Note 165 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 4)

The boy when thirteen years old is bar-mitsvah (lit., “a son of the commandment”), bound to obey the Law, and responsible for his deeds. On the Sabbath following his thirteenth birthday the boy is called up to the Law; he reads the whole of the Sidra or a section of it, and declares in the blessings which precede and follow the lesson his belief in the Divine origin of the Torah, and his gratitude to God for having given us the Law.165