The 1st to be 2nd Bar/Bat Mitzvah Module in Judaism On Purpose™ Process

An understatement: for many (if not most of us over 50), Hebrew School and particular our Bar or Bat Mitzvah was meaningless, next to worthless except for the subsequent party, gifts and checks received.

          (Correction - I did receive a valuable lesson in my Bar Mitzvah training: after the Bar Mitzvah service how to concurrently shake those while receiving their gift envelop - opening the envelop to spy the amount of the check - without being noticed or the check falling to the floor.)


          Some might classify the then Bar & Bat Mitzvah training as in business ‘product bundling:’ - no family congregant affiliation and dues no Bar/Bat Mitzvah training.  Then, the Bar Bat Mitzvah training was no more than a conveyor belt - ‘move in move out Raw Hide’ - given a vinyl record to memorize for one’s Bar /Bat Mitzvah part. (To this day, I have no idea what my Bar Mitzvah part meant that I sang - and memorized from that vinyl record on my GE Trimline stereo back then - and not once - did I meet with any Rabbi during my Bar Mitzvah training.) As a friend once commented, “Bar Bat Mitzvah instruction was basically hostage taking: no Synagogue affiliation and dues - no bar bat mitzvah training. Proof of the hostage theory: the high percentage of families that leave a Shul after their last child is Bar Bat Mitzvah.”

         

          Though most know the word mitzvah as meaning ‘a good deed,’ and a few indicate that, mitzvah as in bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah, has come to mean ‘commandment,’ However, mitzvah is derived from the Aramaic ‘tzavta’ meaning connection. Thus, Bar and Bat Mitzvah commemorates the acceptance, obligation & taking the responsibility to being The Son or Daughter of the Connection (to God and His Commandments - His ethical monotheism).


My bet: 95%+ of those 50+ and over were not instructed relative to the Bar Bat Mitzvah as the acceptance, obligation, and taking of responsibility to be a Son or Daughter of the Connection (to Hashem and His commandments and His ethical monotheism). The aforementioned is probably an understatement - but worse an indictment of the Bar Bat Mitzvah training back then. I’ll also bet back then (and maybe now???) that 100% thought that while a Bar/Bat Mitzvah while it is was a pain tuchis (obligatory assumed- no questions asked - more for the parents than for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah student) but there was payoff: a big party, gifts, and possibly get to second base with Nancy T. (I didn't even get to first base.)

 

          In contrast to the conveyor belt ‘assumed’ right of passage Bar/Bat Mitzvah of old, and even today’s Bar Mitzvah for those typically over 50 initiated at several synagogues for those who may or may not have had a first Bar/Bat Mitzvah, The Judaism on Purpose™’s  First to be Second Bar Bat Mitzvah is different. Judaism On Purpose™’s 1st To Be 2nd Bar Mitzvah - is the culmination of mining, extracting, refining and polishing individualized personalized meaning ‘finding oneself in Torah’ and affirming connection to Hashem.  The First to be Second Bar Bat Mitzvah ‘man/woman’ presents his or her Devor Torah (where they find themselves in Torah, their personalized meaning, and lessons learned’ to with friends and loved ones in attendance.

         

The First To be Second Bar Mitzvah Prerequisites

 

        The required year in Jews of Meaning completion (which coincides with the Torah cycle) is metaphorically ‘the mining,’ the ethical will and why I am a Jew model are for extraction, refining and polishing one’s individualized personalized meaning - the aforementioned are necessary for placing the ‘meaning diamond’ in the setting - The First To Be Second Bar Mitzvah.

The 1st to be 2nd Bar/Bat Mitzvah Training, Event & Celebration

 14- 20 hours (the number of 1 on 1 two hour training meetings to be determined between the individual and Judaism On Purpose™ Standalone or Synagogue affiliate Rabbi in preparation for their 1st to be 2nd Bar/Bat Mitzvah not including the 2 hour event and 2 hour attendance by the Rabbi at the after celebration).

    As for mine, maybe Nancy T will attend and.......

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