Spiritual Dimensions of Bar/bat Mitzvah Ceremonies for Jewish Children with Developmental Disabilities

The celebration of life-cycle events that transcend everyday living are one of the experiences that engender spirituality. In the Jewish religion a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony is the rite of passage from childhood towards adulthood. Twenty-one youngsters with moderate and severe disabilities who attend two special education schools in Israel participated in group bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies. Children were observed during the six-month learning process and at the ceremony itself. Parents and school staff were interviewed as well. This study describes spiritual dimensions of the bar/bat mitzvah experience that were identified and shows that the youngsters could both express their own spirituality and impact the spirituality of others. Spirituality is a multidimensional construct that is not easily defined. Scott (1997 as cited in Hill et al., 2000) found over forty definitions in social-scientific journals. The term “spiritual” is often used in modern discourse in place of words such as “moving” or “worthwhile.” Hill et al. object to this usage and contend that spirituality needs to involve considerations of the sacred, which they in turn define as “persons, objects, principles or concepts that transcend the self” (p. 64). This reflects an “ancient and abiding human quest for connectedness with something larger and more trustworthy than our egos — with our own souls, with one another with the worlds of history and nature, with the invisible winds of the spirit, with the mystery of being alive” (Palmer (1998–1999, p. 6). Myers and Myers (1999) identify this as a quality of being fully human. Spirituality is about acquiring and living by a vision of the “good life.” The source of values that can guide our lives can be found in “religious traditions, cultural heritages (which can include literature, the arts, politics, etc.) or in caring communities” (Alexander, 2001, p. 6). There has been a growing interest in spirituality among educators (Halford, 199899; Kessler, 1998-99, Trousdale, 2001; Myers & Myers, 1999) and in professions such as nursing (Greenstreet, 1999), social work (Miller, 2001) and occupational therapy (Egan & De-