| The Tractate asks how to mark the date when children reach the age of mitzvot. |
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| Even grounding mitzvot in morality was idolatrous, he said, because morals served human needs. |
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| Ellen loved to work with teenagers and tutored many generations of students preparing for college entrance examinations and b'nai mitzvot. |
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| Of all the major post-talmudic rabbis, only Rashi entirely precludes women from performing these mitzvot. |
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| Only in the last two centuries do we find the first mention of the date a girls reaches the age of mitzvot as a festive moment. |
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| The meaning of this bracha is that a father is responsible for his son's actions until he reaches the age of mitzvot. |
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| On one side stands Orthodoxy, in its various manifestations, and Conservative Judaism, which, at least in theory, subscribes to the complete observance of the mitzvot. |
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| The first Mishnah in tractate Peah lists those things which have NO specified quantity required in order to fulfill those mitzvot, and one of the items on the list is re'ayon, that is, the gift brought to fulfill our verses! |
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| Once the boy reaches the age of mitzvot, he himself is responsible for observing the Commandments and the father is freed from this responsibility. |
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| The reason that is most frequently given for this general exemption is that women are constantly caring for their husbands and children and cannot always afford the time to perform mitzvot at a specific time. |
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| It seems the Gemara does not reject that certain Mitzvot are logically correct. |
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| However, with the Shavuot approaching, we have a chance to reaccept the Torah properly, and we can accept the Mitzvot out of love. |
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| We should all realize that we are the chosen people of Hashem, and we should use the Mitzvot as our clothing to separate us from the rest of the world. |
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