Yesterday we went to the Bar Mitzvah of Nathaniel Frum, the son of David and Danielle. Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs are amazing events. I always come away from them with a sense of awe, because it’s a rite of passage that always works. I cannot remember the last time a young man or woman “failed” this test, even though it’s a very daunting challenge, and even though, at some stage of preparation, most of the kids-become-young-men or women were convinced they couldn’t possibly do it.
There’s a lot of work, learning to chant, not just read–with a lot of memorization involved–long passages in Hebrew. In most cases, one passage is from the Hebrew Torah, a hand written scroll with no vowels, and the other is from the Hebrew Haftorah, a printed text of commentary and prophecy. For the kids who have attended secular schools, I dare say there has been nothing in their previous education that compares with this level of difficulty. Kids aren’t made to memorize a lot of material any more, rote learning having been banned in the names of the false gods of self-esteem and nobody-ever-fails-here. In Bar Mitzvah, as in all serious intellectual examinations, you either get it right or you get it wrong, there is no room for self indulgence. As the Bar Mitzvah candidate chants, there is a clear-eyed expert following along, and unhesitatingly interrupts with corrections if any mistake is made.
Then the candidate gives the congregation some thoughts about the significance of what he/she has read. No one really expects brilliance, but we do expect evidence that the candidate has done some serious thinking, which is an integral part of this rite. Nathaniel was not only thoughtful, but entertaining, using a baseball metaphor to grapple with the story of Jacob’s own rite of passage in the wilderness.
Passing this test–a test that Jews have been taking for millenia–obviously does wonders for genuine self esteem, not the phony sort that comes from pseudo tests and pseudo schools where learning has been dumbed down to ensure nobody fails. That is why, after passage, the candidate is welcomed into the adult community. He/she is now considered a serious person, and that is reason for real pride.
As I say, it always works, as well it should. If we had similarly serious standards in our schools we’d get serious results there, too.
Interesting how modern educators are all about multiculturalism, but
entirely uninterested in the ethical underpinnings that makes the culture successful. Their interest in other cultures seem limited to foods and fashion.
Archaic rites of passage and memorization are way too boring
nowadays! Can’t those Jewish kids
just read it off a teleprompter?
from ml: it may be that some high tech synagogue in beverly hills, let’s say, has a teleprompter. in this day and age almost anything is tolerated (which is the real mischief of the multi culti crowd). notice that the prize students at Columbia Journalism School were found cheating…on a (take-home) ETHICS exam
How wonderful to read such a piece as this!
In this age of dumbing down our young adults and keeping them babies far too long, how gratifying to read of those who are stepping up in such a timely manner.
Thank you Mr. International Sex Symbol Ledeen
A dissenting view: my own Bar Mitzvah convinced me that Judaism, at least as it was practiced in my Conservative synagogue, was not for me.
Why? Because all I had to do was memorize and repeat some Hebrew, without knowing the meaning. Yes, memorization was difficult, and, yes, I did learn to at least read Hebrew, if by read we mean pronounce the words properly.
It wasn’t until much later in life that I actually undertook to learn some Hebrew grammar and vocabulary at the local JCC. While I’m very glad to have done so, I wish I’d been smart enough to have insisted on real Hebrew scholarship before I went through the motions at age 13.
Dear Jack:
An interesting thing happens when one chants (whether or not one understands the chant itself or not):
the sound goes out, bounces back and eventually meets in the middle and that, my dear Jack, can be quite an experience.
This technique is used when chanting in a cave or room or with repetitive sight, e.g., looking at a mandala. The image leaves the person, bounces back and eventually meets at a halfway point.
So, even if you have no idea what you are saying or what you are looking at, something happens that can change a person.
Of course, the negative is also true when many are chanting different words–e.g., the dreaded and noisy madrassas– and that can scramble a brain.
Respectfully,
BW
Baroness, I appreciate what you wrote. Thank you.
Just that at the time of my Bar Mitzvah I wasn’t (pick your adjective) mature or smart enough to know better.
I’m reminded of what I can only hope for: that if I reach 83 I’ll do it again, this time with feeling…
Cheers, Jack Rich
Michael,
Thanks for the thought. A Bar Mitzva is much more meaningful when the boy understands what he’s reading. But for that to happen, Jewish education has to start well before the Bar Mitzva. It sounds like Nathaniel did that, and his parents deserve credit for giving him that opportunity. Too many kids today don’t have it!
Burke,
When I was Bar Mitzva age I remember seeing a cartoon of a Cantor and a Bar Mitzva boy. The Cantor was about to turn on a tape recorder under the lectern, and he was saying “Now don’t forget to move your lips Davie.” In the Orthodox community where I grew up and where I am raising my children, that could not happen, because we don’t use tape recorders on the Sabbath! There’s a lot to be said for tradition – it’s kept the Jewish people going for generations.
Jack,
I’m sorry your Bar Mitzva was such a disappointing experience. I’m glad to hear you made it up to yourself later in life. There’s nothing to stop you from doing it over again if you want. Your Torah portion comes up once a year around your birthday!
BW,
I don’t see us as being like the Madrassa’s. Jewish kids are taught to think – they aren’t brainwashed. My kids have done a lot more rote learning than I ever did, and it’s always with the goal of having what they’ve learned by heart down pat so that they can use it to grow. The learning by heart is never the goal itself (although getting the prize for doing it might be
Glad to hear about the young Frum showing intelligence and wit. I guess it runs in the family.
As for rote memorization, I think the education indstry was right to turn away from it, at least in most circumstances. As soon as children are capable, they should be taught to think about the subject so that they can better grasp the truth and be able to apply it to other situations. This was also demonstrated by the young Mr. Frum, as you said.
I work in education, and I’ve learned that self-esteem is useful – to a point. Too many of my students let their fear prevent them from succeeding on examinations. They panic, and miss things that they actually know. However, self-confidence does you no good if you don’t understand the material. A pity some in the education industry seem to forget that.
While the insights the adult-to-be picks up in preparing for this event are very important, it’s even more important for the parents to provide or arrange meaningful religious instruction in the years leading up to it—and following it! Steadily doing coursework always beats waiting to pull an all-nighter just before the big exam. Here, the really big exam is life.
Dear Carlin Jerusalem:
Uh oh, (and this is what I dislike about blogging and pray the word ‘dislike’ doesn’t start something).
In no way did I associate madrassas negativity with chanting the Creator’s good words. Sheesh.
The inherent goodness or evil associated with words does make the difference in whether the spirit within is increased or decreased.
Truth increases; lies decrease.
And yes, I do accept your apology.
Just don’t let it happen again.
And if I misled, I then do apologize.
Respectfully,
BW
Unfortunately, for most Jewish kids – at least for those whose parents have the label Reform/Conservative/Reconstructinist – the Bar/Bat Mitzvas is the last time they step food in a beit knesset/synagogue. Those that attend day schools (Jewish private schools) – whether they be modern Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox yeshivahs – have a better chance of keepig their kids in the fold and not intermarrying. I’m not saying there aren’t kids who turn away from Judaism from the more traditional frameworks; but they are fewer than in the others. We Jews have a big problem – from the left-wing (it includes politically as well) “do your own thing; whatever feels good” brand of Judaism to the ultra-Orthodox “Why? Because that’s what’s written!” – there is no sane Orthodox middle ground that both honors and obeys the Torah but at the same time addresses current needs and issues. In the past there were reinterpretations. But they aren’t happening today, especially in Israel. One of the big differences between Jews and Muslims is that we don’t get all bent out of shape and violent over questions like these. I don’t have to worry about someone threatening me for what I’ve written.
Shalom! (it also means goodbye {:>)
From ml: actually there are many so-called “modern orthodox” synagogues in America, just what you seem to be wishing for. And as you would expect they are more and more popular.
Multiculturalist Education is an outgrowth of a strain of “tolerance”. The other’s beliefs have now come to be “tolerated ” in the sense of tirvialization. The other man’s beliefs are understood as food and strange customs, while ignoring the core of belief where there can be opposition over things that matter. Toleration in this contemporary multiculturalist manner is a false toleration born from a fear of offending, but with a deeper and more sinister purpose of destroying the significance of the beliefs it supposedly “tolerates”. That is the only possible way that the fear of offending could have given rise to the trivilization of everyone’s most important beliefs.
Witness the current controversy arising from Keith Ellison’s announcement that he will bring the Koran to his swearing in as a congressman. Dennis Praeger has rightly insisted that the Bible has and should be recognized as the primary text in American life. He says that it is the most important book in American history, essential to the formation of our values. Praeger calls upon Ellison to at least preserve the symbolic importnace of hte Bible in this ceremony by also having hte Bible present. What Ellison does in rejecting even bringing the Bible as well as the Torah, is a symbolic assault on our American values. We can not and should not tolerate Ellison’s symbolic supplanting of the Bible in favor of the Koran in the rites of our public life. {As at the Bar Mitzvah, we need the expert who tests the initiate’s chanting to see if it is right.} This is not a trivial difference that we should simply “live with”. It should not be “tolerated” and Praeger is to be commended.
But Americans have been taught by secularists to trivialize our important beliefs. To tirivialize, of course, is to undermine and destroy. Hence, many find it difficult to recognize why this [Ellison & the Bible] issue really matters. They know no history so they are not aware of the importance of the Bible in the formation of America.
This secular trivilization assaults our identity and destorys what we are. What Michael cites here in the Bar adn Bat Mitzvah is th eimprtance of the formation of a religious identity, “Today I am a Man”. Our American self-identity calls out for a similar training, test adn rtite of passage for every native as well as foreign born American.
In all of this, Self Identity as a Jew [or Chrisitian] and as an American should not be trivializeded as they are in the secular mutlticulturaliset Reduction. Even if we are not believers, we should learn our self-identity as Americans formed out of a Judaeo-Christian ethos. If this task is failed, then we lay purselves open to the exotic identities who seek to replace our foundation with their foreign essentials. It misses my point to suspect that I am saying that Muslims cannot become Americans. But to be a Muslim-American, one cannot ignore our Judaeo-Christian foundation. This is what Ellison’s symbolic act seeks to do. It is a rejection of the American foundation which seeks to simply replace it (the Bible as its symbol) with the Koran as he is inducted into our government. If Ellison continues to pointedy reject America by refusing to alsohave a Bible present, then he is very clearly revealing who and what he is. The real question is who and what are we.
Michael: I’m quite aware there are modern Orthodox synagogues in the U.S. That wasn’t my point. They, too, don’t want to grapple with the big questions and don’t dare reinterpret the Torah. Yes, the Conservative have made an effort to do so but their poskim aren’t accepted by Orthodoxy. One of the big problems today is agunot (women whose husbands won’t give them a get – writ of divorce). In Israel today more and more buses whose lines go to Haredi populatins are setting up segregated buses – men in the front; women in theback!! This is ridiculous! These are public buses! This is the kind of thing I’m talking about whereby Judaism is stuck in some time warp from the past.
It appears that Chaya’s basic approach is not Orthodox, seeing as that Orthodox rabbis have never been empowered to reinterpret Torah law or fundamentals at will. Thus, it is understandable that she has found no Orthodox subgroup that follows her recommended path.
Many things in Jewish culture impress me with their brilliance in understanding human nature. Jewish mourning practices, for example, accept the finality of death, don’t prettify or act like it didn’t happen, and allow the mourner to work through their grief.
Accepting a young adolescent male as the equal of adult men (in the synagogue at least) is one of those brilliant things. The thing that a young teen male wants most is to be considered grown up. Jewish law treats them as grown ups.
It should be noted that a bar or bat mitzvah “ceremony” doesn’t change the status of the young person – the ritual is an acknowledgment of that changed status, which takes place automatically at the age of 13 (or 12 in the case of females).
When a boy reaches bar mitzvah age, he is considered an adult in the eyes of Jewish law and can count towards a minyan, a prayer quorum of 10 adult Jewish males.
The week of my son’s bar mitzvah, I took time off of work to help with the preparations. His actual Hebrew birth day was that Friday and he accompanied me to morning services at the synagogue that day. One of the kindest things I’ve ever seen took place that morning. Mo and I were approaching the door to the sanctuary and a couple of friends of mine were about to enter. They noticed my son, realized that he was now old enough to count, and waited at the door, allowing him to enter first and be the 10th man.