What is the origin of bar mitzvah?
The beginnings of bar mitzvah ritual are obscure. It is not mentioned in the Torah, nor is there any biblical indication that thirteen was the age at which one attained religious majority. Most scholars feel that the association between age thirteen and mandated religious observance began during the Second Temple period (between 516 B.C.E. and 70 C.E.). A section of the Babylonian Talmud (second of third century C.E.) affirms that “until the thirteenth year, it is the father’s duty to raise his son.” After that, however he must say “Blessed be He who has removed from me the responsibility for this boy!” In addition, Pirke Avot 5:25 states that at age thirteen a boy is responsible for the mitzvot. The bar mitzvah ceremony was developed as a public recognition of a legal and religious status, attained with or without the ritual. In other words, a Jewish boy of thirteen years automatically became a bar mitzvah even if no public ceremony took place. While the beginnings of “our” bar mitzva
