{"id":3906,"date":"2009-08-14T11:11:57","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T16:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2014-01-08T15:46:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T20:46:34","slug":"august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/","title":{"rendered":" Greener Bar Mitzvah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RABBI LAWRENCE TROSTER<\/strong> (GreenFaith): To be bar-mitzvahed is to come of age in the Jewish tradition. For women, it\u2019s bat mitzvah. Many years ago, the rabbis had to create, what you might say, a legal definition of what it meant to be an adult, and they picked\u00a0twelve for a girl and thirteen for a boy, and in the last few hundred years this has become really a rite of passage in our communities, a way to publicly proclaim that this person is now an adult member of our community, and we do that symbolically by calling them to the Torah, to have them read a Torah portion. It means that we are now fully responsible for our actions, that we are part of the covenanted community, that we are expected to live up to the Jewish tradition. In other words, a child is not culpable for things they don\u2019t do or do wrong, but an adult is.<\/p>\n<p>I think it is a good fit that we use the bar mitzvah or the bat mitzvah as a way to inculcate environmental values. Protecting the earth is a mitzvah, and I mean this in the sense of a commandment. In other words, that we are commanded, we are required, to take care of creation. It\u2019s not a choice.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/08\/gbmp1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><strong>ANNA HACKMAN<\/strong> (Bar Mitzvah Mother and Editor, GreenTalk.com): This is my third bar mitzvah\u2014I have four sons\u2014and I took a look at this bar mitzvah for more of a carbon footprint, like what was I doing that was impacting the Earth, that I could make a difference?<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important parts is the tallis. It\u2019s something that he wears during the service. It\u2019s something he\u2019s going to have his whole lifetime. It\u2019s made out of organic cotton. It was hand-woven, and it symbolizes things about him, and his yarmulke was made by Guatemalan women that actually are paid fair-trade wages, and these wages help support their families. The other yarmulkes, I had them made out of hemp, and they\u2019re all lined with organic cotton.<\/p>\n<p>At the service there\u2019s a program. It\u2019s all made out of 100 percent recycled paper. The invitation\u2019s a Web site with places for people to RSVP. It\u2019s got pictures of Jacob. It\u2019s got polls and quizzes, and the best thing is there\u2019s no paper being used. There\u2019s nobody mailing things back and forth to me. On the invitation, I put a note on the bottom to please try and carpool to cut down on the consumption of natural resources.<\/p>\n<p>The theme is a movie theme, so what I did is I went and bought used DVDs as place markers for everybody to pick up when they come and look for their tables, so it\u2019s something that they could take home and watch. They\u2019re not going to throw it in the trash like a little paper, you know,\u00a0place card.<\/p>\n<p>We chose to put on the tables soy candles that are a renewable source, and they burn much cleaner. There\u2019s not toxic chemicals coming from, like, wax candles.<\/p>\n<p>The centerpieces are actual plants that are going to be planted in my garden. I made sure that they were ones that would live, so nothing\u2019s wasted.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re serving three different meals. Everything was sourced either locally or was and\/or organic. The leftover food is composted, or the balance of the food is donated to a food pantry.<\/p>\n<p>The dress that you can see that I\u2019m wearing, it\u2019s a consignment dress. People wear dresses once for bar mitzvahs, and to me it\u2019s senseless.<\/p>\n<p>My goal to make this bar mitzvah greener is to let the world know that they can do it, being able to take my religion and say yeah, I\u2019m part of that. It\u2019s just another connection for me that makes me feel more vibrant as a Jew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RABBI LAWRENCE TROSTER (GreenFaith): To be bar-mitzvahed is to come of age in the Jewish tradition. For women, it\u2019s bat mitzvah. Many years ago, the rabbis had to create, what you might say, a legal definition of what it meant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5229,5969,4974,17918,5970],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bar-mitzvah","tag-eco-friendly","tag-environmentalism","tag-jewish","tag-rabbi-lawrence-troster","topics-belief-and-practice","faith-jewish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>August 14, 2009 ~ Greener Bar Mitzvah | August 14, 2009 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"August 14, 2009 ~ Greener Bar Mitzvah | August 14, 2009 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-14T16:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-08T20:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/08\/gbmrblth.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stephanie winkler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stephanie winkler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"stephanie winkler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/65d8fe1274e21b2bfa76738ef5a2b236\"},\"headline\":\"Greener Bar Mitzvah\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-14T16:11:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-08T20:46:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":11,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/08\/gbmrblth.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bar mitzvah\",\"Eco-Friendly\",\"Environmentalism\",\"Jewish\",\"Rabbi Lawrence Troster\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/08\/14\/august-14-2009-greener-bar-mitzvah\/3906\/\",\"name\":\"August 14, 2009 ~ Greener Bar Mitzvah | August 14, 2009 | Religion &amp; 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