[Avodah] bat mitzva "bo bayom"

[T613K at aol.com]

From: menucha _menu at inter.net.il_ (mailto:menu at inter.net.il) 

>>I am  wondering if there is an inyan to have a seudat bat mitzva
(obviously for  those who hold that a seudat bat mitzva is a seudat
mitzva) on the actual  birthday.<<
 
 






>>>>>
 
As for the claim that this is a "seudas mitzva" I must admit that I can't  
see what makes the party a seudas mitzva at all.  I don't think it makes  any 
difference whatsoever when you have the party (or when you have a boy's bar  
mitzva party either, for that matter).  Something specific happens at a  bris or 
at a wedding.  Nothing happens on a boy's 13th or a girl's 12th  birthday -- 
nothing particular that you do that day.  Leining is optional,  an aliyah is 
optional, there's no certain thing you /have/ to do to become  bar mitzva or bas 
mitzva as there is something you /have/ to do change your  status from single 
to married person.  It's just that from this day  forward, you have to keep 
all the mitzvos that you have to keep, every day from  now on and for the rest 
of your life.   But you reached that status of  "responsible adult" just by 
waking up that day.  The first bracha you made  after waking up on your birthday 
-- saying asher yatzar maybe -- calls  for a seudas mitzva?  I just don't see 
it.
 
 
 
Please see what I wrote on Cross-Currents about that very issue, expressing  
my ambivalence about the very idea of a bas mitzva.  These were my maiden  
efforts, literally! -- my first two posts on Cross-Currents.
_http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2005/01/04/why-is-my-daughter-having-a
-bas-mitzva/_ 
(http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2005/01/04/why-is-my-daughter-having-a-bas-mitzva/) 
 
and also 
_http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2005/01/07/correspondence-about-my-daughters-bas-mitzva/_ 
(http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2005/01/07/correspondence-about-my-daughters-bas-mitzva/) 
 
In those posts I expressed both the negative and the positive aspects of  the 
modern-day bas mitzva celebration.

 

--Toby  Katz
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