Editing Bar and bat mitzvah (section)

== Bat mitzvah customs ==
[[File:Egyptian Alexandria Jewish girls during BatMitzva.jpg|thumb|left|Egyptian Alexandria Jewish girls during bat mitzvah]]
[[File:BatM 1.jpg|thumb|left|A [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] bat mitzvah in Israel]]
Today many non-Orthodox Jews celebrate a girl's bat mitzvah in the same way as a boy's bar mitzvah. All [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] and [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist]], and most [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] [[synagogue]]s have egalitarian participation, in which women read from the Torah and lead services. In Orthodox communities, a bat mitzvah is celebrated when a girl reaches the age of 12.

The majority of [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and some Conservative Jews reject the idea that a woman can publicly read from the Torah or lead prayer services whenever there is a [[minyan]] ([[quorum]] of 10 males) available to do so. However, the public celebration of a girl becoming bat mitzvah in other ways has made strong inroads into [[Modern Orthodox Judaism]] and also into some elements of [[Haredi Judaism]]. In these congregations, women do not read from the Torah or lead prayer services, but they occasionally lecture on a Jewish topic to mark their coming of age, learn a book of [[Tanakh]], recite verses from the [[Book of Esther]] or the [[Book of Psalms]], or say prayers from the [[siddur]]. In some Modern Orthodox circles, bat mitzvah girls will read from the Torah and lead prayer services in a [[Tefillah#Role of women|women's tefillah]]. Rabbi [[Moshe Feinstein]], a prominent Orthodox ''[[posek]],'' described the  bat mitzvah celebration as "meaningless", and of no greater halakhic significance than a birthday party. However, he reluctantly permitted it in homes, but not synagogues,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eleff |first1=Zev |title=Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life |date=2020 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-4482-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1-lDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Feinstein+forbade+bat+mitzvah+in+the+synagogue+and+only+with+considerable+reluctance+tolerated+it+in+homes.%22&pg=PT73 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 2: How Bat Mitzvah Became Orthodox}}</ref><ref name=EleffSymp2016 /> as the latter would be construed as imitating Reform and Conservative customs; in any case, they do not have the status of [[seudat mitzvah]].<ref>Iggros Moshe OC 1:104 and OC 2:97</ref> Rabbi [[Ovadiah Yosef]] holds that it is a seudat mitzvah.<ref>Yabia Omer 2:29</ref>

There were occasional attempts to recognize a girl's coming of age in eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, the former in Warsaw (1843) and the latter in Lemberg (1902). The occasion was marked by a party without any ritual in the synagogue.<ref>Marcus, Ivan G. (2004). ''The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times''. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. {{ISBN|0-295-98440-6}}, p. 105.</ref>

There are documents that record an Italian rite for becoming bat mitzvah, known as an "entrance into the minyan" ceremony, in which boys of thirteen and girls of twelve recited a blessing, since the mid-19th century.<ref>Marcus, p. 106.</ref> There were also some bat mitzvah rituals held in the 19th century in Iraq.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barkat |first=Amiram |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/coming-of-age-a-little-later-than-usual-1.8909 |title=Coming of age a little later than usual |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2003-05-27 |access-date=2013-04-13}}</ref> However, it was the American rabbi [[Mordecai Kaplan|Mordecai M. Kaplan]] held the first public celebration of a bat mitzvah as we understand it in modern times for his daughter on March 18, 1922, at the [[Society for the Advancement of Judaism]], his synagogue in New York City.<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library: First American Bat Mitvah">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/firstbat.html |title=The First American Bat Mitvah |encyclopedia=Jewish Virtual Library |date=1922-03-18 |access-date=2013-04-13}}</ref><ref>Waskow, Arthur Ocean and Phyllis Ocean Berman. Excerpt from ''A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven'' Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC at {{cite web |url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm |title=History of Bat Mizvah |access-date=2007-10-10 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071013163838/http://myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm |archive-date= October 13, 2007| url-status= live}}</ref> Kaplan was unaware of the earlier Italian precedent and learned of them several months later, while on holiday in Italy.<ref>Marcus, pg 112.</ref> [[Judith Kaplan Eisenstein|Judith Kaplan]] recited the preliminary blessing, read a portion of that week's Torah portion in Hebrew and English, and then intoned the closing blessing.<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library: First American Bat Mitvah" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/style/bat-mitzvahs.html|title=Becoming a Woman Before Their Eyes|last1=Peiser|first1=Jaclyn|date=2019-04-27|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-04-27|last2=Lyons|first2=Eve|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|last3=Chafetz|first3=Marisa}}</ref> Mordecai Kaplan, an Orthodox rabbi who joined [[Conservative Judaism]] and then became the founder of [[Reconstructionist Judaism]], influenced Jews from all branches of non-Orthodox Judaism, through his position at the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]]. At the time, most Orthodox rabbis strongly rejected the idea of a bat mitzvah ceremony.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eleff |first1=Zev |title=Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life |date=2020 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-4482-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1-lDwAAQBAJ&q=%22the+rabbinate+in+the+United+States+had+already+decided+on+the+halakhic+impropriety+of+the+Bat+Mitzvah+ritual%22&pg=PT74 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 2: How Bat Mitzvah Became Orthodox |quote="...the rabbinate in the United States had already decided on the halakhic impropriety of the Bat Mitzvah ritual..."}}</ref><ref name="Eleff2020">{{cite book |last1=Eleff |first1=Zev |last2=Schacter |first2=Jacob J. |title=Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History |date=2016 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8276-1289-1 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sa05DAAAQBAJ&q=%22Orthodox+leaders+resisted+the+%22innovation%22+and+impulse+to+be+%22with+it.%22+In+fact,+as+late+as+the+1970s,+only+the+most+accommodating+Orthodox+rabbis+permitted+bat+mitzvah+ceremonies,+and+they+allowed+just+the+most+modest+sort+of+occasions.%22&pg=PT225 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 9: The Orthodox Synagogue and Rabbinate. Section 1: Rites of Passage |quote="...Orthodox leaders resisted the "innovation" and impulse to be "with it." In fact, as late as the 1970s, only the most accommodating Orthodox rabbis permitted bat mitzvah ceremonies, and they allowed just the most modest sort of occasions..."}}</ref><ref name = "EleffSymp2016">{{cite journal |last1=Eleff |first1=Zev |last2=Butler |first2=Menachem |title=How Bat Mitzvah Became Orthodox,&quot; Symposium on Masorah, May 2016 (TorahMusings.com) |website=Torahmusings.com |date=January 2016 |url=https://www.academia.edu/25805815 |language=en}}</ref>

As the ceremony became accepted for females as well as males, many women chose to celebrate the ceremony even though they were much older, as a way of formalizing and celebrating their place in the adult Jewish community.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/22batmitzvah.html |work=The New York Times |title=Having a Bat Mitzvah in Their 90s Because It's a Hoot |first=Christopher |last=Maag |date=March 22, 2009 |access-date=March 31, 2010}}
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