Bar Mitzvah-celebration

• august 29, 2010 sunday 19:00
• Dohány street Synagogue

In 2010 the Jewish Summer Festival will arrive to a symbolic anniversary, as according to Jewish tradition our festival will now come of age. This is the age where boys are accepted into the adult community.
On August 29 the 13th Jewish Summer Festival will debut in the Dohány Street Synagogue with the Bar Mitzvah Fest, which we hope will grant thousands of people the opportunity to get to know one of our most beautiful traditions.
It represents the 13-year-old boy and the festivities held for this occasion, it is the age where by eastern traditions boys have reached puberty and when they reach legal adulthood from both legal and religious perspectives.
As our forefathers said: “At the age of 13, the boy will be obliged to fulfill his religious duties”. Until that day it is the father who is responsible for the boy, but from now on the son is fully accountable. This is why, in the orthodox rite, the father gives blesses in the following manner: "Blessed is He who has now freed me from the responsibility of this boy."
This independence in the religion is also evident when the boy is publicly called to the Torah. In modern prayers this is ceremonial occasion, when parents, relatives and friends lift the spirit of the occasion by granting the Bar Mitzvah gifts. In the old times the boy also held a presentation in the synagogue, usually from the topics of rabbinical studies.