[Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks]Mitzvah (was "Halal" and "Kosher")

[Avraham haRofeh of Sudentur]

> > Could you explain what "mitzvah" means?? I was under the impression that
> it
> > was the ritual where a boy becomes a man, bar mitzvah, but I keep on
> hearing
> > it in reference to lots of things. Does it basicly mean ritual?
>
> Actually, it means a good deed, in a Godly sense  If you perform a
mitzvah,
> you have performed a good act in accordance with the covenent with God,
who
> is actually nameless ;-) A boy's bar mitzvah is actually an opportunity
for
> him to prove he is a man, by reading the Hebrew of the Laws in front of a
> minyon (a minimal grouping of 10 male adults) of other (theoretically
> observant )Jews. It shows that he is no longer a child because he has
> performed the act of a man. Many acts can be mitzvahs, but Jews, being the
> practical sorts that they are, usually require witnesses.

"Mitzvah" is probably best translated as "commandment". It is something one
does because God has commanded it so. ("Good deeds" in general are mitzvot
because of the commandment to participate in "tikkun ha-olam", the
rebuilding of the world). "Bar mitzvah" means "son of the commandment", and
recognizes that at age 13, a boy is sufficiently intelligent to be
responsible for his own actions, religiously. A boy becomes bar mitzvah on
his 13th birthday, with or without the ceremony. In the Old Country, the
boy's new responsibility was recognized by offering him the reciprocal
privilege of reading from the Law for the first time on the Shabbat after
his birthday. In this country, since the age is comparable to that at which
Christian children are confirmed, often with a big party, "keeping up with
the Joneses" led to the development of the American bar mitzvah celebration,
then subsequently to the bat mitzvah ("daughter of the commandment"), a
concept which our Eastern European ancestors would have looked upon with
horror.

Avraham

*******************************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Sudentur
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)
RandomTag: It doesn't have to make sense! It just has to work!