The current emphasis on bar/bat mitzvah as a rite of passage and as the occasion for elaborate celebrations is a relatively recent and largely American phenomenon. Unfortunately, this emphasis can have the effect of distorting the meaning of bar/bat mitzvah. Rather than an occasion for conspicuous consumption, a bar/bat mitzvah is, ideally, a statement of obligation and responsibility to the community, and a celebration of the achievement of taking those first steps. When a young person is asked to recite the haftarah and its blessings, to read from the Torah or to recite part of the Shabbat service, he or she does so as a sign of willingness to take on an active and adult sense of responsibility for Jewish life.

The Jewish adult also has obligations of an ethical nature and a responsibility to the community at large. At Beth Sholom, in addition to ritual practices, the bar/bat mitzvah also takes on a community service/tzedakah project to highlight the importance of social justice/action in Judaism.

Our goal at Beth Sholom is that in the process of becoming a bar/bat mitzvah, our young people will experience the first flowering of a sense of adult Jewish spirituality, and that this experience will lead to a full and mature commitment to the Jewish community and its traditions.