Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Spiritual Rite of Passage

Featured at the Jewish Futures Conference

Provides the tools and understanding necessary to create a conscious Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience infused with spirituality and meaning. The original purpose of this important rite of passage is carefully reclaimed: Ensuring a healthy Jewish lens for living is conveyed to each student; a lens that supports love of life and respect for life.

The building blocks of a mitzvah-centered life are taught through the methods of experiential and Jewish spiritual education. Step-by-step guides and riveting true stories help all involved to feel personally "touched by Torah"; through weaving student and family feelings, needs, interests, skills and talents into the preparation process, ritual and celebration.
Buy Now: Special Introductory Pricing

This innovative approach reduces stress and cultivates loving connections to family, friends, community and heritage. B'nai Mitzvah becomes a far more meaningful and memorable chapter of life as award-winning master teacher Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram inclusively leads every kind of family through this engaging, carefully researched and proven effective planning and preparation process.

Praise for Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a SPIRITUAL Rite of Passage

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Rite of Initiation

2 Developing Your Bar/Bat Mitzvah Action Plan (BMAP)

3 Incorporating Awareness, Talents & Interests

4 Shaping a Meaningful Jewish Study Plan & Service

5 Step-by-Step Guide to Giving a Great D’var Torah

6 Exploring Mitzvah Project Options

7 Joyful Jewishing: Approaches to Celebrating

8 Contemplating Heartfelt Blessings, Gifts & Memories

Glossary: Transliterations & Translations

Acknowledgements

Index

Buy Now


“This is a most valuable book to learn about Judaism for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any age!
     --Peninnah Schram, author, Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another
 
“Solid, wise and inviting.”
     --Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, author, Parenting as a Spiritual Journey

"This book freed our family from the bar mitzvah machine that our Temple has turned into and helped us come up with a bar mitzvah that is relevant...It is full of wonderful ideas."
--M. Shellster, Parent

"Helps us to bring heart and soul to our involvement in Jewish life." Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Davenning: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer

Buy Now: Special Introductory Pricing

“Helps bar and bat mitzvah students enhance their autonomy, thinking, creative engagement, Jewish identity and authentic self esteem.”
    --Ellen Weaver, psychotherapist, pastoral counselor, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Educator

“I cherish this as a parent, educator, and impassioned adult bat mitzvah student. An invaluable tool to help transform this learning process into a joyous adventure.”
     --Julia Indichova, author, Inconceivable and director, Fertile Heart Parenting Center
 
“Restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah.”
     --Rabbi David A. Cooper, author, God is a Verb