Family Mitzvah Work Guidelines
Introduction
Dear Bar/Bat Mitzvah and Family:
Mazel Tov! During this year, you will be called to the Torah. Your Bar/Bat Mitzvah will symbolize your acceptance of your adult obligations to do mitzvot, not just this year, but for the rest of your life. Your Bar/Bat Mitzvah should help you see yourself in a new light: as the son or daughter of God’s Commandments – a “mitzvah-doer.â€
It is for this reason that we have formulated a program, which requires you to fulfill mitzvot in six categories. This is a family-based program, because we believe that the home and school must be a combined force for the continuance of Jewish education and Judaism. We expect that parents will become an integral part of the learning process by direct involvement and serve as role models. Parents and children should sit down and plan your mitzvah work together. Some of these mitzvot you will do with your family, others alone, and still others with your friends or other members of the community.
In each of the six categories, there are Biblical sources and suggested mitzvot. Feel free to add to the list of mitzvot using your own understanding of the quotations from the Torah. In some cases, you may want to look up the quote in a Tanach or Chumash to read the quote in context. Please read the material together as a family, and choose at least one mitzvah to do from each section that you are not already doing.
When you complete a section, please write about your experiences performing the mitzvah you chose. Please write about your feelings and reactions, and their effect on you and others. Choose at least one mitzvah from each section. Make sure your written mitzvah experience is signed and dated by a parent or responsible adult.
Your performance of these mitzvot will be reviewed by the Rabbi, and hopefully, will add to the meaningfulness and joy of your simcha.
Again Mazel Tov!