Significance
Reaching the age of bar mitzvah signifies becoming a full-fledged member of the Jewish community with the responsibilities that come with it. These include moral responsibility for own actions, eligibility to be called to read from the Torah and lead or participate in a Minyan, May possess personal property, May be legally married according to Jewish law, Must follow the 613 laws of the Torah and keep the Halakha, May testify as a witness in a Beth Din (Rabbinical court) case.
Many congregations require pre-bar mitzvah children to attend a minimum number of Shabbat prayer services at the synagogue, study at a Hebrew School, take on a charity or community service project, and maintain membership in good standing with the synagogue. In addition to study and preparation offered through the synagogue and Hebrew schools, bar mitzvah tutors may be hired to prepare the youngster through the study of Hebrew, Torah cantillation and basic Jewish concepts.
Read more about this topic: Bar And Bat Mitzvah
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“History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
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—Marlon Brando (b. 1924)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)