Breaking The Jewish Code Perry Stone

side tunnel on the left, parallel to the historical Western Wall. At times the young candidate for bar mitzvah rides atop the back of his father or the nearest kin, shrouded in his tallit (prayer shawl) and wearing a yarmulke (head covering). The men enter the stone-slab plaza clapping, singing, and skipping as a rabbi leads the procession holding a large Torah scroll above his head. Suddenly, the women send their resounding sound of approval with shouting and begin throwing handfuls of candy toward the group. Prior to this moment, the father bore the responsibility for the actions of his children. At a bar and bat mitzvah the young adult will now accept responsibility for his or her actions. While Gentiles often dread their children becoming teenagers, the religious Jews commemorate the occasion, which not only transfers moral and spiritual responsibility to the boy and girl but also affirms them through this family celebration involving parents, relatives, and close friends. In Western culture, a girl recognizes the age of sixteen as sweet sixteen , and a teenage boy feels he has entered manhood when he becomes eighteen, leaving home released from parental guardianship and family influence. If, however, we delay in spiritually and morally instructing our children until the ages of sixteen and eighteen, then the train has already left the station. In Judaism, the bar or bat mitzvah initiates a rite of passage into the Jewish adult community. Christians often debate, “What is the age of moral and spiritual accountability for a child?” Numerous suggestions are made, from the age at which they can pray and repent to the age of knowing right from wrong. Christ at age twelve was in the temple with the