not have aliyot in Conservative synagogues until the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards issued a ruling allowing the practice in 1955. It is worth stress- ing that the 1955 responsum by Rabbi Aaron Blumenthal allowed aliyot for all women, whereas the responsum by Rabbi Sanders Tofield allowed aliyot only for bat mitzvah girls. When one reads the discussion at the Rabbinical Assembly convention that year, one gets the distinct impression that the main impetus for writing these responsa was to allow bat mitzvah girls to have aliyot and read from the Torah on Shabbat morning.65 The transformation of the ceremony in Conservative synagogues is epitomized by North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, Illinois, which was the basis of Marshall Sklare’s Lakeville Studies done in the 1950s. The synagogue was founded in 1948, and on Friday evening, October 20, 1950, Beverly Joyce Rubinstein celebrated the first “Bas Mitzvah.” In 1952, Rabbi Philip Lipis formed the first bat mitzvah class of three girls, and in 1954 he founded a Bat Mitzvah Club to provide activities similar to the boys’ Tephilin Club. In January 1974, Rabbi Samuel Dresner eliminated the Friday night bat mitzvah, thereafter to be celebrated on Shabbat morning.66 200 David Golinkin

As shown above in the section on Confirmation, the bat mitzvah ceremony moved from the Conservative movement to the Reform movement and gradually pushed aside the Confirmation ceremony. More surprisingly, the bat mitzvah ceremony was also slowly but surely adopted by Orthodox rabbis and synagogues, though it took different forms due to halakhic restraints and opposition. Hilton relates that Rabbi Jerome Tov Feinstein instituted the Friday night bat mitzvah ceremony at Anshe Emes in Brooklyn in 1944. It consisted of the girl lighting candles and answering questions about what she had learned.67 One of the best ways of tracing the development of a halakhic issue in the Orthodox world is to follow the trail of responsa written on the subject. Many of these responsa have been summarized in various articles.68 The responsa can be divided into three categories: One group of poskim, mostly Ashkenazic, opposed any form of bat mitzvah party. In a responsum addressed to the Rabbinic Association of London in 1927, R. Aharon Walkin expressed fierce opposition to Confirmation ceremonies for girls as a trans- gression of the commandment “not to go in the ways of the Gentiles” (Leviticus 18:3); because it’s a Reform innovation; and because it’s forbidden to do anything new. In 1960, R. Moshe Stern of Brooklyn maintained that there is no “bat mitzvah” celebration since there is no change in the girl’s pattern of observance. He then opposed the custom for the same three reasons as R. Walkin. In 1988, R. Eliezer Waldenberg of Jerusalem opposed a bat mitzvah party at a hall, or even as a public party at home, since it could lead to licentiousness. Furthermore, he had never heard of anyone “among the camp of those who fear God’s word” (bein maḥaneh haḥaredim lidvar hashem) who did this or even suggested the practice. R. Moshe Malka, one of the few Sephardic rabbis to oppose bat mitzvah, argued in 1980 that it was an imitation of Reform and Conservative Jews, and had the scent of Catholicism. The latter comment probably indicates that he confused bat mitzvah with Confirmation. The next two rabbis appear to be opposed to any bat mitzvah party, but, in fact, allowed it. In 1956, R. Moshe Feinstein forbade any bat mitzvah celebration in a synagogue, even at night, but allowed a “simḥah” at home; this would not be a se’udat mitzvah, but merely a birthday party. He termed the bat mitzvah ceremony in the synagogue an optional activity and “mere foolishness” (hevel be’alma), since it originated with Reform and Conservative Jews. In a later responsum, he explained that one does not make a se’udah for a girl since there is no difference in her actions before and after age 12. Yet, in a third responsum from 1959, he relented quite a bit and allowed the bat mitzvah girl to say a few words at the kiddush in the synagogue after the service, but not on the bimah. In 1958, R. Meshulam Rath of Bnai Berak wrote a responsum to Dr. Sh. Z. Kahana, Director General of the Ministry of Religion, regarding a plan for bat mitzvah celebrations. He ruled that the father cannot say the blessing barukh sheptarani since he is not required by the Talmud to educate his daughter. Even so, he ruled that the day could be celebrated at home or in the school for girls where the daughter studies, together with relatives and friends, and that the teacher, male or female, could give a lecture to explain the obligations of a Jewish girl who has reached the age of mitzvot. As for the more lenient camp, the main Ashkenazic rabbi to defend the bat mitzvah party was R. Yechiel Ya’akov Weinberg in 1963. He asserted that the bat mitzvah was The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 201 not a Gentile practice. As for its being a new custom, he argued that, today, when girls receive a secular education, both logic and pedagogy almost require us to celebrate a girl’s reaching the age of mitzvot, as discrimination was an insult to the girls. He, agreed, however, with R. Feinstein that the celebration should take place at home or in the hall next to the sanctuary. Similarly, R. Ephraim Greenblatt permitted a party at home in 1966, while in 1973, R. Hanokh Zundel Grossberg allowed a small family party at home, accompanied by words of Torah. A series of well-known Sephardic poskim ruled, in the footsteps of R. Avraham Musafiyah and R. Yosef Hayim of Baghdad quoted above, in favor of a bat mitzvah celebration at home, which included the girl wearing a new dress and reciting she- heḥeyanu over both the dress and the occasion. These poskim included R. Ovadia Hadaya in 1955, R. Yitzhak Nissim in 1964, R. Amram Aburbiya in 1965, and R. Hayim David Halevi in 1976. R. Ovadia Yosef ruled in 1976 and 1978 that the bat mitzvah party was a good custom, and that it was appropriate that divrei torah and songs of praise to God be recited there. He did not restrict the party to a private home. In addition, R. Aburbiya ruled that it’s worthwhile for the father to recite the barukh sheptarani blessing, while R. Yosef ruled that there is no apprehension (ḥashash) for a father to do so. Thus, many Orthodox rabbis ruled from 1956–1978 that a bat mitzvah party may be held at home, along with words of Torah. Some allowed the father to recite barukh sheptarani and some even allowed marking the occasion at a kiddush in the synagogue building. In the 1980s, Orthodox rabbis and laypeople became more liberal in their practices. In a liberal Orthodox synagogue in Montreal ca. 1987, the rabbi called the ceremony bat ḥokhmah (a daughter of wisdom) instead of bat mitzvah. The ceremony could be held on Shabbat morning, Friday night, Saturday evening, or Sunday. If held on Shabbat morning, it took place after the service ended; the men and women sat together in the synagogue in order to indicate that it was after the service. The girl stood on the bimah and gave a devar torah she had prepared, which was not related to the weekly portion.69 In other words, everything was done to indicate that this was not like a regular bar mitzvah. Beginning in the 1970s, some Orthodox women began to hold separate “Women’s Tefillot” (prayer services) that included reading the Torah and haftarah. This enabled girls to have a bat mitzvah in which they read the Torah and haftarah portions and gave a devar torah. There are detailed descriptions of such bat mitzvah ceremonies as early as 1981.70 In addition, Modern Orthodox women and rabbis developed other alternatives, such as the bat mitzvah girl doing a siyum of a tractate of Mishnah or Talmud, or reading the Book of Esther from a scroll on Purim or the Song of Songs on Pesach.71 Notwithstanding, the Orthodox bat mitzvah ceremony was frequently accompanied by halakhic tension, as the family struggled with issues pertaining to tradition versus change.72

The Transformation of the Derashah

As we have seen, the classic derashah delivered by the bar mitzvah boy from the 16th century, and in Eastern Europe until the Holocaust, consisted of a learned talmudic 202 David Golinkin pilpul meant for rabbis and scholars.73 According to Hilton, relying on a master’s thesis by Meir Sered, the classic talmudic bar mitzvah speech in the 17th century lasted 30–60 minutes. Later on, this was replaced by a maamar (speech) lasting about 10 minutes. Toward the end of the 18th century, the maamar was replaced by a devar torah in the vernacular. In Eastern Europe, a teacher was frequently paid to write the speech in Yiddish, German, Polish, Hungarian, or another local language. Frequently, the child himself—as in the case of Sholom Aleichem in 1872—did not understand the hour-long speech he had memorized. As East European Jews transitioned to America, the teacher was replaced by manuals in Yiddish, English, and Hebrew. These manuals included S. Druckerman’s Bar Mitzvah: A Selection of Confirmation Speeches in Hebrew, Yiddish, English (1907); George Selikovitch’s The Jewish-American Orator (1908), which included 517 choice speeches, toasts, and sermons in Yiddish, English, and Ancient Hebrew; and Simon Glazer’s The Bar Mitzvah Pulpit: Sermonettes for Bar Mitzvah Boys and Others (1928). The last such manual was published in 1954. Finally, in more recent decades, the children have increasingly been writing a speech or devar torah with the help of a teacher, rabbi, or parent in which they discuss the weekly portion or haftarah and its meaning to them.

The Transformation of the Se’udah

We have seen above that even before the year 1800, there was a tendency to hold fancy bar mitzvah se’udot, which led to sumptuary laws seeking to limit the excess. In Eastern Europe, however, the celebration tended to be very modest, including some herring, kichel and schnapps.74 Beginning in the late 19th century, especially in England and in North America, rabbis and educators faced a growing problem of elaborate and expensive parties. Joselit, Marcus, and Hilton have documented some of these excesses.75 They included pur- chasing a bar mitzvah suit and hat, as well as studio photos. In the late 19th–early 20th centuries, printed invitations and newspaper ads invited the guests to home receptions on Saturday or Sunday afternoon or evening. After the First World War, people began to hold lavish, catered affairs at hotels, including special napkins, matchbooks, place cards, an orchestra, and a five- to six-course dinner to which family, friends, and business associates were invited and expected to bring gifts. There was also a cake and a “Candle Lighting Ceremony,” which sometimes took the place of the synagogue ceremony. These new excesses were spoofed by Sam Levinson in a comic sketch recorded in the 1940s titled “The Story of a Bar Mitzvah Boy”; and skewered by Mordecai Richler in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and by Herman Wouk in Marjorie Morningstar (1955) and This Is My God (1959). They were attacked by Mordecai M. Kaplan in 1935 and Norman Podhoretz in 1956. They were also opposed by rabbinic organizations, especially in the Conservative and Reform movements. Other rabbis tried to direct the gift-giving to Jewish items or subscriptions to Jewish maga- zines and to include blessings, Jewish songs, and Jewish dances at the parties. In more recent years, rabbis and educators have succeeded in channeling some of the gift- giving to worthwhile mitzvah projects chosen by the bar/bat mitzvah child. The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 203

The Adoption of the Ashkenazic Bar Mitzvah Ceremony by Sephardic, Oriental, and Yemenite Jews

To the best of my knowledge, Sephardic, Oriental and Yemenite Jews did not have what we today call a bar mitzvah ceremony at age 13 before the 20th century. Indeed, I think that many of them encountered this ceremony for the first time when they made aliyah to the state of Israel or migrated to Europe or North or South America. The halakhic reasons for this were stated above. According to talmudic law, a minor may read from the Torah and have an aliyah, and a father purchases tefillin for his son as soon as the boy knows how to take care of them. Since most of these Jewish communities followed talmudic law regarding these two practices, the age of 13 might have had a legal meaning, but it could not have been an occasion for celebrating the first aliyah or putting on tefillin for the first time. Indeed, the big celebration among Sephardic and Oriental Jews was in honor of putting on tefillin on a weekday at age 11 or 12 andnot for having an aliyah on Shabbat at age 13. Thus, in general, if we want to know what Sephardic and Oriental Jews did in the past, we need to consult 19th-century sources. Books written in the late 20th century in Israel or the United States already show a marked influence of Ashkenazic bar mitzvah customs. In the past, Yemenite Jews did not have any kind of bar mitzvah ceremony; they first encountered this ceremony when they made aliyah to Israel. This is the consensus of R. Yosef Kafih, Yehudah Ratzhabi, Yosef Shalom Habara, Shimon Garidi, Zohar Amar, and S.D. Goitein.76 In contrast, Erich Brauer and A.Z. Idelsohn maintained that Yemenite Jews did have a bar mitzvah ceremony,77 but the testimony of two Ashkenazic scholars cannot set aside the testimony of all the others, most of whom are Yemenites who were born and raised in Yemen. R. Kafih emphasized that, in Yemen, a father would buy tefillin for his son at age 8 or, at the latest at age 11, following talmudic law. Furthermore, they did not recite barukh sheptarani because it contradicts the Rambam—and Yemenite Jews decide Jewish law according to the Rambam. Space does not allow us to present separate sources for each ethnic group (’edah) within the wider community of Sephardic and Oriental Jews. I shall therefore give a composite description of their customs, and readers can consult the sources listed in the endnote. This composite is based on sources from London, Amsterdam, Gibraltar, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jerusalem (Sephardim), Salonika, Caucasus, Baghdad, Zaku (Kurdistan), and Afghanistan. The main differences from Ashkenazic practice were as follows: the ceremony took place well before the boy’s 13th birthday; the main event was putting on tefillin for the first time on a weekday and not the aliyah on Shabbat; the blessing barukh sheptarani was not recited; and in some ’edot, the ceremony did not include a derush (derashah). The following components were usually included in a Sephardic/Oriental bar mitzvah before the 20th century: The main event was the hanaḥat tefilin ceremony, which took place at age 11, 12, or 12 and a half. The ceremony took place on a Monday or Thursday, or even on a day when the Torah was not read. The boy frequently had a special haircut and was dressed in special clothes like a bridegroom (ḥatan). Moreover, as with a ḥatan, he was frequently accompanied to or from the synagogue by a procession. A rabbi and the father and some elders helped wrap the tefillin on the 204 David Golinkin boy’s arm and head; various relatives, especially women, removed the tefillin after the service. In some ’edot, the boy gave a derush; in others not. There were special foods right after the ceremony and/or large se’udot in the boy’s house either before or after the event. Tzedakah (alms) was often given to the poor, or else money was collected to pay the teacher. On a Monday or Thursday, the boy might have an aliyah. On the Shabbat after the tefillin ceremony, the boy might read the Torah or have an aliyah as the mosif (additional aliyah), or read the haftarah. Special piyutim (liturgical poems) were sung. At age 13, wealthy families made an additional se’udah.78 In the 20th century, and especially after 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Sephardic and Oriental Jews were expelled from or forced to flee their places of birth and made aliyah to Israel or migrated to Europe, North and South America, they were strongly influenced by the Ashkenazic elite in Israel or by the Ashkenazic majority in other countries. They quickly adopted what we call a bar mitzvah: on Shabbat morning, at age 13, with the blessing barukh sheptarani and with a derashah by the boy. This can be seen today at the Kotel or in Sephardic/Oriental synagogues throughout the world. It is also evident from two important anthologies that include Sephardic/Oriental customs. In most cases, the ethnic customs such as the haircut, special foods and clothing, wrapping and unwrapping the tefillin, and the like remain in these books, but three major halakhic changes have occurred. The boy no longer begins to wear tefillin at age 11 or 12 but shortly before his 13th birthday; he can no longer read Torah at age 7 and up but only at age 13 and one day; and the entire focus has shifted from the tefillin ceremony to the Shabbat morning bar mitzvah. In other words, Sephardic/Oriental bar mitzvahs have become “Ashkenazified.”79 This is un- fortunate, but it’s a trend that will be difficult to reverse.

The Secular Bar/Bat Mitzvah

Given the original meaning of the term “bar mitzvah,” a “secular bar/bat mitzvah” seems like a contradiction in terms.80 Nonetheless, there are at least three examples of this phenomenon in the 20th century, and one of them is still very common. The first type of secular bar mitzvah was the kibbutz bar mitzvah. From the Mandate period until today, a large percentage of Israeli boys have a bar mitzvah in a synagogue, even if it is the only time they ever enter a synagogue. During the Mandate period, some of the kibbutzim and moshavim developed a secular group ceremony in addition to what boys did as individuals. At settlements such as Kfar Giladi, the boys and girls had a group “bar mitzvah” in which they received a handgun after practicing in secret and were sometimes assigned a specific security- related task. Sometimes, they were handed a Bible, not a gun; and sometimes a Bible, a hoe, and a rifle.81 In the 1940s, this ceremony morphed into the kibbutz bar mitzvah, which spread to most kibbutzim by the late 1950s in the form of a year of special tasks that culminated in a group ceremony. During the bar mitzvah year—namely, when both boys and girls were in seventh grade—the children were initiated into adult life by working in areas such as immigrant absorption, teaching first grade, doing guard duty, and doing agri- cultural labor.82 The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 205

The second type of secular bar/bat mitzvah is most of the bat mitzvah parties held in Israel from ca. 1945 until today. Hizky Shoham has shown that, from its incep- tion, the Israeli bat mitzvah was “a birthday party, only a little bigger,” as one woman recalled in 1966. It developed from the grassroots at the initiative of the girls themselves, as an extension of the bourgeois custom of birthdays. For the most part, it was simply a glorified birthday party at age 12, devoid of any Jewish or Zionist content. It was not a rite of passage, nor was it imported from American Jewry.83 This explains the startling statistic in Shmuel Rosner and Camil Fuchs’ new book, Yahadut yisreelit, which is based on an in-depth survey of 3,000 Israeli Jewish adults. Ninety percent of them replied that they have done/will do a bat mitzvah for their daughter, the highest percentage of any ritual or custom surveyed.84 To an American ear, this means that the girl had or will have a synagogue bat mitzvah ceremony, but it really means that 90 percent of Jewish Israelis will hold a big party for their daughter at age 12. True, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews in Israel will hold a synagogue- based bat mitzvah service or a party with a devar torah or other Jewish content. But the majority will simply hold an elaborate birthday party, devoid of any Jewish or Zionist content. The third type of secular bar mitzvah was that developed by secular Yiddishists in the United States before and after the Second World War. Rifkind’s book includes a Hebrew translation of a Yiddish article from 1939 describing such an event. It sounds from the description that the family and friends were Labor Zionists. The party was in place of a synagogue service and the focus had shifted from God and the mitzvot to Zionism, Yiddish, and the Jewish people. It was held in a large hall. On the head table there was a large candelabrum and a cake with 14 candles. When the bar mitzvah boy entered with his parents, the guests sang a Yiddish song of greeting. The opening speech stressed the boy’s duties to his people and to the worker’s party. They sang songs of the pioneers (ḥalutzim) in Yiddish and Hebrew. The bar mitzvah boy read passages from Isaiah 2, Ezekiel 37, and Isaiah 66—which was that week’s haftarah—from the Yiddish translation by Yehoash. The boy spoke for six minutes and promised that he would continue to at- tend public school and would continue his Jewish education. His parents then spoke and gave him a Hebrew Bible (tanakh), a Hebrew novel written by Avraham Mapu, and a collection of folktales by I.L. Peretz in Yiddish. The master of ceremonies then announced that he was accepting the bar mitzvah boy as a comrade (ḥaver) with equal rights, after which he gave him a ring with the inscription “Our people is one people.” There was then a candle lighting ceremony, with each candle-lighter blessing the boy. Following this, a story by Peretz, “The Three Gifts,” was read in the original Yiddish. The audience then stood up to sing the Zionist song “Teḥezaknah.”85 I do not know how common this type of ceremony was. Leibush Lehrer (1887– 1966) sometimes held group bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies at the Yiddish Camp Boiberik, which he directed from 1923–1964. 86 In a recent posting on YouTube, Martin Broder describes his Yiddish bar mitzvah, which was held in June 1949 at the Workman’s Circle building on a weekday. It consisted of Yiddish readings and speeches, including his own, and was attended by his classmates from the Arbeter Ring school. It had no religious content, but it had a significant effect on his character and marked an important transition in his life.87 206 David Golinkin

Some Additional Bar Mitzvah Innovations

In addition to the six major changes in the bar mitzvah ceremony described above, many new bar/bat mitzvah customs have developed in recent decades. Space does not allow us to describe them, but I will mention them here with the hope that they will be studied in years to come. They include: standards and requirements for the child; bar mitzvah certificates; throwing candies, lifting the child on a chair and making use of a canopy (ḥupah) as is done for weddings; mitzvah projects carried out by the bar/ bat mitzvah child; changes in the barukh sheptarani blessing; physically passing the Torah from grandparents to parents to the child; official presents from the synagogue; bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies at the Kotel and at Masada; being inscribed in the JNF bar mitzvah book; dual bar mitzvahs on the same day; Shabbat minḥah or havdalah bar/ bat mitzvah ceremonies; attempts to move the ceremony to age 15–16; bar mitzvah for uncircumcised boys; speeches by the parents; ceremonies for children with special needs; bar/bat mitzvah for interfaith families; adult bar/bat mitzvah; and a second bar mitzvah at age 83.

Conclusion

The bar mitzvah ceremony began some 950 years ago in Germany with the barukh sheptarani blessing. By the 16th century, the aliyah, the se’udat mitzvah and the derashah had become standard features, spreading throughout Germany, France, Eastern Europe, and Italy until the year 1800. Beginning in 1800, the bar mitzvah ceremony was transformed in six ways: Confirmation pushed aside the bar mitzvah in the Reform movement and was widely observed in Conservative and Orthodox synagogues, until the pendulum swung back to bar/bat mitzvah in the 1970s. The bat mitzvah was invented by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan in 1922 and quickly spread to the Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox movements. The derashah was transformed from a lengthy talmudic pilpul to a short speech or devar torah in the vernacular written by the child, in which he/she related the Torah or haftarah readings to his/ her life and values. Elaborate parties began to proliferate in the late 19th century and slowly but surely became the norm throughout the Jewish world. Originally, Yemenite Jews had no bar mitzvah ceremony at all, while Sephardic and Oriental Jews had a hanaḥat tefilin ceremony at age 11 or 12. When they made aliyah or migrated to the West, they adopted Ashkenazic bar mitzvah customs. Secular Jews in Israel and secular Yiddishists in the United States tried to develop secular bar mitzvah ceremonies, but these did not last. The only such custom that has continued to flourish is the Israeli bat mitzvah, which, for the most part has no Jewish or Zionist content. When the Jews of Medieval Ashkenaz innovated the custom of reciting barukh sheptarani some 950 years ago, little did they know that that custom would eventually morph into the elaborate bar/bat mitzvah celebrations held today. Similarly, the long list of recent bar/bat mitzvah customs listed above indicate that this beautiful custom will continue to change and adapt into the future. The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 207

Notes

1. Quotations from Shlomo Molkho are taken from The Bar Mitzvah Treasury, ed. Azriel Eisenberg (New York: 1952), 264, 267. The translation was prepared by Sora Eisenberg, his daughter. 2. In this article, we shall refer to the following basic literature: Binyamin Adler, Halakhot vehalikhot bar mitzvah (Jerusalem: 5734 [1974]); Ya’akov Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah: harek’a lehithavut haminhag,” in idem, ’Iyunei tefilah: minhagim vetoladot (Alon Shevut: 5775 [2015]), 266–289; David Golinkin, “The Participation of Jewish Women in Public Rituals and Torah Study 1845–2010,” in idem, The Status of Women in Jewish Law: Responsa (Jerusalem: 2012), 1–29; Michael Hilton, Bar Mitzvah: A History (Philadelphia: 2014); Jenna Weissman Joselit, The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950 (New York: 1994); Ivan G. Marcus, Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe (New Haven: 1996), 117–124, 158–160; idem, The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times (Seattle: 2004), 82–123, 274–282; Isaac Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron: toledot bar mitzvah vehitpatḥuto beḥayei ha’am vetarbuto (New York: 1942); Byron Sherwin, “Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah,” in idem, In Partnership with God: Contemporary Jewish Law and Ethics (Syracuse: 1990), 150–168, 249–255; Yisrael Ta-Shema, “Ve’od liv’ayat hamekorot haashkenaziyim besefer hazohar,” Kabbalah 3 (1998), Hebrew section, 261; idem, “Tekes hahaniḥah,” Tarbitz 68, no. 4 (5759 [1999]), 591–595; Asher Wassertil (ed.), Yalkut minhagim, 3rd ed. (Jerusalem: 1996). Many of the statements made about the history of bar mitzvah in a variety of books, including standard reference works, are incorrect. In general, I will not point out these mistakes because they could easily fill up an entire monograph. 3. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, xii–xiii, passim. 4. See the literature cited by David Golinkin, ’Aseh lekha rav: sheelot uteshuvot (Jerusalem: 2019), 402 (n. 1). 5. For the medieval rabbis mentioned, see their commentaries to the end of Avot, chapter 5. As for modern scholars, see Y.N. Epstein, Mavo lenusaḥ hamishnah (Jerusalem: 1948), 978; Hanokh Albeck, Shishah sidrei mishnah, 4:351; Yitzhak Gilat, “Ben shelosh ’esrei lemitzvot?” in Meḥkarei Talmud, vol. 1 (5750 [1990]), 39–41 = idem, Perakim behishtalshelut hahalakhah (Ramat Gan: 1992), 19–20; Shimon Sharvit, Masekhet Avot le’dorotehah (Jerusalem: 2004), 217–222, 273–276; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 7. 6. Gilat, “Ben shelosh ’esrei lemitzvot?” 39–53 = idem, Perakim behishtalshelut hahalakhah, 19–31. 7. Saul Lieberman, “Masekhet soferim,” Kiryat sefer 15 (5698–5699 [1938–1939]), 56– 57 = idem, Meḥkarim betorat eretz yisrael (Jerusalem: 1991), 579–580. Lieberman’s approach was accepted by Gilat, “Ben shelosh ’esrei lemitzvot?” 44–45 = idem, Perakim behishtalshelut hahalakhah, 23–24; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 86–87; and Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 11. 8. Responsa of the Rosh (Rabbeinu Asher), 16:1; cf. pseudo-Rashi to Avot, end of chapter 5; Responsa of the Maharil, no. 51. 9. For other “proofs,” see Adler, Halakhot vehalikhot bar mitzvah, 53–54; R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin, “Hamispar shelosh ’esreh bahalakhah uvaagadah,” Sinai 49 (5721 [1961]), 151– 152; Entziklopedia talmudit, 4:165–166; Zvi Kaplan in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 4:243–244; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 10. 10. See n. 3. 11. This section is based on David Golinkin, Teshuvot va’ad hahalakhah shel knesset harabinim beyisrael 5 (5752–5754 [1992–1994]), 101–107; Yitzhak Gilat, “Barukh sheptarani mei’onsho shel zeh,” Sinai 118 (5756 [1996]), 176–186; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 87–93; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 12–26; Gartner, “Ḥagigot bar hamitzvah,” 268ff.; cf. Ta-Shema, “Ve’od liv’ayat hamekorot haashkenaziyim besefer hazohar”; idem, “Tekes hahaniḥah.” I am presenting the facts in a telegraphic fashion; for the sources, discussion, and disagreements, see the five scholars listed. I disagree with Marcus, who repeatedly claims that this was a rare 208 David Golinkin custom primarily found in Germany, and with Hilton, who argues that it began in France in the 13th century. 12. The sources are R. Yehudah b”r Barukh, quoted in Piskei rabeinu Yeḥiel miParis vehoraot mirabanei tzorfat, ed. Pines (Jerusalem: 5733 [1973]), 82 (par. 23) and by R. Aharon Hakohen of Lunel, Orḥot ḥayim, hilkhot berakhot (Florence ed.), par. 58 (fol. 40c) (where it mistakenly says “Hagaon R. Yehudai” instead of “Hagaon R. Yehudah b”r Barukh”); R. Yehudah ben Yakar, Perush hatefilot vehaberakhot, ed. Yerushalmi (5739 [1979]), part 2:72; R. Yitzhak ben Abba Mari, Sefer ha’itur (Vilna ed.), part 2, section 3, Hilkhot milah, fol. 53a; Piskei rabeinu Yeḥiel miParis vehoraot mirabanei tzorfat, loc. cit.; Rabbeinu Avigdor Tzarfati, Sefer peirushim ’al hatorah, ed. Herskovitz (Jerusalem: 1996), 8; R. Shimshon b”r Tzadok, Sefer Tashbatz (Jerusalem: 5771 [2011]), 219 (par. 390); R. Ya’akov Moellin, Sefer minhagei Mahari”l, ed. Spitzer (Jerusalem: 5749 [1989]), 453; glosses on R. Isaac of Tyrnau, Sefer haminhagim, ed. Spitzer (Jerusalem: 5739 [1979]), 25; R. Yisrael Isserlein, quoted by R. Yosef b”r Moshe, Sefer leket yosher, ed. Freimann (Berlin: 5663 [1903]) 1: 40–41; R. Moshe Isserles, Darkehi Moshe to Tur oraḥ ḥayim 225 and in his glosses to Shulḥan arukh, Oraḥ ḥayim 225:2; Johannes Buxtorf, quoted by Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 67–68; R. Yosef Yuzpa Hahn, Sefer yosef ometz (Frankfurt am Main: 5688 [1928]), 94 = ed. Kinarti (Shalabim: 5776 [2016]), 126 (par. 452); R. Yosef Yuzpa Kashman Segal, Sefer noheig katzon Yosef, ed. Kinarti (Shalabim: 5778 [2018]), 71 (par. 4). 13. For some of the poskim who codified this blessing after the time of the Rema, see Tashbatz (n. 12) and Gilat, “Barukh sheptarani,” 179. For some of the prayer books that include this blessing, see Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 25–26. 14. José Faur, “’Aliyat katan likro batorah,” in Sefer hazikaron laRav Yitzhak Nissim: halakhah umishpat, ed. Benayahu (Jerusalem: 1985), 113–133. 15. Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 269, and cf. 274–276; also see Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 33. 16. Sefer leket yosher, 1:41; Sefer yosef ometz, ed. Frankfurt, 357 = ed. Kinarti, 454. 17. R. Yuzpa Shamesh, Minhagim d’kehilat kodesh Wermeiza, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: 5752 [1992]), 164–166; also quoted by Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 271–272 and in translation by Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 42. 18. See Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 29–36. 19. See Arnaldo Momigliano, “A Medieval Jewish Autobiography,” in History and Imagination: Essays in Honour of H.R. Trevor-Roper, ed. Hugh Lloyd-Jones et al. (London: 1981), 30–36 = idem, On Pagans, Jews and Christians (Middletown: 1987), 222– 230, 319–320. Marcus (Rituals of Childhood, 160 [n. 77]) calls this theory “farfetched,” but in his later book (The Jewish Life Cycle), 98, he seems to accept the theory. S.D. Goitein, in A Mediterranean Society, vol. 5 (Berkeley: 1988), 512 (n. 83), accepts the theory, while Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 27–29, rejects it. I agree with Marcus (in Rituals of Childhood) and Hilton. 20. Tzarfati, Sefer peirushim upesakim ’al hatorah, 4. See discussions by Ta-Shema, “Ve’od liv’ayat hamekorot haashkenaziyim besefer hazohar,” 261 and “Tekes hahaniḥah beyisrael,” 594; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 99; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 28–29; and Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 286–287. The main problem is that this sentence has been preserved in the index to Sefer peirushim upesakim ’al hatorah, but the paragraph itself is missing from the manuscript. Ta-Shema refers to him as “Rabbi Avigdor of Vienna” in both his articles, but Herskovitz, who published his writings, proves in his introduction that Rabbeinu Avigdor was from France. 21. Zohar Ḥadash (Margaliot ed.), fol. 15d. 22. Ibid., fol. 10c. 23. Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 47–48; Sherwin, “Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah,” 162; Ta-Shema, “Ve’od liv’ayat hamekorot haashkenaziyim besefer hazohar,” 261 and “Tekes hahaniḥah beyisrael,” 594; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 99 and n. 47; Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 288, n. 113; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 29–32. 24. See the previous note. Although Ta-Shema claims that he was the first to notice these passages in Zohar Ḥadash, he was actually preceded by others, among them Rifkind and Sherwin and R. Ya’akov Hayim Sofer (d. 1937), in Sefer kaf haḥayim to Oraḥ haḥayim 225, par. 11. The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 209

25. This theory can be proved only by checking manuscripts of these two specific passages in Zohar Ḥadash. My thanks to Prof. Daniel Abrams of Bar-Ilan University, who explained to me the fluid nature of “the Zohar” and “Zohar Ḥadash,” which, in his opinion, were simply anthologies created by the respective printers in Venice and Salonika. 26. On this passage in Yam shel Shelomo, see Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 47; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 36–40; and Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 288. 27. Quoted by Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 48 (n. 6), and see ibid. for another quote; cf. Gartner, 288 (n. 113). For a description of the bar mitzvah se’udah by R. Yuzpa Shamesh, see Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 65 = R. Yuzpa Shamesh, Minhagim d’kehilat kodesh Wermeiza, 2:166–167. For a modern justification of the bar mitzvah feast as a se’udat mitzvah, see R. Ovadia Yosef, Responsa yabi’a omer, part 1, Oraḥ ḥayim, no. 27, par. 8. 28. They are summarized by Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 48–57 and by Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 56–62. They both stress that the takanot in Italy began only in 1765, which indicates that lavish se’udot arose in Italy at a later date. In 1683, Gulio Morosini (who converted to Christianity in Italy) noted that after the aliyah, etc. in the synagogue, “a party is held in the home for the public” (quoted in Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 286). 29. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 47. 30. Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 105–136. For general discussions regarding derashot, see ibid., 40–46, 69–70; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 47–53. 31. Leopold Löw, Die Lebensalter in der judischen Literatur (Szegedin: 1875), 216–217. Regarding the Shaagat Aryeh and Löw, see Rikind, Leot ulezikaron, 42 and 40 (n. 2). 32. Georg Heuberger and Anton Merk (eds.), Moritz Daniel Oppenheim: Jewish Identity in 19th Century Art (Frankfurt am Main: 1999), 233, 285. The painting, titled “Bar-Mizwa- Vortrag” (Bar Mitzvah Speech), was one of the twenty famous “Bilder” painted by Oppenheim. See the discussions by Andreas Gotzmann, ibid., 232–250 and Ismar Schorsch, From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism (Hanover, N.H.: 1994), 93–117. This painting was reproduced in many books, such as Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 44. 33. This section is based on the following literature, in chronological order: Löw, Die Lebensalter in der judischen Literatur, 218–222; R. David Philipson, Year Book of the CCAR 1890–1891, 43–58, Max Landsberg and Kaufmann Kohler, “Confirmation, the Rite of,” inThe Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (New York: 1903), 219–220; Rabbi’s Manual: edited and published by the CCAR (New York: 1928 and 1959), 13–27 and 148–151; R. Morris Silverman, “Report of Survey on Ritual,” Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 4 (1930–1932), 335–337; Isaac Landman, “Confirmation,” The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: 1941), 3:329– 330; Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 85 (who refers to two bibliographies that list 111 Confirmation speeches); Hayyim Schauss, The Lifetime of a Jew (New York: 1950), 120–121; Theodor Gaster, The Holy and the Profane (New York: 1955), 74–75; W. Gunther Plaut, The Rise of Reform Judaism: A Sourcebook of Its European Origins (New York: 1963), 171–177; idem, The Growth of Reform Judaism: American and European Sources until 1948 (New York: 1965), 311–316; Isaac Klein, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice (New York: 1979), 152–153; Simeon Maslin, Sha’arei Mitzvah, Gates of Mitzvah: A Guide to the Jewish Life Cycle (New York: 1979), 21– 22; Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (New York: 1988), Index, s.v. Confirmation ceremony; Walter Jacob (ed.), American Reform Responsa, 79–94; Sherwin, “Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah,” 165–167; Joselit, The Wonders of America, 105–118 (Reform) and 118–127 (Conservative); Mark Washofsky, Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (New York: 2001), 149–153; Avraham (Rami) Reiner, “Hayaḥas letiksei bat-mitzvah: ’iyun mashveh bifsikah modernit,” Netu’im 10 (5763 [2003]), 55–64, summarized in Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 3–4; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 110–116; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, xiii–xiv, 74–105, 109–125; Lakol Zeman V’eit: For Sacred Moments—The CCAR Life-Cycle Guide (New York: 2015), 5–12, 14; Jenna Weissman Joselit, “How Confirmation Came of Age,”Tablet (7 June 2019). 34. For Reform justifications of Confirmation, see Philipson, Year Book of the CCAR 1890– 1891; Landsberg and Kohler, “Confirmation, the Rite of”; Rabbi’s Manual CCAR (1928); Landman, “Confirmation”; Plaut, The Rise of Reform Judaism; Jacob (ed.), American Reform Responsa. 210 David Golinkin

35. For a good timeline of Confirmations around the world from 1803–1906, see Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 86–88. Regarding Confirmation for girls, see ibid., 111ff. 36. For typical ceremonies, see Philipson, Year Book of the CCAR 1890–1891, 55–56; Rabbi’s Manual CCAR (1928); Silverman, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 4. Many have stressed that the flowers are based onbikurim . However, they may be based on the wide- spread Ashkenazic custom of decorating the synagogue with flowers, branches, and trees on Shavuot. See David Golinkin, Responsa in a Moment, vol. 4 (Jerusalem: 2017), 94–103. 37. See Reiner, “Hayaḥas letiksei bat-mitzvah,” including 57 (n. 3) for the historical back- ground. Cf. the English summary by Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 3–4; and Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 89. 38. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 96ff., 113–115. 39. According to ritual surveys conducted by R. Silverman, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 4, 335–337, in 1932; and R. Morris Goodblatt, “Synagogue Ritual Survey,” ibid. 12 (1948), 107. Different statistics are given by Joselit, The Wonders of America, 118–119, 122–123. 40. Ibid., 119, 123. 41. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 125–126. 42. Ibid., 99. According to R. Silverman, in 1932, 32 percent of Conservative synagogues held Confirmation for children aged 15–16. 43. American Reform Responsa, no. 30 (pp. 79–82). 44. Landman, “Confirmation,”The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 330. 45. Joselit, The Wonders of America, 114ff; cf. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 100–102, 124–125. Joselit and Hilton give very different statistics as to how many Reform temples had reintroduced bar mitzvah. According to Joselit, the figure was 92 percent by 1945, while according to Hilton, it was 25 percent by 1950. 46. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, xiii–xiv. 47. American Reform Responsa, no. 33 (pp. 86–89). 48. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 103–105. 49. Ibid., 102. 50. Joselit, The Wonders of America, 114. 51. This section is based on the following literature, in chronological order: R. Silverman, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 4, 331; R. Goodblatt, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 12, 107; Dov Sadan, “Bat Mitzvah,” in Dat yisrael umedinat yisrael: yalkut maamarim ’al sheelot hadat bimdinat yisrael (New York: 1951), 136–139; Aaron Blumenthal, “A Questionnaire on Aliyot for Women and Bat Mitzvah” (unpublished typescript., ca. 1962); Jules Harlow, Likutei Tefillah: A Rabbi’s Manual (New York: 1965), 18–25; Adler, Halakhot vehalikhot bar mitzvah, 76; J. David Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Problems, vol. 1 (New York: 1977), 77–78; Elyakim Elinson, Haishah vehamitzvot, sefer rishon: bein haishah leyotzrah, 2nd expanded ed. (Jerusalem: 5737 [1977]), 171–180; Walter Jacob (ed.), American Reform Responsa, (New York: 1983), 79–94; Alfred S. Cohen, “Celebration of the Bat Mitzvah,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 12 (Fall 1986), 5–16; Sherwin, “Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah,” 163–165; Aharon Cohen, Zeved habat (Jerusalem: 1990), 10–12, 26– 29; David Golinkin, An Index of Conservative Responsa and Practical Halakhic Studies 1917– 1990 (New York: 1992), 16, 73; Yael, Talya, and Yonina Penkower, “Bat Mitzvah: Coming of Age in Brooklyn,” in Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue, ed. Susan Grossman and Rivkah Haut (Philadelphia: 1992), 265–270; Joselit, The Wonders of America, 116–131; Simcha Fishbane, “A Female Rite of Passage in a Montreal Modern Orthodox Synagogue: The Bat Mitzvah Ceremony,” in Renewing Our Days: Montreal Jews in the Twentieth Century, ed. Ira Robinson and Mervin Butovsky (Montreal: 1995), 119–131; Reuven Bulka, The RCA Lifecycle Madrikh (New York: 1995), 64–67; Gilat, “Barukh sheptarani mei’onsho shel zeh,” 184–186; David Golinkin (ed.), Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards 1927–1970 (Jerusalem: 1997), 1595, s.v. “Bat Mitzvah”; Perry Raphael Rank and Gordon Freeman, Moreh Derekh: The Rabbinical Assembly Rabbi’s Manual, vol. 1 (New York: 1998), The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 211 section B; Erica Brown, “The Bat Mitzvah in Jewish Law and Contemporary Practice,” in Jewish Legal Writings by Women, ed. Chana Safrai (Jerusalem: 1998), 232–258; Barry Kosmin, “Coming of Age in the Conservative Synagogue: The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class of 5755,” in Jews at the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members, ed. Jack Wertheimer (New Brunswick: 2000), 249–253; Tova Hartman Halbertal, “Maneuvering in a World of Law and Custom: Maternal Transmission of Ambivalence,” Nashim 3 (2000), 139–163; Daniel Tuito, “Ḥagigat bat hamitzvah—’iyun bedarkhei pesikatam shel ḥakhmei doreinu” and Aharon Ahrend, “Ḥagigat bat-mitzvah befiskei harav Yitzhak Nissim,” in Bat mitzvah: kovetz maamarim, ed. Sara Friedland Ben Arza (Jerusalem: 2002), 40–68, 109–115; Nancy Wolfson- Moche (ed.), Toward a Meaningful Bat Mitzvah (Aventura: 2002); Norma Baumel Joseph, “Ritual, Law and Praxis: An American Response/a to Bat Mitsva Celebrations,” Modern Judaism 22 (2002), 234–260; Ora Wiskind Elper (ed.), Traditions and Celebrations for the Bat Mitzvah (Jerusalem: 2003); Reiner, “Hayaḥas letiksei bat-mitzvah,” 64–77; Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (New Haven: 2004), 287–288, and the sources listed on 411 (n. 35); Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 105–112, 115–116; Aharon Ben-Tziyon Shurin, “Tzi megen frume yidn praven bas-mitzvah?” Forverts (24 June 2005), 9; reprinted in ibid. (7–13 November 2008), 4; Norma Baumel Joseph, “Bat Mitzvah,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.), 3:165–166; articles in the JOFA Journal 9, no. 1 (Fall 2010); Viva Hammer, “New-Age Bat Mitzva,” Jerusalem Post Magazine (10 December 2010); Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 4–7, 9–11; Carl Astor, “Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah,” in The Observant Life: The Wisdom of Conservative Judaism for Contemporary Jews, ed. Martin S. Cohen and Michael Katz (New York: 2012), 251–254; Barbara Vinick and Shulamith Reinharz (eds.), Today I Am a Woman: Stories of Bat Mitzvah around the World (Bloomington: 2012), with a review by Brenda Bacon in Nashim 24 (2013), 152–155; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 106–134, 244–249; Gartner, “Ḥagigat bar hamitzvah,” 289 (n. 115); Simcha Fishbane, The Rabbinic Discussions about Bat Mitzvah Celebrations (Lewiston: 2017); Morton M. Steinberg, Tradition by the Lake: A Historical Outline of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El (Highland Park, Ill.: 2018), 13, 19, 34, 61, 83. 52. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 106–120. 53. Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 4–5, later quoted by Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 115–116, though Hilton attributed the dates of R. Avraham’s father to R. Avraham. The father died in 1837, so the son probably died in the mid-19th century. 54. Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 6. 55. Ibid., 6–7. 56. Ibid., 7; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 105 and 280 (n. 58); Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 119 and 246 (n. 63); Hizky Shoham, “‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’: A Historical Anthropology of the Israeli Bat Mitzvah,” Jewish Culture and History 16, no. 3 (2015), 283. 57. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 121 and 246 (n. 70). 58. See Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 9–10; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 106–109; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 106–107; Bacon review of Today I Am a Woman, 154. 59. Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 109. 60. Silverman, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly, 331; cf. Golinkin, The Status of Women in Jewish Law, 10–11. 61. Silverman, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly, 335. 62. Goodblatt, Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly, 107; Marshall Sklare, Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement (Glencoe: 1955), 155, 309 (n. 46); cf. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 123, 247 (n. 80). 63. See Blumenthal, “A Questionnaire on Aliyot for Women and Bat Mitzvah.” With regard to the transition from Friday night to Shabbat morning, my father, Rabbi Noah Golinkin, z”l, instituted the Shabbat morning bat mitzvah at the Arlington–Fairfax Jewish Center in the 1950s, but when he assumed the pulpit of Heska Amuna in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1970, some bat mitzvah girls still read the haftorah on a Friday night. Regarding an individual versus a group bat mitzvah, in 2011, Marianne Kane (née Weiss) gave me a copy of the invitation to her 212 David Golinkin group “Bas Mitzvah Service” on Shavuot 1956, conducted by Rabbi Sidney Kleiman at the Conservative Congregation Talmud Torah Adereth El on East 29th Street in New York City. This was clearly part of the transition from Confirmation to bat mitzvah. 64. See Kosmin, “Coming of Age in the Conservative Synagogue,” 251, which shows that girls also led some part of the service in 97 percent of the 112 synagogues surveyed. 65. David Golinkin (ed.), Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1927–1970 , 1:339 (from 1951) and 385–389 (from 1955); ibid., 3:1086–1108 (the two responsa from 1955). 66. Steinberg, Tradition by the Lake, 13, 19, 61, and 83; also see 48 (n. 84), where he states that Beth El was the site of The Lakeville Studies. 67. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 123. 68. See Adler, Bleich, Elinson, Jacob, Cohen, Sherwin, Brown, Tuito, Ahrend, Reiner, Shurin, Joseph and Fishbane—all cited in n. 51. Here is a partial list of Orthodox responsa regarding bat mitzvah arranged by the author’s last name: R. Amram Aburbia, Sefer netivei ’am, minhagim vehalakhot (Petah Tikvah: 5729 [1969]), 225:2 (p. 130); R. Hananya Yom Tov Lipa Deitsch, Tohorat Yom Tov, part 9, no. 40 (quoted by Bleich, 77); R. Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe, Oraḥ ḥayim, part 1, no. 104; ibid., part 2, no. 30 (last par.) and no. 97; ibid., part 4, no. 36; ibid., Yoreh de’ah, part 3, no. 14, par. 4; R. Ephraim Greenblatt, “He’arot be’inyanim shonim,” Noam 9 (5726 [1966]), 361–363; R. Hanokh Zundel Grossberg, “Se’udat bat mitzvah,” Hama’ayan 13, no. 2 (5733 [1973]), 41–42; R. Ovadia Hadaya, Yaskil ’avdi, part 5, Oraḥ ḥayim, no. 28; R. Moshe Malka, Mikveh hamayim, Oraḥ hayim, part 4, no. 63; R. Avraham Musafiya, quoted from a manuscript by R. Yitzhak Nissim, No’am 7 (5724 [1964]), 1–5 = idem, Or hamizraḥ 13, nos. 3–4 (Tishrei 5724 [1963]), 35 = idem, Yein hatov (Jerusalem: 5739 [1979]), part 2, no. 6; R. Meshulam Rath, Kol mevaser, part 2, no. 44; R. Moshe Stern, Be’er Moshe, part 1, no. 10 (p. 22); R. Moshe Sternbuch, Teshuvot vehanhagot, part 1, no. 156; R. Eliezer Waldenberg, Sefer sheelot uteshuvot tzitz Eli’ezer, part 18, no. 33 (par. 1); R. Aaron Walkin, Sefer sheelot uteshuvot zekan Aharon, part 1, no. 6; R. Yehiel Ya’akov Weinberg, Hapardes (Nisan 5723 [1963]) = idem, Seridei esh, part 3, no. 93; R. Yisrael Weltz, Sheelot uteshuvot divrei Yisrael, part 2, Lekutei teshuvot, no. 7; R. Ovadia Yosef, Yabi’a omer, part 6, Oraḥ ḥayim, no. 29, par. 4; idem, Yehaveh da’at, part 2, no. 29; R. Yosef Hayim of Baghdad, Ben ish Ḥai, shanah rishonah, parashat reeh, no. 17 (as quoted above, n. 54). 69. Fishbane, “A Female Rite of Passage in a Montreal Modern Orthodox Synagogue.” 70. Penkower, “Bat Mitzvah: Coming of Age in Brooklyn”; Wolfson-Moche, “Toward a Meaningful Bat Mitzvah”; articles in JOFA Journal 9, no. 1. 71. See articles in JOFA Journal 9, no. 1. 72. Halbertal, “Maneuvering in a World of Law and Custom.” 73. This section is based on Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 47–53 (based on an unpublished master’s thesis by Meir Sered) and Joselit, The Wonders of America, 92–93. On Sholem Aleichem, see the excerpt from his memoir in Eisenberg (ed.), The Bar Mitzvah Treasury, 278–282. For recent examples of derashot written by rabbis for a bar mitzvah boy to recite, including one written by R. Ovadia Yosef for his son, see R. Yitzhak Yosef, Sefer yalkut Yosef: dinei ḥinukh katan uvar mitzvah (Jerusalem: 5758 [1998]), in the appendix, 1–14. 74. Joselit, The Wonders of America, 90 (testimony from Romania, 1932). 75. Ibid., 89–105; Marcus, The Jewish Life Cycle, 118–120; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 143–144, 170–178. 76. R. Yosef Kafih, Ketavim, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: 1989), 38–46 and vol. 3 (Jerusalem: 2002), 1426–1428 and in his commentary to the Mishneh Torah (Jerusalem: 1993), Hilkhot teshuvah 6:2 (n. 7); Yehudah Ratzhabi, Bema’agalei teiman (Tel Aviv: 1988), 21 (he writes that boys read from the Torah from age seven; he does not mention bar mitzvah at all); Yosef Shalom Habara, Bitlaot teiman virushalayim (Jerusalem: 1970), 300 (a father buys his son tefillin as soon as he can read with understanding and can observe the mitzvot); Shimon Garidi in Wassertil (ed.), Yalkut minhagim, 552; Zohar Amar, Sefer haḥilukim bein benei teiman levein benei hatza- fon (Neveh Tzuf: 2017), 110, par. 525; S.D. Goitein, Hateimanim: historiyah, sidrei ḥevrah, The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020 213

ḥayei haruaḥ, ed. Menahem Ben-Sasson (Jerusalem: 1983), 241–248; idem, A Mediterranean Society, 28 and 512 (n. 83). 77. Erich Brauer, quoted by Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 68–69; Idelsohn, quoted ibid., 60–61. 78. On London, Amsterdam, and Jerusalem (1934), see R. Shemtov Gaguine, Keter shem tov (Kaidan: 1934), 12–14; on Gibraltar (20th century), see Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 64; on Morocco (1839), see Allegemeine Zeitung des Judentums 3 (1839), 278–279, which is quoted in various ways in The Jewish Encyclopedia, 2:510; Schauss, The Lifetime of a Jew, 119; Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 65–66 (cf. 19, n. 6); on North Africa ca. 1850, see Israel Joseph Benjamin II, Acht Jahre in Asien und Afrika von 1846 bis 1855 (Hannover: 1858), 275–276, translated by Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 66–67 and partially quoted by Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 136; on Algiers (1889), see R. Eliyahu Guedj, Zeh hashulḥan (Algier: 1889), part 2, fols. 29a–b and n. 6; on Algeria (20th century), see R. Yosef Mashash, Sefer mayim ḥayim, part 2, no. 1; on Tunisia (2010), see R. David Setbon, ’Alei hadas, 2nd ed. (Kiryat Sefer: 2010), 730–731; on the Sephardim of Jerusalem (1882), see A.M. Luncz, “Minhagei aḥeinu beeretz hakodesh bedat uveḥayei ’am,” Yerushalayim 1 (5642 [1882]), 5–6, also quoted by Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 68 and by Schauss, The Lifetime of a Jew, 119; on Ladino-speaking Jews in the Caucasus (1947), see the novel by Yehudah Burla, ’Aliyot ’akavyah (Tel Aviv: 1947), excerpted in Eisenberg (ed.), The Bar Mitzvah Treasury, 273–277; on Baghdad (1870s), see R. Yosef Hayim of Baghdad, Ben ish ḥai (quoted above, n. 54); on Zaku (Kurdistan, date unknown), see Mordechai Yona, Haovdim beeretz ashur (Jerusalem: 1989), 65; on Afghanistan (before 1948), see Wassertil, Yalkut minhagim, 56. 79. Wassertil, Yalkut minhagim, 229, 258, 335, 360–361, 450–451, 465, 495, 518. The only descriptions in that book that seem to describe authentic pre-1948 customs are those of Yemen (see above, n. 76) and Afghanistan (see previous note). Similarly, in Herbert Dobrinsky’s A Treasury of Sephardic Laws and Customs (Hoboken: 1986), 30–38, it appears that two of the Sephardic groups in the United States have lost any vestige of Sephardic practice, while in the case of Syrian and Moroccan Jews, one can see that some Ashkenazic customs have encroached on the Sephardic. For example, there is an internal contradiction on pp. 30–31 regarding the permissible age for reading Torah, and on p. 35, Moroccan Jews seem to have adopted the Ashkenazic blessing of Barukh sheptarani. 80. This section is based on the following: Shoham, “ ‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger,’ ” 275–292; idem, “The Bar and Bat Mitzvah in the Yishuv and Early Israel: From Initiation Rite to Birthday Party,” AJS Review 42, no. 1 (April 2018), 133–157; Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 62–66, 72–73; Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 128–129, 144–147. 81. Shoham, “ ‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger,’ ” 279–280; idem, “The Bar and Bat Mitzvah in the Yishuv and Early Israel,” 144. 82. Shoham, “The Bar and Bat Mitzvah in the Yishuv and Early Israel,” 152–156. 83. Shoham, “ ‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’ ”; idem, “The Bar and Bat Mitzvah in the Yishuv and Early Israel.” 84. Shmuel Rosner and Camil Fuchs, Yahadut yisreelit: diyukan shel mahapekhah tarbutit (Hevel Modiin: 2018), 220–221. 85. Rifkind, Leot ulezikaron, 72–73, translated from Yiddishe derzeiung 3/6 (1939), 46. The passage from Rifkind was then translated into English by Hilton (Bar Mitzvah, 141), with one major error: he translated the Yiddish writer Yehoash as the book of Joshua. 86. Hilton, Bar Mitzvah, 142. 87. Martin Boder, “My Secular Yiddish Bar Mitzvah” (25 March 2014), online at youtube.com/watch?v=yFMSU2hhyMQ (accessed 13 January 2020). According to Boder, his bar mitzvah was written up in the Yiddish Forverts in June 1949.