Bar mitzvahs are considered to be the rite of passage from child to adult for Jewish people (Shoham, 2018, p. 133), and the word was first used in the 14th century (p. 139). Like many rites of passages, the bar mitzvah is where children imitate a common adult behaviour or action in their path to becoming a full adult (p. 133).
The rituals within a bar mitzvah transfer the responsibility of the child’s action from their parents to them (p. 139). At the rituals, boys put on tefillin, leather straps inscribed with biblical passages, and is called up for an aliyah, in which he or a designated reader recites a blessing over the Torah. After their bar mitzvahs, boys are able to lead prayers and other religious services.
It is thought that the bar mitzvah ceremony was developed in the late Middle Ages (Shoham, 2018, p. 133; Shoham, 2015, p. 277), but the version that modern society understands and participates in today was popularized in the 1940s and 50s (2015, p. 277). The shift happened due to the rise of consumer culture and new social standards, and turned the bar mitzvah into an extravagant birthday party in which rituals took a back seat (2015, p. 277).
Bar mitzvah parties have become popularized to the point in which popular online publications, like Bustle, have dedicated whole articles on embarrassing memories, and extravagant invitations. In addition, when celebrities, like James Franco, have a bar mitzvah or show up to one, like Drake, news sources just cannot get enough.
While many Jewish communities have worked to preserve the balance between having a bar mitzvah be a religious rite of passage and a party (Shoham, 2018, p. 141), the synagogue has lost its centrality (p. 143) as parties often take place in homes or were event halls (p. 146). With this shift, the bar mitzvah took a turn from being a label for an adolescent’s new status to the name of a celebration (p. 141).
The bat mitzvah is the equivalent of the bar mitzvah for Jewish girls. Bat mitzvahs didn’t exist until 1814 (Shoham, 2018, p. 140), and are often less religious and extravagant than bar mitzvahs (Shoham, 2015, p. 282). In addition, the term bat mitzvah was not printed in Hebrew dictionaries until the late 1960s (p. 279). In fact, many people denied its existence due to its lack of traditional and historical roots (p. 281).
What does this inequality among bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs say about masculinity? What does the resistance towards bat mitzvahs say about a society?
A possible explanation of both is discussed by Kimmel in “Globalization and Its Mal(e) contents”. Kimmel (2010) suggests that with an increase of globalization, local cultures have tried to maintain their own definitions of manhood in order to counteract Western hegemonic masculinity (p. 145). Often these definitions of manhood mirror patriarchal ideals where men are dominant over women in the family (p. 145).
As boys and men are clearly seen as more important in Jewish communities as demonstrated by the existence and prioritization of bar mitzvahs, the resistance against bat mitzvahs could be an attempt to protect masculinity and its rituals.
Femininity is often seen as a threat to masculinity, so when bar mitzvahs started to include girls, men got defensive. Having bat mitzvahs could be seen as femininity encroaching on a traditionally masculine celebration, and making it its own.
While men could not stop bat mitzvahs from becoming a celebration, they were able to differentiate it from bar mitzvahs by de-emphasizing the religious and tradition aspects of bat mitzvahs. They were also able to diminish the importance of bat mitzvahs in comparisons to bar mitzvahs.
Traditionally, bar mitzvahs represented the transition from boy to man, and was rooted in Jewish history and religion. However, with the rise of consumerism and the popularity of bat mitzvahs, the bar mitzvahs importance has been diminished to a birthday party in many cases.
For a more detailed description of bar mitzvahs, click here.
References:
Kimmel, M. (2010). Globalization and its mal(e) contents. In Misframing men: The politics of contemporary masculinities (pp. 143-162). US: Rutgers University Press.
Shoham, H. (2015). 'A birthday part, only a little bigger': A historical anthropology of the Israeli bat mitzvah. Jewish Culture and History, 16(3), p. 275-292. doi: 10.1080/1462169X.2016.1139855
Shoham, H. (2018). 'The bar and bat mitzvah in the Yishuv and early Israel: From initiation rite to birthday party. Association for Jewish Studies 42(1), p. 133-157. doi: 10.1017/S0364009418000090