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Sample Program

By Pamela Saeks
Return to Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ideas and Primer for Interfaith Families.

 

Note: This is an excerpt from a sample of how a program could look and is not a complete representation of a synagogue service.

Bar Mitzvah of        

Preliminary Service        , Family Friend
Pages 1-336, Prayer Book  
Shaharit (Morning Service)        
Pages 336-392, Prayer Book  
Lechi Lach Performed by        
Presentation of Tallit        
Shehecheyanu        
Opening of the Ark        , Uncle/Grandfather
Page 394, Prayer Book  
Aliyah #1        
Torah Reader        
Page 69-73, Humash, Bereshit (Genesis) 12:1- 12:13  
Prayer for Our Country, English        
Page 415, Prayer Book  

 

The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ideas and Primer for Interfaith Families is also available as a PDF document.

Hebrew for "Who has given us life," part of a blessing thanking God for bringing us to a special or new moment. Hebrew for "son of the commandments." In modern Jewish practice, Jewish boys come of age at 13. When a boy comes of age, he is officially a bar mitzvah and considered an adult. The term is commonly used as a short-hand for the bar mitzvah's coming-of-age ceremony and/or celebration. The female equivalent is "bat mitzvah." Derived from the Greek word for "assembly," a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogue refers to both the room where prayer services are held and the building where it occurs. In Yiddish, "shul." Reform synagogues are often called "temple." Hebrew for "prayer shawl," a ritual item that is worn and has knotted fringes (tzitzit) attached to the four corners. Hebrew for "going up," it refers to the honor of saying the blessing over the Torah reading. It can also refer to the act of immigrating to Israel. (e.g. "After falling in love with Jerusalem, Rachel and Christopher made aliyah.") The first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), or the scroll that contains them. A cabinet- or cupboard-like structure that houses the Torah(s) in a synagogue.

Pamela Saeks lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.

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