B’nai Mitzvah

We are proud at Temple Israel of Natick to have some of the best-trained bar and bat mitzvah students around!  Highlights of our bar and bat mitzvah program include:

• An inclusive approach that involves all families, including interfaith and LGBTQ
• Learning to read Torah in the 6th grade “trope class”
• Reading Torah at the family services and on Shavuot
• Studying Torah and Haftarah with Cantor Ken
• Learning about the Torah and Haftarah portions with Rabbi Liben
• Helping to make up the minyan on Monday & Thursday mornings
• Working on the 13 Mitzvot projects, through which students pick mitzvot involving interpersonal kindness, ritual acts, and Torah study to help make their bar or bat mitzvah preparation more meaningful.
• A Bar/Bat Mitzvah Committee that helps guide families through the process

For Bar/Bat Mitzvah Families: Some Important Documents

• The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Guidebook (including worksheet for honors).
• 13 Mitzvot Packet: as a PDF or a Google Doc
• Prayers for the Country & for Israel (here is a recording of the Prayer for Israel in Hebrew). Here is page 149 of the siddur.
• Some Parents’ Prayers and Yevarechecha (a traditional blessing for children) (here is an alternative in feminine language)
• Shehecheyanu Blessing
• A reminder of the temple’s “nut aware” policy (no actual nuts in the temple, though products that “may contain traces” are allowed)
• Click here for resources for learning to read Torah & Haftarah
• Here are videos with guidance for lifting and dressing the Torah (Hagba/Gelila) and having an aliya (chanting the Torah blessings)
• Social Hall Floor Plan