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bar mitzvah definition

bar mitz·vah or bar mizvah bar miz′·vah (bär mits′və; Heb bär′mits vä′)

  1. a Jewish boy who has arrived at the age of religious responsibility, thirteen years
  2. ☆ the ceremony celebrating this event

Etymology: Yiddish bar-mitsve < Heb-Aram < Aram bar, son of + Heb mitsva, commandment

to confirm (a boy) as a bar mitzvah

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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