Bar/Bat Mitzvah Lessons Everywhere, pioneered by Rabbinical Services Center of America, is the most amazing and advanced Bar/Bat Mitzvah program in the United States today. It combines a combination of children's natural gravitation towards modern computer technology on one hand, and individualized bar/bat mitzvah lessons on the other hand. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Lessons Everywhere program, through videoconferencing in real-time, allows your child and the Rabbi to have one on one lessons, while your child reamins in your own home at your convenience. At the conclusion of the study program, the Rabbi will travel to the place of your choosing to conduct a meaningful and spiritual Bar/Bat Mitzvah service. One on one lessons and convenience and security makes tis program an unprecedented success.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah - meaning "obligation by the commandments" - historically meant the formal assumption, by a young Jew, of the obligation to fulfill the commandments: the religious and legal obligations of being a Jew. Although the formal ceremony of Bar Mitzvah appears to date back only to the 15th century, the status of obligation at 13 has much earlier antecedents. For a discussion and bibliography, you may start with the brief article in the Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 4. The Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a creation of the 20th century. We regard the importance and function of each as identical and we do not differentiate between boys and girls in responsibility, training, or ritual participation associated with Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
At Rabbinical Services Center of America. we try to strike a balance between emphasis on the celebration of the rite as a personal achievement of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah and the fact that the ceremony is a fully integrated aspect of our regular worship. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a congregant participating with our congregational family in our service. We take pride in our Bar/Bat Mitzvah as an individual having achieved the learning to lead us as a Ba’al Tefillah - prayer leader; a Ba’al Koreh - Torah reader, and chanter of the Haftarah portion of the week; but most important, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is part of a greater whole--joining with the congregation as a full and important member.
