At the age of 13, every Jewish child takes his/her place in the Jewish community, accepting his/her own responsibility for obeying God's commandments. This rite of passage is marked with a beautiful ceremony called Bar or Bat Mitzvah (son or daughter of the commandment). At Temple Beth Am, our Bar/Bat Mitzvah program is a comprehensive study of Hebrew prayers, chanting and reading from Torah and Haftarah.

All of our B'nai Mitzvah (children of the commandment) take place during a Saturday morning Shabbat service in the sanctuary. Some are singles, some are doubles (depending on the size of the class),

The Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparation actually begins when your son/daughter is in the 3rd grade. During weekday Hebrew School, Cantor Schechtman and Rabbi Pollack lead weekday tefillah (prayer services) where students practice reading and chanting many of the prayers they will lead during Shabbat morning worship.  Additionally, they spend some of their Sunday music time learning to chant the blessings for the Torah and Haftarah.

Students meet on Monday afternoons with Cantor Schechtman, Rabbi Pollack and a couple of student aides in small groups (10 or less) as part of a rotation in their 7th grade curriculum. During these sessions, students practice the prayers of the service, as well as the verses of Torah and Haftarah that they have been assigned.  Each students receives MP3 files of all the prayers, which are easily downloadable on to their own iPods or MP3 players for easy practice.

Rabbi Pollack will also meet individually with each student to prepare a devar Torah, a short essay on the Torah portion during which the student explores the  parasha and then relates it to his/her own life.  The devar is then read during the Bar/Bat Mitzvah service.

Our goal is to have every student ascend the bima with confidence and with the satisfaction of having risen to the challenge as he/she takes his/her place in the Jewish community.

The Saturday morning service, which is open to the entire congregation, begins at 10:30am and is filled with much anticipation, beauty and a wealth of emotions.

Family and friends come from near and far to witness this rite of passage for our young people, and the excitement of the occasion is sometimes overwhelming.

We, at Temple Beth Am, strive to maintain the religious significance and dignity of the occasion by keeping the focus on the service and translating that reverence into acts of lovingkindness.

While we encourage families to celebrate in whatever manner suits their personalities and their lifestyles, we remind them, too, that the importance of this rite of passage lies in the words, music and meaning of the Shabbat morning service.