Hebrew School & B'nai Mitzvah

The B'nai Mitzvah process is an exciting milestone opportunity for one to study, act, and become a celebrated part of our community. This year-long process is filled with challenges and rewards. Each prospective individual B'nai Mitzvah, and each family has different goals, desires, customs and hopes. Everyone’s needs and skills are different.  At BTEE our goal is to make the B'nai Mitzvah ritual a powerfully transformative experience that is enjoyable, and achievable. 
 

Through individual hard work and the support of a conscious caring community, our encouraging approach is to bring our students a direct connection to Jewish values and traditions to life. At BTEE, our B'nai Mitzvah preparation offers training in many of the skills the students will need to live as Jewish adults, including and not limited to:

 

• The Concept of God and Mitzvah: Who is God?  Where is God?  What does God want from us?  What is a mitzvah?  Why does God ask us to perform them?   

• Perseverance: Meaningful goals are achieved with hard work over a period of time.  To become a B'nai Mitzvah requires that the person and their family adjust their schedules and commit themselves to study and practice.

• Long-Term Planning: The B'nai Mitzvah process includes planning and coordinating the steps necessary to achieve a worthy goal.

• Responsibility: As a bar/bat/b'nai mitzvah, the student becomes responsible for their actions.

• Jewish Prayers and Traditions: Through learning prayers, melodies, and the basic structure of Jewish worship services, students learn how to be a part of any Jewish service anywhere in the world. These are skills that travel with the students throughout their lives and inspire them to achieve spiritual, moral and intellectual growth. 

• The Value of Community: Our warm, family community at BTEE offers a supportive environment that cannot be found anywhere else. The support offered leading up to and on the big day and beyond demonstrates the importance of the “extended family” and of the joy derived from belonging to a community that celebrates successes and holds us through challenges, together.

• Public Speaking: Each B'nai Mitzvah student learns about public speaking - this is a skill that serves well throughout life. To speak well publicly is one of the key components in effective and successful leadership. The B'nai Mitzvah process gives students the opportunity to work on this important life skill in front of a supportive community.

• Teaching: The Jewish tradition has been passed down from one generation to the next through the teacher/student relationship, with each generation adding their voice to the continuing conversation. A profound highlight is the student’s B'nai Mitzvah speech (D’var Torah) - this shows that he/she/they are a part of a rich and vibrant lineage that prioritizes learning and can understand, and transmit the Torah. 

• Tzedakah: Giving back is a central value of Judaism. God empowers us to help others. All  B'nai Mitzvah candidates are required to select a mitzvah project that will have a positive impact in the greater community.

• Tikkun Olam: As Jewish adults, we are called upon to do our part toward the healing, mending and repairing of the world.  Again, mitzvah projects provide an opportunity for students to begin this important life-long commitment.