The bar mitzvah ceremony didn’t always look the way it does today. In fact, for much of Jewish history, it barely looked like anything at all.

In this episode, we investigate: When did a ceremony first appear? What did it look like? When did bar mitzvah boys start receiving an aliya? Leining? Leading davening? A derasha?

We’ll trace its evolution among Ashkenazi Jews from the eleventh century through the seventeenth century. 

In celebration of the bar mitzvah of Meir Nosson Hakohen Dinerman

The Boy at the Bimah: A History of Bar Mitzvah Celebrations