What Do The Terms Bat Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah, And B'nai Mitzvah Actually Mean?

"Bat mitzvah" is the corresponding term for girls and means "daughter of the commandment." Because this term is more recent, it comes from Hebrew rather than Aramaic, according to ReformJudaism.org. Whereas the bar mitzvah tradition is hundreds of years old, the first bat mitzvah in the U.S. didn't happen until 1922, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. It was for Judith Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, who founded Reconstructionist Judaism, which focused on adapting to the modern age. He hoped the implementation of bat mitzvahs would give women equal standing with men in Judaism. Bat mitzvahs did not become widespread in American Judaism until the 1960s.

Traditionally, Jewish women were not permitted to read from the Torah, which is an integral part of bar mitzvahs. Thus, the first bat mitzvahs usually happened during Friday night services, during which the Torah is not read. If held on a Saturday morning, the girl would read from a separate book rather than the Torah scroll. As bat mitzvahs became more popular, it raised the question of whether or not women should be allowed to read from the Torah at other services. Most Reform and Conservative Jewish congregations allowed this by the 1970s (via Jewish Virtual Library).

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCFkm9rcmxfrLWiwIydpmasmJp6tbHRpqpmmpGpeq6107OtmqBdl66zecyiq7OukZ16orrDZpmnmZliuqrA2a%2BYoWWRmMG2rculsGallZa7cA%3D%3D