So Avi was sent to the Lubavitch yeshivah in New York until after bar
mitsvah. In 1948 the family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Avi studied at Yeshivah Beth Yehudah until entering Wayne State University to major in physics.
I knew that the Torah says (Deuteronomy 22:4) that it is a
Mitsvah to help someone in a situation like this, but I was sure I was inadequate to do it; so I replied," I cannot do it".
As Stefan prepared for his Bar
Mitsvah in Vienna his uncle and aunt were buried quietly in Bordeaux.
Conversely, they made the honour of the Other into a supreme
mitsvah, the opposite of humiliation of the face of the Other.'
L'ebraismo e una comunita di regole, e questa e la cerimonia del Bar
Mitsvah, che significa figlio della legge.
Just as physics research was not just a means of making a living, learning Torah was not just a
mitsvah to be fulfilled.
Autonomy is superseded by our responsibility to perform the
mitsvah of hinukh, to educate our children and care for their physical development.
A child doesn't need to be sophisticated to do a
mitsvah; neither do the innumerable people the Rebbe reached.
As a scientist--I'm not a rabbi--I view the first
mitsvah given in the Torah, pru uvru, to be fruitful and multiply, as a commandment for all humankind.
The Baalei Tosafot say in several places that it's true that women are not obligated to fulfill the specific
mitsvah of pru uvru, but there is a commandment that precedes the giving of the Torah, and that is G-d's desire that we settle the Earth, la'shevet ha'olam:
The halakhah is that upon entering the age of bat or bar
mitsvah, a person is considered capable of deliberate action and is responsible for those actions.