Last weekend, I was witness to a Confirmation. Yet, this was not a typical confirmation, at least not for me, as it was neither Christian nor Catholic. Instead it was a Jewish Confirmation. Being brought up a Jew, I had the privilege to have a Bar Mitzvah, but never had I heard of a Jewish Confirmation. As this was a surprise to me, I thought I would share what I learned from this experience.
What is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah?
First of all, most Jews, upon turning 13 years old, have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, depending on your sex. A Bar Mitzvah is for boys turning into men and a Bat Mitzvah is for girls turning into women. Literally the translation of Bar/Bat Mitzvah is “son/daughter of the commandment”. As is tradition within Judaism, the ripe old age of 13 is considered the maturing age for young boys and girls into adulthood. (I am sure this was due to the shorter life span 3000 years ago). The Bar/Bat Mitzvah is an age old custom/rite for the religion, where the youngster holds services in a synagogue. After a year of training and reading ancient Hebrew text, the boy or girl not only leads a congregation on a Saturday morning with song and reading, but also reads aloud from the Torah, the Old Testament. Following the Bar/Bat Mitzvah there is a giant celebration where food, dance (see video below), and drink are involved. On top of all this, a vast amount of money is given to the recent Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
What is the Torah Anyway?
Basically the Torah is the Old Testament written in ancient Hebrew. The Torah includes 5 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy). The Torah is written in fanciful Hebrew calligraphy, usually on some animal’s skin, in a scroll form. As the reader, you are never allowed to touch the pages in the Torah for they are deemed too Holy for your touch and the acid from your skin might distort the words on the page. Instead the reader uses a pointer, a Yad, to follow from word to word during the reading. These 5 scrolls are located in the most sacred place inside the synagogue, this is called the Ark. (yes, the Ark of the Covenant). Not only does the Torah contain the Old Testament, but it also contains Jewish law. Hence, when a boy or girl receives his or her Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the child is considered an adult for they have now been ingrained with Jewish law.
What is A Jewish Confirmation?
Upon having a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and reading from the Torah, the young adult has the option of staying in Hebrew school or just walking away. I opted for walking away, as I did not see the reason to stay in religious school. However, my little cousin decided to stay in Hebrew school and a week ago she graduated. Basically a Jewish Confirmation is a celebration of the young adult Jew finishing his/her Hebrew studies. This event is, typically, celebrated on the anniversary of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, 5768 years ago. As per the Rabbi, this past Sunday was the anniversary to the day of this event.
Nevertheless, on this day there were about twenty 16 year olds that were being confirmed. As I said earlier, this whole event was new to me and I was even more shocked when I entered the synagogue to see all these kids wearing white robes. For a second, I thought that I had been duped into going to a mass baptism or something like that. In all of my years of going to synagogue, I have never seen such a scene. Usually, you see people in dark clothes wearing a Yamaka, a round hat that sits on your head, and a Tallis, a decorative scarf that signifies receiving your Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Naturally the service was painstakingly slow with the Rabbi’s sermon, the usual readings and songs, and the handing out of diplomas. But there was one thing that the Rabbi did that really caught my attention. As he was blessing the recent Confirmands, he waved his hand over them and made the “Vulcan gesture“. Without hesitation I thought this was funny and said something to my mother, who immediately replied that the gesture had been used for thousands of years by Jewish priests.
All in all, while I despise being dragged into synagogue and services, this last experience was interesting to say the least for I learned that Jews have Confirmations too.
Image Used in this Post
Torah image courtesy of Flickr user Vaultboy published under the CC license.
6 Comments
I don’t want to be rude, but I think Yamaka is part of the Pali Canon, which are the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism.
A Yarmulke or Kippah is a round skull cap traditionally worn by Orthodox Jewish men.
I suppose you can be forgiven on the grounds that you are only a half-Jew.
But seriously, the Jews know how to party for the Almighty.
Haha glad you liked the video.
It’s cool, I appreciate the correction. Jay, good point about that I am only a half-Jew, I really should have called them beanies.
You want to hear something really interesting, when I went to Safed, a mystical Kabbalah town with ancient temples, I was not required to wear a yamaka; a simple baseball cap was acceptable. To me it showed how much Reformed Jews and Orthodox Jews, at least over here in the States, really have their head shoved up their asses. I have never entered a temple here and been able to wear a baseball cap. If I did that I would be shunned by my peoples and YAWEH would turn me to ash.
Thats pretty neat that the Vulcan hand gesture is thousands of years old. Thats some powerful history.
What is even more powerful is that Rineberg was just informed of the spelling error for the skull cap and he got it wrong again in his comment. That takes talent.
How do you say Child in Hebrew?