Saturday we had the privilege of attending a friend of ours Bar Mitzvah. These are the friends that I have mentioned before that our Messianic Jews. First let me start off by saying that I have had very little exposure to the Jewish faith. Growing up in Kansas in the 1960's and 70's I do not remember knowing anyone Jewish until I was a Senior in High School. Then there was one family that moved to town who were Jewish. I didn't really know them, but they did have a son my age. Then when I moved to Los Angeles in my 20's and worked for ABC-TV I met lots of people who were Jewish. But, I never really learned anything about their faith.
With all this said I must tell you I was under the (false) impression that a Jewish "church" service would be a completely stuffy, pious, holier-than-thou type of thing. BOY, was I wrong! WOW, how to even begin to tell you about the Bar Mitzvah! I think one of the reasons I had gotten this idea is that for several years while I worked at ABC I would drive through a very Jewish Orthodox neighborhood on my way to work. On all the Biblical holidays the families would be walking to synagougeand they just looked so serious in their long beards with their dark suits, hats and prayer shaws.
Okay, first before I write anymore I want to just say up front this is a Bar Mitzvah from a complete novice point of view. I am in no way claiming to know anything about the Jewish faith or all the intricacies of a Bar Mitzvah. But, as someone who just experienced this for the first time, I wanted to share the wonderful experience!
First off if you are not familiar with the term Messianic Jews, this means that these are believers in Jesus Christ who practice in the ancient Jewish tradition. Many are Jewish by heritage who have become believers in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and did not want to leave the rich worship tradition of the Jewish faith. Many are gentiles who have fallen in love with worshiping in the way Jesus would have when he walked on this earth. Everyone seems to be welcome and thankfully for me no question seems to be disregarded as stupid! LOL (Although when I asked if the band, who was strumming the same few notes while they were warming up, were playing Jewish music I might have been pushing the envelope! LOL)
So here it goes...
Bar Mitzvah is really a noun. Bar means "son" and Mitzvah means "of the commandment". So Bar Mitzvah is really what you call the boy who is having the service. (Bat means daughter, so a Bat Mitvah is the same basic service for a girl. The service for a girl is held at the age of 12.) By Jewish tradion a boy who has reached the age of 13 is considered to be ready to be accountable for his relationship with God. He is no longer under the cover of his families faith, but considered old enough to make his own decision on what he will believe. He is also considered to be at the doorway of manhood. One thing I really liked that the Rabbi said is that manhood is a great big room and at Bar Mitzvah the boy is standing at the doorway. There is much to explore and learn as he grows to become a fully grown man.
If you want to learn more about what a Bar Mitzvah is you can read here:
The celebration is held as part of the weekly Sabbath Service in the synagouge. (The Jewish holy day is Saturday, not Sunday.) The service started out with music and worship. WOW! I wish you could have been there! The music was so beautiful. Most of it was sung in Hebrew, but the word in English were all under the Hebrew words, so we could follow along. The music went on for an hour. And while they sang...THEY DANCED! Yep, right there in the aisle! The most beautiful choreographed line dancing snaking through the congregation. (Very modest dancing.) Mostly women, although a few men joined in the dancing. For over and hour there was music and dancing! All I could think of was that this is the way Jesus would have worshipped! WOW! My kids and I thought we might just start a new tradition at our church next Sunday! LOL)
After the worship there was a fabulous video of our friend growing up. I am sure this is not part of the original traditions, but it was a wonderful way to start the celebration.
After the video the Bar Mitzvah, his parents and 3 other couples who are a special part of the young mans life went up on the stage. This was a time of the parents speaking to their son and giving him gifts. Both mom and dad spoke about what a blessing this young man had been in their lives. I was bawling my eyes out at this point! (Oh, honestly I was crying during the video! LOL) The Bar Mitzavh was presented with 2 gifts from his parents. A prayer shaw and another traditional prayer item that belonged to his great grandfather. (I wish I knew all the right names for everything, but you just have to bear with me!)
Next all of the people on the stage turned around to face a huge door that was behind the stage. This is the best picture I have of the doors. I didn't take any when they were closed. :^(
A young man chanted a beautiful prayer in Hebrew and then the doors were opened to revel the Torah. The Torah is the Jewish Bible hand written on sheepskin. It is the first 5 books of the Old Testament. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah.
Once the doors were opened there was more chanting and praying and then the Torah (All approx. 40 to 50 pounds of it!) was handed to the Bar Mitzvah. This synagouge happens to have 3 Torah's so since this was a special occasion all 3 were taken out and carried around. (The Dad carried one and a friend of the family carried the 3rd.) The Torah was carried out through the congregation! WOW, I was so touched to see all the people rush to the aisles to wait for the Torah to pass! As it passed people would either touch it with their own Bible or touch it with their hand and then kiss their fingers. (It was covered by cloth so no dirty hands were making it messy.)
Here is a picture of our friend carrying the Torah. It was very hard to get this picture becasue everyone was so crowed around the Torah. This took me about 20 shots and I was just glad to see his face and the Torah both in this one! LOL Notice the hand going up to touch the Torah.
Next the Bar Mitzvah read from the portion of the Torah that he learned while training for his Bar Mitzvah. Then he gave a talk about what the passage means and how it applies to our lives. (He did this SO well! I was so proud of him!!)
Here he is reading from the Torah. That is his Father standing behind him. (Insert me sobing here!)
After the reading of the Torah portion there was a blessing for the children before releasing them for children's service. This part was so amazing too! Every week all the children come forward and stand together under a cover made with several of the men's prayer shaws. I was just so touched by this. One of the things that has really impressed me about the little exposure we have had to the Messianic worship services is how the children are so celebrated and revered. They are not shuffled off to Sunday School from the first moments to learn with kids their own age. But, they are allowed to worship with their parents and family. It was so precious to see the little girls working so hard to join in on the dancing!
This is sadly the last picture I have to share. (My batteries died!) But, I wanted to show this one because it is the best picture I got of the Torah.
After the Torah was put away the Rabbi gave a sermon that was directed at the Bar Mitzvah. It was based on the portion of the Torah that the Bar Mitzvah had read. It was lovely and touching. I enjoyed every minute of it, even though from start to finish the entire service was nearly 3 hours!
Then the party began!
After the service there was a luncheon and the cutest cake you can imagine! (Which you will have to imagine since I didn't get pictures! LOL) It was a reproduction of the one the Bar Mitzvah's father had at his own Bar Mitzvah. It looked just like the Torah unrolled!
Then there was more of the beautiful jewish dancing. (Have you ever seen the Prince of Eqypt when Moses runs away and saves the women who would become his wife? The Father Jethro holds a big celebration with dancing. This is the same kind of dancing!) I could have watched the dancing all night! So lovely....
The final great treat for us was when the Bar Mitzvah sat in a chair and was hoisted up in the air to throw candy to all the kids while the men caried him around! Of course the band was playing beautiful Jewish music. My kids LOVED this part!
This is such a poor attempt at describing all the beauty and blessings we received from attending this service. Saturday night my daughter and I laid in bed as she was falling asleep and talked and imagined what it must have been like to have attended Jesus Bar Mitzvah! What an amazing thought!
Mazel Tov to the Bar Mitzvah boy! We can hardly wait for your younger brother to turn 13 so we can come to another Bar Mitzvah celebration!
Jamin, it WAS lovely! I'm glad that you and your family enjoyed the service and celebration so much. It was a day that our mutual friend will never forget.
You have mentioned in posts that you have an online job. I was curious what it was and if you promote it. I am looking for some extra income from home while homeschooling the kids. Thanks so much.
... in your blog for quite a while now. I just can't leave without telling your something. This post made me really curious about the Jews & their traditions. I have never meet or know anyone who's a Jew but last week in BSF, our leader talk about Torah. This year we are studying about The Life of Moses. Thank you for sharing this, I just ask my husband I wanted him to take us to see a Jewish worship someday. Thank you for sharing this.
Hey Jamin,
I've been enjoying your blog for sometime. I would like to send your family a copy of my book, since y'all have been such a blessing to me. It's a faith-inspired fantasy, and I promise that it's very clean. You can read part of it at www.altravis.webs.com to see if you think your kids would be interested, and then send me a note (there's a place to contact me on the site)!
Totally free to you, like I said, just wanting to bless you back!
A.L. Travis
I just wanted to say that it is offensive to Jews to consider Messianic Jews as Jews. They are, by definition, Christian. It's a long battle that I won't get into, but as a Jew, I wanted to point out that it's not really the same.
You mention that non-Jews have "fallen in love with worshiping in the way Jesus would have when he walked on this earth." Actually, much of the way we celebrate holidays today is VERY different from how Jesus would have celebrated. A blog I read, written by a rabbi, had an entry on this very topic: http://rabbibarry.wordpress.com/2007/04/01/the-passover-and-the-last-supper/
The video is definitely not a traditional part of the ceremony as traditional Jews don't use electronics on Shabbat.
Oh and a minor note, when you mentioned the definition of bar mitzvah, at one point, you used the word, "Mitzpah." That actually means "watch tower" or "guard post." There's a prayer that's often referred to as the Mitzpah. "May the L-rd watch between me and thee when we are apart from another." That proved very useful for my family when my daughters were in the NICU and during my husband's deployments.
Random note, Jewish children will become bar/bat mitzvot when they hit 13/12 no matter what. They don't need a party or ceremony, they just automatically are, but most families choose to have ceremonies (and put in the time, effort and years of work in Hebrew school) so that they fully understand the depth of it. Some do Hebrew school and opt to skip the party and instead, visit Israel. That's what we're hoping to do.
The prayer shawl is called tefillin. Was the item from his great grandfather leather with thin straps? Was it a cup? If you can describe it, I might be able to help you out.
Traditionally, during the Torah procession, no one touches it with their hands. Men will use the tzitit (the fringes on the tefillin) and then will kiss those (I see someone doing that in the photo you posted) and women will use their prayer books (the prayer books used for services aren't really bibles) and then kiss those.
I'm rambling and I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to jump in. :-)
We have homeschooled our children from the start and we love every minute of it! This is my place to share my thoughts on homeschooling, my kids and living for the Lord. All the while being a little outside the box!!
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This is the best picture I have of the doors. I didn't take any when they were closed. :^(
It was very hard to get this picture becasue everyone was so crowed around the Torah. This took me about 20 shots and I was just glad to see his face and the Torah both in this one! LOL Notice the hand going up to touch the Torah.
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