Kabbalat HaTorah

Kabbalat HaTorah - Our Children Receiving the Torah

I loved celebrating my children’s entry into formal Jewish education. It was an exciting time when I felt that they were really ready to start learning about Judaism in a deeper way. They could now start to explore God, Torah, holidays, and what it all means to them.

I am glad that Judaism has a celebration when our children begin their learning, and I recognize that this was not always the case. Though the Mishnah (Pirkei Avot 5:21) does mention that a child starts to learn Torah at age 5, there was not a standard ceremony to celebrate that momentous occasion.

Interestingly, there has not even always been a celebration for one’s turning Bar or Bat Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah Service only developed during the Middle Ages, possibly from France in the 1200s. A father would come before the community and declare that he was no longer responsible for his now 13-year-old son.

I’m glad that the Bar Mitzvah celebration has developed since then. And, I am very glad that in 1922, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, celebrated his daughter Judith becoming a Bat Mitzvah, thus inaugurating Bat Mitzvah celebrations

The consecration celebration began with Rabbi David Einhorn, one of the founders of Reform Judaism. At that time, the consecration service that Rabbi Einhorn created was for babies, and was meant to replace a Bris in officially welcoming a Jewish boy into the covenant. Consecration has developed over the years, and rather than being a substitute for a boy’s bris, it now celebrates both girls’ and boys’ entrance into formal Jewish learning around kindergarten or first grade.

We have celebrated the entrance into Judaism at Adath for many years, using the name consecration. This year, I have decided to make a change with regard to the name of this celebration. In wider American parlance, consecration is often associated with Christianity, and as such, a number of Jewish schools are now shifting to a Hebrew name with more Jewish resonance: Kabbalat HaTorah – the receiving of the Torah.

It is meaningful when we connect a significant Jewish ceremony like this one with our people’s language and history. The name Kabbalat HaTorah evokes images of our people standing at Sinai ready to receive the Torah. In a similar way, our children are now at the stage of their lives when they are ready to receive and grow in their Judaism.

This year, we are going to celebrate Kabbalat HaTorah on the evening of Friday, April 21. Because this rite of passage has been on hiatus the last several years, for this year only, we will be celebrating Kabbalat HaTorah for students in Kindergarten through the 2nd Grade. These students will be demonstrating their knowledge of Judaism through song and prayer.

We hope that this year’s Kabbalat HaTorah will be a wonderful celebration of our children and that they will receive the Torah with both joy and love.

Rabbi Smolkin