Question: I’m 65 years old and I am now thinking about being Bat Mitzva’ed. What benifit would it have for me?

It’s truly inspiring to hear that you’re thinking about rekindling your Judaism and starting from scratch, as it were. But I’ll tell you – traditionally, Bar/Bat mitzvahs are only done at 13/12 for boys/girls. The point is to celebrate and inspire ones self to embark on a path of closeness to G-d which is why G-d put us here. I.e. to become perfect and G-dly so that we experience the ultimate pleasure of connection to G-d.

Therefore, it seems that an appropriate way of celebrating would be to choose one Mitzva, one of G-d’s laws for living, which you will be scrupulous about doing from now on. An idea might be to start every day by studying one Torah thought in a book or website. I mention this because Torah study is the most central Mitzva of Judaism. I hope it goes well!

Best Regards,
Rabbi Meir Goldberg
Maimonides Leaders Fellowship,
Rutgers Jewish Xperience
Rutgersjx.com