Two years ago, at Elly’s Bar Mitzvah, I reviewed some of what I had spoken about at Avi’s bris, and then I tried to fine-tune and correct some of those ideas. Today, in turn, I’d like to review some of what I said at Elly’s Bar Mitzva, and see if we can develop those ideas a little deeper.

What is it that happens when a boy becomes a Bar Mitzva. Well, as I often say, if we just try to understand the words, perhaps it will become clear. "Bar Mitzvah". We know that the word "bar" means "son", but when it appears in a phrase, it means that the phrase is a description of the person. For example a "bar daas" is a person who has intelligence, or a "bar samcha" is a reliable and trustworthy person. Similarly, a "bar mitzva" is a person who has to do mitzvos. For example, an adult must do mitzvos, especially as opposed to a child, who does not yet HAVE to do mitzvos. He has to learn about them, and practice them, but when a child does a mitzvah, it is of a different nature than when an adult does it.

Or so most people think. But is it really so? What changes are there between the mitzvos Avi does now and those of a month ago?

Brachos, tztzis, learns torah, shabbos, kiddush, just about every thing is the same!

Even tefillin. Our custom is that we don’t start wearing tefillin until a month before bar mitzvah. But thats just a technicality. Essentially, tefillin are no different than any other mitzva which a child does even when still a child. For various technical reasons, we delay it, but the bottom line is still that it is not on the day of becoming 13 that he begins tefillin.

Perhaps we’ll say, yes, even a child does these things. But that was only as training for adulthood, the obligation is very different for a child than for an adult. The nature of these mitzvos has changed. A Bar Mitzvah boy is now fully obligated as an adult by Jewish law to do all the mitzvos of the Torah!

I beg to differ. The fact is that TWO criteria must be met for these Torah obligations, and age is only one of them. Even a boy who is 13 years old does not have these obligations until and unless his body has develope to a certain degree of phyasical maturity. You need to pass both tests. age alone won’t do it.

The rabbis said that at age 13 we can PRESUME that the phyical maturity has also occurred. This means that on turning 13, a boy loses the priveliges which the Torah gives to children -- such as not having to fast on Yom Kippur -- because of he is presumably a grownup. On the other hand, in one of those ironic twists which many legal systems are famous for, a 13-year-old does NOT get the priveliges of being an adult until we are SURE that he has also reached physical maturity. For example, until a bar mitzvah boy has reached pysical maturity, he cannot say Kiddush on Friday night for a regular adult, he cannot write mezuzos or tefillin, and so on, because these are Torah mitzvos, and for a Torah mitzva we cannot simply rely on the PRESUMPTION that a boy has begun puberty by the time he has turned 13, we have to be SURE.

So what IS it that happens at 13?

This presumption of maturity is sufficient for Rabbinic mitzvos. For example, at 13 years old, a boy may be counted to the minyan. He may even lead the minyan. He may be part of a mezuman or lead one. He can read the Torah in shul. He can read the Megillah in shul.

Notice a pattern here?

It seems to me that the real difference between a boy the day before he turns 13, and the day after he turns 13, is that now he is part of the community. The nature of his motzvos may have changed, but only in technical details. Let’s not lose the forest for the trees!

When a boy becomes 13, he takes on the responsibility of being responsible for others. He can lead the congregation in prayer and in the various aspects of the prayer services.

It is so very appropriate that yesterday’s Torah reading was the one where the concept of a minyan is defined. A few minutes ago, Avi told us about the spies who were sent to investigate the Land. The word "edah" appears many times in this story, meaning "community", or "congregation". But in the course of that story, HaShem refers to a small group of just ten men as an "edah", and from this we learn that even ten men constitute a community.

I have always been intrigued by this fact: There were 12 spies, but it is the 10 who saw themselves as grasshoppers - the ten bad ones - which teaches us the idea of a minyan.

We see the idea of a minyan elsewhere in the Torah as well. When Hashem announces that He will destroy Sodom and Amorah, Avraham argues with G-d that there might be some tzadikim who live there. So he bargains G-d down from 50 such tzadikim down to 45, 40, 30, and eventually down to 10 tzadikim. But no further. Avraham realized that if only nine tzadikim might be found, Hashem would not be willing to rescue the city. Because nine people are not a community, even if they are nine tzadikim. But ten people are a community, even if all ten are the kind of person would would condemn 2 1/2 million Jews to wander in the desert for 40 years.

Avi, you've promised to be a giant, and not a grasshopper. I've told you many times how Grandpa Sandy taught me to leave a place better than we found it, and this is my bracha to you:

Now that you are part of the community, make sure that you are in the community of giant minyan-goers who constantly work to make think better, and so you will bring goodness to your family, your community, and to all Israel.

Mazel Tov!

(This is a preliminary version of this speech, based on what was entered into my computer before the seudah began. I wrote the rest of the speech dring the seudah, and I hope to post it on-line in a few days. Thank you for your patience!)