B'nai Mitzvah
By Tamara
10/16/2006
According to Jewish law, when a Jewish child reaches the age of maturity (12 yrs. for girls and 13 yrs. for boys) they become responsible for their own actions. Before this age, all the child’s responsibility to follow Jewish law and tradition lies with their parents. After this age the child is privileged to participate in all areas of the Jewish community and is responsible for attending to his or her own religious studies of law, tradition and ethics.
It is common in Jewish culture to celebrate the coming-of-age transition. In popular usage, the terms Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah are often mistakenly used to refer to the celebration itself, however the term actually refers to the boy (bar) or the girl (bat). The event is often misunderstood as a rite of passage by which the Jewish child becomes an adult but is merely a celebration of the coming-of-age. The ceremony does not change the status of the child any more than the status of any other child changes when they turn 12 or 13 years of age.