The (surprisingly complicated) invitation list

So, I found this woman:

The (surprisingly complicated) invitation list.

While I was looking for design ideas for my own bat mitzvah invitations. I think I’m going to keep reading her blog, because she seems to be articulating well my own reasons for having a bat mitzvah.

It’s April, 2013 – my own Bat Mitzvah is set for August 10th, 2013. I met with my trope tutor yesterday, and we’re going to start working together next week.

I’m 30 years old. When I was 12, I didn’t feel I had the right kavanah towards having a bat mitzvah. Now, at 30, and wanting to have kids sometime over the next couple of years, I want to undertake this rite.

I like the above blogger’s image of, “I wanted to know that, if I were the only adult Jew left standing after some Holocaust-like disaster, I could lead a Shabbat service. I wanted to feel like I had earned my tallit.”

I haven’t talked about the tallit much, but it’s very common in my shul for both men and women to wear talliot and kippot. While I’ve covered my hair from the start, I sat down and had a think about the tallit. I came to the decision that I would not wear one until I have had my bat mitvah. Traditionally, the tallit is conferred to a person during their bat/bar mitvah.

Part of the process of preparing for a bat mitzvah, is learning what it is to be a Jew. To take responsibility for one’s own religion, and one’s own religious knowledge, culture, and history.

I want to be able to pass that down to my own kids, but to do that effectively I need to understand it more intrinsically myself.

Long term, I hope my bat mitzvah will be the first step on a journey towards a Master’s in comparative theology and eventually ordination into the rabbinate. But that’s a long way off – I’ve got two thirds of a lifetime left to accomplish those goals.

In the meantime, I get to design some invitations, and prepare to lead my first Shabbos service. Hopefully, the first of many.