The Museum of
FAMILY HISTORY

       rites of passage

A Bar Mitzvah in Opatów, Poland

"My own bar mitzvah was not much. I new my Torah portion, or most of it, and had practiced putting on the phylacteries. My father was away in Canada, and Grandfather was my proxy father. On the day of my bar mitzvah, he came to my khayder for the morning service, which I conducted, already wearing the phylacteries. He said the traditional prayer absolving my father from my sins. He gave everyone a few candles. He gave me some cigarettes, which my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Taking artistic liberty, I painted a bar mitzvah on a Saturday in New besmedresh. Because it is Saturday, no one is wearing phylacteries. The boy's whole family and friends are present. The besmedresh had a small women's section, which was marked off with a mekhitse. The boy chanted his Torah portion and everyone wished him well. The real bar mitzvah happened during the week, when his father helped him put on the phylacteries. After the prayers, his father said the traditional prayer, 'Thank You, oh God, that You have liberated me from the responsibility for his sins.' It is written that, until the age of thirteen, the parent is responsible for the son's sins. After the bar mitzvah, the boy is on his own." -- Mayer Kirshenblatt.

Bar mitzvahs