THE PREPARATION PROCESS
*Please note this is only a guideline, certain adjustments will be made in an effort to accommodate the needs of your child
A Preliminary Meeting will be called approximately 8 months prior to the Big Day. Art the meeting, we'll walk the family through the entire Bar/Bat Mitzvah process and answer any questions. We'll identify your child's Jewish birthday (the Jewish calendar is different than our American Gregorian one) and choose a date for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Celebration. Thr Bar/Bat Mitzvah will meet with his/her reading tutor, and the dates for study will be mapped out.
Over the next 8 months, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah will meet weekly with his/her coach at Chabad, for approximately 1/2 hour. Three of the four meetings will be devoted to perfecting his/her diction/cadence with regard to ceremony's text. Once a month, a new Big Idea will be introduced and explored. At the end of each lesson, the student will document for him/herself the major points discussed, compiling thoughts which will later be used as the basis of his/her speech. Additionally, for each concept, we provide home-discussion ideas to keep the parents in the loop and to extend the learning experience.
Two weeks before the big day.... we're getting close! The Bar/Bat Mitzvah now reads fluidly and is ready to compose- hand in hand with the Rabbi- a speech for the ceremony which will crown this process.
The actual birth date is often different to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah party date. Of course, the birth date is the day on which the child is actually crossing out of childhood. To celebrate this, we schedule a visit during which the Rabbi helps to convey an appreciation of the day's magnitude. We do a Mitzvah together (put on Tefillin, give charity, recite a psalm), and say l'chaim with the family.