Quote:
Originally posted by Sister Havana
That's about what I did for my bat mitzvah. (I've never been to any bat mitzvah that was just a party! There's always been reading there.) I had bat mitzvah lessons with the cantor after Hebrew school for a year or so, where I learned how to read and sing my Torah portion and Haftorah portion. I had to spend quite a bit of time practicing as well...I probably still have the practice tape of the cantor singing the portions somewhere.  I had to read part of the Torah portion and the whole Haftorah portion, lead some other prayers, and give a speech.
But that was almost a cakewalk compared to what kids nowadays do at their bar/bat mitzvahs. I have gone to several of my younger cousins' bar and bat mitzvahs and the kid leads a significant amount of the service, if not the whole thing. In many congregations, the bar/bat mitzvah kid has to do a community service project (not unlike an Eagle Scout project but I don't think it has to be as large-scale) or has to do a certain amount of hours of volunteer service.
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Yes but for girls that is a relatively new thing and in subsections of groups like reform which created the tradition. Community service projects? That is way too strange for me to even consider.
As for how lavish parties are that is a different thing from this topic altogether. People make money and can spend it any way they want. Should people who work hard be looked down upon? Should people who are successful be ridiculed? Should they live in a 2 bedroom house and drive a Kia and shop at Old Navy and perhaps splurge on Olive Garden? Or perhaps they enjoy the same fundamental freedoms of this country as everyone else and have every right to spend as they please - especially when such spending helps our economy and they already pay the largest amounts of taxes.
-Rudey