-
Notes
- Jewish Publication Society
- Chapter
- Additional Information
227 Notes Introduction 1. Magida, Opening the Doors of Wonder, 91–92. 2. Magida, Opening the Doors of Wonder, 91. 3. Mitchell and Reid-Walsh, Girl Culture, 168; and www.youtube.com/ watch?v=N8Yk_EPlgWE (accessed May 12, 2012). 4. The word bar is Aramaic, corresponding to the Hebrew ben. The word mitzvah is Hebrew. Mixed phrases of Aramaic and Hebrew are very common in rabbinic literature, and the phrase bar mitzvah is used several times in the Talmud, though not with the meaning it has today. 5. The maftir who is to read from the Prophets is called up first to the Torah in order to demonstrate that the teachings of the Prophets are not considered equal to those of the Torah (Rashi on B. Megillah 23a). 6. Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 63.10. 7. The blessing has died out in many Orthodox synagogues, though it remains in Ashkenazic prayer books. Gaguine, Sefer Keter Shem Tov, 318, writes that he has never seen or heard of the blessing being used by Sephardim at all on the occasion of a bar mitzvah. It has not been the general practice of non-Orthodox synagogues to use the blessing. In modern Hebrew the traditional words associated with the blessing have come to be a popular phrase meaning “good riddance.” This has probably discouraged its use for bar/bat mitzvah, even though, as we shall see, the original meaning of the phrase was quite different. 8. For further information on my own Jewish upbringing, see Michael Hilton , “How Did the Jewish Community Come to Be Where It Is Today?” in Bayfield, Race, and Siddiqui, Beyond the Dysfunctional Family, 13–29. 9. Magida, Opening the Doors of Wonder, 4–6. 10. Grimes, Deeply into the Bone, 336. 11. Turner, From Ritual to Theatre. 228 notes to pages 1–7 1. How Bar Mitzvah Began 1. Bereshit Rabbah 38:11; Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer gives the age of thirteen (26). This is probably from the eighth century, suggesting that by this time thirteen was considered an important demarcation age. 2. Genesis 40:20. For modern birthday parties, see Pleck, Celebrating the Family, 141–61 3. 2 Maccabees 6:7. 4. Mark 6:21; Matthew 14:6. Salome’s name is not mentioned in the stories but is given by Josephus in Antiquities, 18.5.4. 5. Genesis 24:67. 6. Esther 2:18. 7. Rashi on Genesis 21:8. 8. Deuteronomy 6:7 (the Shema); Exodus 12:26,13:8,13:14; Deuteronomy 6:20. 9. Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine. Hezser discounts later Talmudic reports suggesting a widespread elementary school network. The Mishnah only mentions parents and individual teachers instructing children, never schools. 10. Genesis 17:25. 11. Josephus, Antiquities, 1.12.2. 12. Rashi on Genesis 17:26. 13. Numbers 1:1–3. 14. Rashi on Numbers 1:3; Ramban on Numbers 1:3. 15. Gilat, “Ben Shelosh-Esrei LaMitzvot.” 16. Exodus 23:14 17. M. Hagigah 1.1. 18. Luke 2:41–51. 19. Numbers 30:3. 20. M. Niddah 5.6. 21. B. Niddah 48b. 22. M. Arot 5:21. Some manuscripts give the saying in the name of a different rabbi of that time, Shemuel HaKatan. 23. Gilat, “Ben Shelosh-Esrei LaMitzvot.” 24. Following M. Avot 4.19, in the name of Shemuel HaKatan. Amram Tropper also leaves it out of his edition, following the Budapest ms Kauffman. See Gilat, “Ben Shelosh-Esrei LaMitzvot,” 39; Tropper, Wisdom, Politics, and Historiography. 25. M. Avot 5.20. 26. From the Tosafot on Bava Batra 21a and Ketubot 50a, where it is quoted. See Marcus, Rituals of Childhood, 43–44. 27. Verbal usages such as this have been taken to support a later date for the whole of Avot, as was argued by Guttmann, “Tractate Abot.” [44.223.39.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:21 GMT) notes to pages 7–10 229 28. Kaufmann Kohler erroneously took the text as evidence for a bar mitzvah ceremony at the beginning of the Christian era, and this was printed in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901–6. He was mistaken about both the date and the meaning of the text. The Babylonian Talmud seems to be unaware of the ages for learning given in our Mishnah; age six is given for the start of learning Bible (see B. Ketubot 50a). 29. Avot de Rabbi Natan 16.2. 30. Genesis 34:25. 31. Bereshit Rabbah 80.10. Rabbi Shimon lived in the second half of...