1. A "bar mitzvah" isn't a party, event, or ceremony. It's a person. "Bar mitzvah" literally means "son of the commandment." You don't get a bar mitzvah; you become one.
2. The term "bar mitzvah" made its debut in the Talmud; it means one "who is subject to scriptural commands." Age 13 is cited in the Mishnah as the time boys become obligated to observe the Torah's commandments.
3. It's only in the last hundred years that the bar mitzvah ceremony has become such a big deal. In fact, scholars have found no evidence of any bar mitzvah ceremony before the 14th century.
4. Most bar/bat mitzvahs today read from the Torah on the big day. But in its earliest form, the ceremony consisted of a boy wearing tefillin for the first time and getting his first aliyah—that's it.
5. "Today I am a man," goes the clichéd bar mitzvah speech. But in Jewish law, it's literally the case. At age 13, boys become obligated to observe the commandments; they also gain the right to take part in leading religious services, to count in a minyan, to form binding contracts, to testify before religious courts, and to marry. The age of maturity for girls is 12.
6. From Seinfeld to Frasier to 30 Rock (who can forget Tracy Morgan's "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah"?), bar and bat mitzvahs have made for convenient, and critical, plot devices. But the claim to most-watched television bar mitzvah ceremony may belong to Krusty the Clown—né Herschel Krustofski—the lapsed, closet-Jew jester of The Simpsons. His estranged rabbi father was voiced by none other than Jackie Mason.
7. Call it a "faux-mitzvah": According to The Wall Street Journal, more non-Jewish kids are bugging parents for "bar/bat mitzvah" parties. Parents are obliging; a Long Island, N.Y., party planner said that one of those events cost $75,000 and included a tent with chandeliers, DJs, and dancers.
8. The most expensive bar mitzvah celebration in history is believed to be the £4 million (about $8 million U.S.) extravaganza thrown by British retail magnate Philip Green for son Brandon on the French Riviera. Destiny's Child and Andrea Bocelli performed.
9. Some enterprising Jewish teens have famously parlayed bar and bat mitzvah gifts into huge businesses. Bill Zanker started the Learning Annex with $5,000 in bar mitzvah money; it now boasts more than $100 million in sales. And Timothy Sykes, author of An American Hedge Fund, hit the stock market to turn his $12,415 into $1.65 million.
10. The hottest party theme: giving back. According to The New York Sun, socially conscious kids are donating all or part of their bar and bat mitzvah gifts to charity, with contributions totaling millions of dollars each year. One party coordinator told the paper that nearly one-third of bar and bat mitzvah events she plans now include a charitable component. And through a program called Give a Mitzvah—Do a Mitzvah, 27 teenagers in 2006 gave away a total of more than $400,000 to UJA-Federation of New York charities, said The Sun.
