A Moment for the Culture
- Jun 30, 2025
- 5 min read
This year, I did one of the most meaningful things I've ever done: I had a Bat Mitzvah. Now, you may be wondering, aren't you 19 years old? Don't Bat Mitzvahs usually happen when you're 12...? And you would be correct. However, sometimes adults who didn't have B' Mitzvahs when they were younger have them as adults, in more liberal Jewish spaces, and that's what I did. Through Hillel at UW, I joined a cohort of about 9 other students and went through the B' Mitzvah process over the course of the whole school year, culminating in a ceremony in May. This experience was incredibly fulfilling and fun, and I am so grateful to have done it.
In the fall, I took an introductory Hebrew class through Hillel, where we learned the basics of reading Hebrew. Although we didn't learn how to speak it (aside from reading words aloud) or the meaning of the words, we learned how to read it orally, which prepared us for reading prayers, songs, and most importantly, Torah, in our ceremony. Learning to read Hebrew was definitely something quite different than anything I'd done before. I learned Spanish for many years, but since Spanish uses the same alphabet as English and Hebrew doesn't, it was a bit of a different ball game. Not to mention, Hebrew is typically not written with vowels, which makes it even more complicated. However, my teachers were great, and I learned a lot over the course of just 5 weeks!
In the winter, I took a class called Jewish Foundations, where we learned all about the main aspects of Judaism, from the different denominations and levels of religiousness to ceremonies and holidays. Although I already knew some of this information, a lot of it was new, and it was really cool to learn more about my own history and culture and increase my "Jewish literacy." I learned about the different beliefs about God in Judaism, which was super interesting. I knew many Jews believe God gave us the Torah directly as a book to follow. However, I also learned about the belief some people hold that the Jewish people came up with the Torah as a set of standards to follow, and the value of it comes from that fact, not it being the word of God. I really enjoyed this interpretation, and it fits with my views the best. I really appreciated that I was able to go through this whole process and find meaning in it, even though I don't actually believe in an explicit God. My other favorite part of this class was the reaffirmation of questioning as an integral part of Judaism. I really appreciate that one of the most important parts of this culture and religious practice is asking questions and not simply believing whatever you're told. It made a lot of our discussions about Torah and religion feel like philosophy discussions, which I liked.
Finally, in the spring we spent time preparing for the culminating ceremony, which was us as a cohort leading Shabbat services. We learned all the prayers, songs, and Torah portions to read. The hardest part was probably learning my Torah portion.
Every week in synagogues and temples all over the world, Jews read a unique Torah portion, working through the entire Torah every year. We took our Torah portion and divided it up into sections for each of us to learn and read from the Torah during our service. The challenging part about reading Torah is that firstly, it's written in script Hebrew with no vowels, and secondly, it's read in trope, or chant, with a specific tune. I spent a lot of time with help learning to recite/sing my Torah portion correctly. As someone who isn't a singer, it was definitely a bit nerve-wracking to essentially sing, in a different language, in front of a whole crowd of people. However, I did it, and I'm really glad I did, because it was an honor to read from this book that has been so central to my people's lives for so long. The other hard part of the ceremony was my vort. A vort is a Torah lesson or some sort of insight into something important, and I wrote mine on one of the songs we sing, Mi Chamocha. Mi Chamocha is about the Israelites escaping slavery in Egypt and the importance of freedom, so I spoke about freedom and its relevance in modern-day happenings. This was also super scary because I do not like public-speaking, but I got through it! Besides those two scary parts, the actual service was really enjoyable and meaningful. Even though I'm not super religious, there was certainly an aspect of spirituality I felt, especially in regard to connecting to my ancestors and my people through the prayers and songs. The songs were absolutely my favorite part. I am a musical person, and singing the songs with the other cohort members and the musical accompaniment was so fun. It made me realize that we as a society incredibly undervalue singing with others just to sing, not to perform or try to sound good. There is something so moving about singing with others, and engaging in any sort of music with others is actually scientifically proven to make you happier. Hopefully in the future, I'm able to find opportunities to sing like this.
Though all of this was amazing, the best part of this experience was the friends I made. I met some truly incredible people, and we became great friends throughout the year. I've never had many Jewish friends at all, going to a school where there was a low Jewish population, so it was really amazing to just have Jewish friends who understood that part of my identity, and who I got to go through this experience with. Overall, being a part of this B' Mitzvah cohort was one of the best and most fulfilling things I've done, and I'm so glad I said yes to it at the start of the year. I'll remember doing this for the rest of my life.
Comments