If you happen to not know anything about Judaism and have stumbled upon this website, you might not realize that a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is very important in the practice of Judaism. Originally, there was only a Bar Mitzvah but during the latter half of the 20th Century, it became important in many communities that a girl have a Bat Mitzvah, just like a boy, although girls could have theirs any time after they turned 12 realizing that girls mature earlier than boys. I don’t mean here physically mature either. The Bar Mitzvah was a rite that was indicative of a boy becoming a man in the community and having the responsibilities that are incumbent upon a man in the synagogue. At thirteen a boy was old enough to be called to witness the reading of the Torah and to be counted as one of the compulsory ten in a minyan allowing certain prayers to be recited. So a girl now has many of the same duties and priviliges that were once only for boys but girls are mature enough at 12 to have those kinds of responsibilities.
Preparation for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah takes many months at the least but often many years in some cases. Such training occurs within a school where children are educated together, usually, although sometimes it requires private tutoring all the way through. It was because of the need for such specialized training for a young boy that one of the earliest members of the community was brought to be a teacher so that the father of a boy prepping for a Bar Mitzvah did not need to go to Hamilton for lessons. Training does not require a rabbi but it does require a teacher who devotes time and energy to the preparations. Below you see a picture of the boys in a whole class prepared by long-time member of the congregation and Gabbai on the bimah, Leo Possen.
Often now, in many communities, there are groups who come together because they either missed an opportunity to prepare for a Bar of Bat Mitzvah when they were the right age, or, as in the picture below, they were not allowed to have a Bat Mitzvah when they were the right age because there was a time when women were not allowed to prepare for this so very important event.
The ladies in the picture above met once a week for almost a full year to prepare for their group Bat Mitzvah when each of them was called up by their given Jewish name and allowed to witness the reading of the Torah exactly the same way as a man.
Since we read the Torah on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the Shabbat, their B’not Mitzvah was on a Shabbat. However, the young girls who were in our very first Bat Mitzvah class had no such privilege. When we first began to have Bat Mitzvahs for girls, their Bat Mitzvahs were not held in conjunction with the reading of the Torah but rather on a Friday night when they had what, in those days, passed for a Bat Mitzvah. Still, the girls in the picture below, were thrilled to bits to have exactly what the boys have. You can tell by the picture, it was over a half century ago.
