Tag #120990 - Interview #102368 (Solomon Meir)

According to Jewish tradition, a boy comes of age at 13: he dons the tefillin which he wears to cover his head and around his wrist and he thus comes of age. This ceremony is performed only on a Monday or on a Thursday when they read the Torah. For they also read the Torah on Saturday, but you don’t wear the tefillin on Saturday, and that’s why they do it either on Monday or on Thursday. You have to be a day over 13 in order to come of age – at least one day –, if that day isn’t [a Monday or a Thursday], you do it a few days later, it’s alright. And that’s when they ask the young man to read the Torah, they give you an aliyah with the Torah, you must read everything that is read during that respective day. People are invited to the synagogue, they serve sweets, those who are more well-to-do also organize a dinner party at home… and that’s how it goes. And that’s when my father gave me the tefillin – in the meantime, I bought another set, for those were destroyed with wear. I wasn’t given a tallit then, it wasn’t customary. Now they have modernized, they also give you a tallit at 13. On my bar mitzvah, I only had to wear the tefillin.