How do kids prepare for their bar mitzvah?

Answer 1

The bar or bat mitzvah celebrates a Jewish child becoming a young adult who Jewish tradition holds to be responsible for his or her own actions. One of the central actions that requires adult standing is leading a Jewish service, and a traditional way to celebrate becoming bar mitzvah is for the new young adult to lead at least part of a service. Since Jewish services include large numbers of Hebrew prayers, a major part of the child's preparation involves learning Hebrew. Typical Hebrew/religious School curricula involve 6 hours per week of instruction during the school year for several years prior to the bar mitzvah -- this is supplemental instruction above and beyond the normal public school curriculum. It is worth noting that the Hebrew text in elementary primers and in the prayerbook is always printed with vowels, but that these are a recent (Greek) innovation an the traditional Torah scroll handwritten on parchment is written with out vowels. Furthermore, Torah is chanted with a melody that is tied to the grammar of the text. This is quite a bit for a child to learn.