DID I MISS ANYTHING?

                                                     

DID I MISS ANYTHING?

A Bat or Bar Mitzvah is a right of passage, a ceremony commemorating the beginning of religious responsibility for  Jewish girls or boys.  My Bat Mitzvah took place when I was 12 (the standard age for girls). My brother had to wait for his Bar Mitzvah until he was 13.  The reasoning is that girls mature earlier than boys.

My Bat Mitzvah took place on a Friday night in a room downstairs from the main sanctuary in the Conservative synagogue in my hometown.

I remember wearing a party dress and a lace doily on my head.

I shared the evening with another girl who wasn't my friend but whose birthday was close to mine. She and I took turns chanting the same Haftorah.  

We couldn't use the microphone because Shabbos, the Sabbath, had already started so only those who were seated near the front of the room were able to hear me at all. Later on, we each read a speech that neither of us had written for ourselves.

Last Saturday I went to a Bat Mitzvah  at an egalitarian Conservative synagogue. Not only did the girl wear a party dress, she had a prayer shall covering her shoulders.  And she had a turquoise yarmulke on her head.

The service took place in the main sanctuary. It was Shabbos but the microphone was in use. The Bat Mitzvah girl chanted a Haftorah in addition to reading from the Torah itself well. Later, she read a speech that she had obviously written for herself.

My granddaughters go to a private Hebrew Day School in Israel. From what I understand the girls become Bat Mitzvah as an entire class. They don’t wear prayer shawls but they perform for their entire school.  

I've told you about three different Bat Mitzvahs.

Was one really better than another?

Or were they just different?

Which one was the best?

It all depends on your perspective.

FEEL FREE TO SEND ME YOUR INPUT.