Insights

How can a 12 or 13 year old be considered an adult? What suddenly happens at age 12/13?

Why does Judaism consider a 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl to be full-fledged adults? What is there to be gained from blatantly disregarding reality?

Why would an irrational, irresponsible and legally questionable act serve as the precedent by which to measure reasonability and legal responsibility?

A young woman can and should have a bat mitzvah, but it should be a bat mitzvah, not a bar mitzvah. As she is celebrating being a woman, not a man...

Why do we become a bar mitzvah at adolescence? Because something dramatic happens to our minds at this time: A sort of awakening, a consciousness, a realization that "I exist"

"You get a comfortable salary, full health benefits, free day care and spa privileges, 31 days annual paid vacation. You have no duties and responsibilities -- you don't even have to come to work." Would you want this job?

When did Jews start celebrating Bar-Mitzvahs?

Sagacious advice given to a son on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah.

I am a young adult woman, not affiliated with any branch of Judaism. I have heard of adults becoming bar/bat mitzvah and am enquiring whether this is possible with Chabad...

Unlike the common misconception that a bar or bat mitzvah signifies an end, or the graduation upon the successful completion of a bar or bat mitzvah lesson regimen, in truth it symbolizes a new beginning...

During a bar mitzvah ceremony, do you ponder upon those last lead-up weeks that the (still rather little) boy has just been through?

It is my Bar Mitzvah this week. I was told this means I am becoming a man. My mother doesn't think so. So, who's right?