Bar Mitzvah Lessons, 21st-Century Edition

Studying for a bar mitzvah is often daunting, or worse yet — boring. Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein has seen the damage left in the wake of careless bar and bat mitzvah lessons. “One mother told me all she took from her bat mitzvah lessons were her doodling skills,” he says. Although he’s the rabbi at Lubavitch of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Rabbi Weinstein is now teaching bar mitzvah lessons to kids as far away as Venice, Florida, and Wilmington, Delaware. 

Rabbi Weinstein was determined that bar mitzvah lessons should show twelve-year-olds that Judaism is a deep, rich, and relevant gift. So he set up a studio in his basement and filmed twenty fifteen-minute lessons on topics that get to the heart of Jewish identity. With names like “What is a Mitzvah,” “Body and Soul,” and “What is Kosher,” these videos are now the core of the “My Bar Mitzvah Prep” course he launched this spring. Using the materials Rabbi Weinstein provides, including a course workbook, students and parents can work through this whirlwind crash-course in Judaism with their local rabbi.

“By the time a child sits down for bar mitzvah class, they’re bursting with energy,” says Rabbi Sholom Schmerling of Chabad of Venice, Florida. “But Rabbi Weinstein’s short meaningful lessons keep them engaged, like when he explains the soul using a Lamborghini engine — that’s brilliant!” 

The website has been live for just a few months, but the impact is already considerable. “It’s a special time in their lives,” Rabbi Weinstein says. “We need to help them experience the relevance of Yiddishkeit, so they’ll remain connected as they grow.”