A Protestant Bar Mitzvah

Ladd C. Hoffman provides the events, planning, and execution of a coming-of-age celebration with a purpose that he devised for his sons. You will hear the thought process and the challenges the event produced. You may be encouraged to plan some type of event for your child.A child moving to adulthood.Parents leading their children to maturity.Challenging your children to maintain their faith.An example of how to take a child through a ceremony about growth.

The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony of bar mitzvah was first recorded in thirteenth-century France, where it took the form of a simple statement by the father that he was no longer responsible for his thirteen-year-old son. Today, bar mitzvah for boys and bat mitzvah for girls are more popular than at any time in history and are sometimes accompanied by lavish celebrations. How did bar mitzvah develop over the centuries from an obscure legal ritual into a core component of Judaism? How did it capture the imagination of even non-Jewish youth? Bar Mitzvah, A History is a comprehensive account of the ceremonies and celebrations for both boys and girls. A cultural anthropology informed by rabbinic knowledge, it explores the origins and development of the most important coming-of-age milestone in Judaism. Rabbi Michael Hilton has sought out every reference to bar mitzvah in the Bible, the Talmud, and numerous other Jewish texts spanning several centuries, extracting a fascinating miscellany of information, stories, and commentary.

Robert McAfee Brown (d. 2001) was a renowned Presbyterian theologian, teacher, and social activist. This is his memoir, the story of a modest man who lived life according to his conscience and his faith, and who was a model for responsible social activism within and outside the church.

In this original and sweeping review of Jewish culture and history, Ivan Marcus examines how and why various rites and customs celebrating stages in the life cycle have evolved through the ages and persisted to this day. For each phase of life--from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and the advanced years—the book traces the origin and development of specific rites associated with the events of birth, circumcision, and schooling; bar and bat mitzvah and confirmation; engagement, betrothal, and marriage; and aging, dying, and remembering. Customs in Jewish tradition, such as the presence of godparents at a circumcision, the use of a four-poled canopy at a wedding, and the placing of small stones on tombstones, are discussed. In each chapter, detailed descriptions walk the reader through such ceremonies as early modern and contemporary circumcision, weddings, and funerals. In a comparative framework, Marcus illustrates how Jewish culture has negotiated with the majority cultures of the ancient Near East, Greco-Roman antiquity, medieval European Christianity, and Mediterranean Islam, as well as with modern secular and religious movements and social trends, to renew itself through ritual innovation. In his extensive research on the Jewish life cycle, Marcus draws from documents on various customs and ritual practices, offering reassessments of original sources and scholarly literature. Marcus’s survey is the first comprehensive study of the rites of the Jewish life cycle since Hayyim Schauss's The Lifetime of the Jew was published in 1950, written for Jewish readers. Marcus’s book addresses a broader audience and is designed to appeal to scholars and interested readers.

Presents the history and evolution of the bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah ceremonies and reflections of Jewish celebrities on their own coming-of-age celebrations.

The book has spiritual journey to day of Jewish families. And its secrets raising children is very wise and successful. The author of this book want to teach us how to raise children like Jewish parents that make them wise, sharp and very successful in life.

It is from the Bible that society obtains its most enduring and successful patterns for the tapestries formed by our social fabric. The institution of marriage is no exception. Given to us by God at the very beginning of His creation, marriage was to be the bedrock of all societies; and over the millennia since God first gave Adam and Eve life in the garden of Eden, this bedrock remains essential to His will for mankind. While this book will neither exhaust the topic of biblical marriage nor address every verse of Scripture or nuance in the union of two unique individuals, it will present practical revelation that we pray you find useful in building your marriage, and thereby empowering your family. Beginning with the biblical foundation of marriage, a foundation unaltered since God ordained it, this book will take you on a journey that will reveal the genius of God's blueprint for marriage and ultimately His manifestation of the gospel in the institution itself. As with all great institutions, marriage and family are God's idea, not mankind's. He is the Creator and Sustainer, and the purposes for which He creates and sustains a marriage are not mysterious--He desires godly offspring. In perpetuating the gospel of Jesus Christ through all generations and around the world, God reveals time and again in His Word that the primary vehicle for the perpetuation of that Gospel (good news) is family. Just as no person is perfect, no family is perfect. Here, too, in the ashes of divorce, abuse, and failed families, God wishes to show Himself not only capable but eager to restore and heal. We pray you will enjoy and profit greatly from the revelation God has given us on this important subject.

Describes the Jewish ceremonies of bar and bat mitzvah with a discussion of their history. Mostly blanks and lines for filing in one's own bar mitzvah.