The Bat Mitzvah Program
What does it all mean?
The Bat Mitzvah is a traditional ceremony that dates back thousands of years. It signifies the beginning of adulthood for young girls, who prepared for it by studying all the Mitzvahs, all the commandments that they must know in order to take their place in the Jewish community. The coming of age celebration for girls wasn't always equivalent to the parallel celebration for boys, but in recent generations, as women have gained more equal footing in all walks of life, B'not Mitzvah have come to take part in the exact same ceremony as B'nei Mitzvah.
But what does it mean for today's youth? In a world in which many Jewish children go to school in non-religious school systems and do not live in homogenous, Jewish communities, how can we pass on the holistic significance of the Bat Mitzvah; preparing our children to take their first steps on the long journey towards adulthood? How do we help themselves prepare for the young women they are about to become?
Rabbi A.B. A'amar's Bat Mitzvah program assists these soon-to-be-adults to explore what it means to take this significant first step.
The program is comprised of Sections, Chapters and Activities. At the end of each section, participants must complete the activities summarizing some or all of the chapter elements and discuss them with their parent mentors. The chapters are designed to be hands-on; some of them include reading materials but others require the participant to conduct independent research by a variety of means in order to complete the chapters and the ensuing activities successfully.