ECGM Conversation: Bar Mitzvah and puberty during ancient times
Diana Sperling, PhD. Philosopher, writer, essayist, teacher, the National University Cordoba, Argentina
Alicia Belgorosky, MD, PhD, Chairwoman of Endocrine Department, Hospital de Pediatría Garrahan, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Editor: Ze’ev Hochberg, Reviewers: Ivo JP Arnhold; Jean-Pierre Bourguignon; Jan-Maarten Wit
With contributions by Ivo Arnhold, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Ze’ev Hochberg, Jan-Maarten Wit, Mark Sperling, Alan Rogol, Michael Ranke
Alicia Belgorosky: What was the criterion to establish the age to become a Bar Mitzvah at 13 years?
Diana Sperling: The criterion to establish that age was related to the age at puberty, that is, the age at onset of sexuality and the physical ability of reproduction. Of course, the criteria we currently analyze – from a scientific point of view or in psychoanalysis, etc –, were not necessarily conscious reasons in those times. For example, in the Jewish religion, hand washing has been mandatory before meals, prayer, and at many other moments in daily life. Only many centuries later, scientists discovered the usefulness of this ritual. In other words, in all ancient cultures or “religions”, certain knowledge about actual life was imposed and then “explained” as being commanded by God.
Belgorosky: Were they considered mature enough when that age was defined? How were the parameters for psychological and physical maturity evaluated or was this not considered?
Sperling: I will answer both questions in one: Onset of sexual maturity is what allows a boy to separate from his mother (overcome the Oedipus complex) and look for a woman outside the home. It is the beginning of exogamy, the end of incest (Freud’s Totem and Taboo). Likewise and for the same reason, the boy can become independent from his father because he is now able to read, interpret, and adopt the law by himself. In all cultures, there are rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, both for girls and boys, which are always associated with this factor of onset of (possible) sexuality. In most ancient cultures the rite – for boys – consisted of an act of hunting or war. The boy was ready to become a hunter (provide food for himself and his future family) or warrior (to defend himself, or his family or group). The concept of “adolescence” did not exist in any of the ancient cultures: a child becomes an adult; or a son becomes a (potential) father.
In Judaism, curiously, the rite of passage is a ritual of reading: The father hands the Torah (law) to his son, who, for the first time reads it in public, in the heart of the community. In other words, he is recognized by his group as an “adult”, in the sense of an initiation of maturity and independence from his parents. We should also remember that the concepts of age, longevity, life expectancy, etc., were very different in ancient times.
It is important to clarify that the ceremony itself is not necessary, in the sense that the mere fact of becoming 13 years old turns the boy into a Bar-Mitzvah (which literally means “son of the commandment”). The ceremony in the synagogue or any other adequate environment is meant to visualize and thereby publicly recognize the new status.
Belgorosky: What were the obligations they had after becoming Bar Mitzvah?
Sperling: The main point is that from this moment on the young man becomes part of the minyan. He is counted to be part of a group of ten persons (men, both in ancient times and in current orthodox Judaism) the necessary minimum to celebrate the majority of rituals, from prayers of mourning to the reading of certain parts of the Siddur (book of prayers). Generally, this moment also coincides, in modern communities, with the beginning of secondary school, a farewell to childhood, and thus, a greater responsibility and autonomy in study and other tasks that are taken on without entirely depending on adult surveillance.
Belgorosky: How can this be considered from a modern anthropological and philosophical perspective? Were there any changes in different movements of Judaism? Is it possible to make a comparison with other religious movements?
Sperling: There is no unanimity as to this point. I may say, however, that there is a quite generalized consensus that recognizes – after the delusion of rationalist self-sufficiency resulting from the Enlightenment – the importance of rituals as a fundamental part of culture. Ritual is by definition an inherent aspect of human sociability: humans are the only beings that bury, mourn, and remember the dead. In anthropology – a young science, just like sociology and psychoanalysis – scholars have identified and studied the rituals of coming of age in all cultures of all times and places. From a modern point of view, it is about the admission of the person and his new status to the heart of the community, and the person thereby ascribing to the rules of the group. The ritual is a performance, an act, not a concept: it necessarily involves the body, and thus, affection, emotions, the thought of coming of age that accompanies the biological development of human beings.
Perhaps the most significant innovation is the inclusion of the Bat-Mitzvah, the ceremony for girls, in progressive Jewish movements: conservative and reformist, additional to all other denominations, separated by orthodoxy.
Belgorosky: In relation to the concept raised by Diana Sperling about the shorter or absence of adolescent period in ancient times.
To propose an explanation or an hypothesis from the biological point of view in relation to Diana´s comments linked to what has occurred with human puberty in ancient times, I decided to write a brief update about puberty onset and puberty tempo in SGA children, assuming that in ancient times, pregnant mothers’ diets would have been clearly insufficient for the needs of the fetus and the mother.
Following Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, one would have expected that children born SGA, both in ancient and present times, would have a chance to recover the capacity to oxygenate their tissues at birth by the newly learnt ability of breathing, as well as to increase their body mass by the ready provision of nutrients via lactation. Accordingly, if postnatal conditions are favorable, a large proportion of them might gain weight satisfactorily, or even excessively (1), during the first few years of postnatal life. This abnormal change in nutritional status in opposite directions might deregulate epigenetic programming as suggested by Roth et al. (2). Indeed, as discussed by Hochberg and Belsky (3) harsh rearing conditions predict earlier maturation.
According to Diana’s comments “The concept of adolescence did not exist in any of the ancient cultures: a child becomes an adult; or a son becomes a (potential) father”; it could be speculated that in ancient times, poor oxygenation and/or nutrition during prenatal and early postnatal life might have programmed a shorter onset of puberty tempo, as a mechanism of adaptation to the environment, and to acquire early reproductive capacity for the survival of the human species.
References
- Cumming SP, Malina RM. Bio-banding in sport: Applications to competition, talent identification and strength and conditioning of youth athletes, submitted, 2017.
- Malina RM, Rogol AD, Cumming SP, Coelho e Silva MJ, Figueiredo AJ. Biological maturation of youth athletes: assessment and implications. Brit J Sports Med 2015; 49(13):852-859
- Myburgh GH, Cumming SP, Coelho e Silva MJCooke K, Malina RM. Growth and maturation of British junior tennis players. J Sports Sci 2016; 34(20):1957-1964.
ECGM Club Discussion:
Ivo J P Arnhold, MD, PhD, Professor of Endocrinology, University of São Paulo School of Medicine
From an endocrine point of view, we know that in modern times and Western communities, at the age 13 years (the age of Bar Mitzvah), different boys are at very different stages of pubertal maturation and of their growth spurt. This results from the normal physiological range for individual timing of puberty. The onset of puberty is traditionally considered normal when it starts within ±2-2.5 SD of the average, that is, between 9 and 14 years for boys (1). Therefore, boys are submitted to the same ritual at different pubertal stages, which escape their control.
Furthermore, with the prolongation of the education process, at age 13, boys are still far from achieving all the social skills necessary for independent adult life. As Diana Sperling states ”this moments also coincides, in modern communities, with the beginning of secondary school, a farewell to childhood, and thus, a greater responsibility and autonomy in study and other tasks that are taken on without entirely depending on adult surveillance”.
Probably, at age 18, boys will have achieved a more uniform and complete pubertal maturity and height and will be closer to being an independent adult.
Reference:
- Mark R. Palmert and Leo Dunkel. Delayed Puberty. N Engl J Med 2012;366:443-453
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, MD, PhD, Professor emeritus of Paediatric Endocrinology, University of Liège, Belgium
About question #1: The usefulness of the ritual of hand washing as perceived nowadays does not tell us about the beliefs that have substantiated the initiation of such a ritual. For instance, could it be that touching the body that carries characteristics of sexual maturation and activity was thought to justify some purification? In addition, the prioritization of males (since Bat Mitzvah in girls is a more recent ritual) deserves some thought about sexually dimorphic places in socialization. This transition event has been fixed 1 year earlier (12 years) in girls than in boys. I find it very interesting that there was such an age difference. My interpretation is that it is pointing to the early visibility of pubertal changes in girls (breasts, growth acceleration) as opposed to late visibility (voice deepening, muscle mass increase, growth spurt) in boys.
About question #2 and 3: I see an additional social dimension of adolescence to that of leaving the parents for a girlfriend or a boyfriend. In between, there is an increasing importance of groups of peers of the same gender. This may be incorporated into the transition rituals by the fact that they are run as a group event or an individual event depending on culture and gender.
Did the age of Bar Mitzvah not change since the middle age and is this inconsistent with secular changes in pubertal timing? Following up on Alicia’s discussion on consequences of intrauterine growth restriction that was presumably more common in the middle age, this condition could certainly account for earlier sexual maturation. However, nutritional status in childhood could also be insufficient in those days as opposed to postnatal repletion of energy intake after IUGR in many modern societies. Because insufficient childhood nutrition tends to delay puberty, childhood underfeeding could invalidate the effects of IUGR on pubertal timing (1).
I agree with Ivo’s comment on the gap between celebration of transition at a fixed age of 12 in girls or 13 in boys and the reality of a 5-year difference in pubertal timing. This is so that some individuals may physically almost look like adults while others may appear as children when celebrating transition at those particular ages. This reality is contrasted by the desire of looking all the same (clothes, activities, hobbies) that characterizes adolescents. Somehow, this could be an attempt to compensate for biological reality of diversity in pubertal timing. Ultimately, this brings us to the question “What is normal?”, and how we use it in the conservative or interventionist management of differences in growth and maturation.
Reference:
- Anne-Simone Parent, Delphine Franssen, Julie Fudvoye, Arlette Gérard, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. Developmental variations in environmental influences including endocrine disruptors on pubertal timing and neuroendocrine control: Revision of human observations and mechanistic insight from rodents. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology 2015;38:12–36
Ze’ev Hochberg, MD, PhD, Professor emeritus of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
In agreement with Ivo’s and Jean-Pierre’s comments, having a Bar-Mitzvah at a fixed age rather than stage of puberty is much like our habit of sending adolescents of various pubertal stages to the same class. I watch boys of 14 having their gym class, and see the late maturers struggling to keep up with the muscular early maturers, who may even have a mustache by that age. Their muscles are smaller and weaker, their hemoglobin is lower, and so are their lung capacity and heart volume. Yet, they are expected to accomplish similar physical tasks. They also attend class with the girls, who are at 14 so much more advanced cognitively. Delayed boys are unable to cope with the cognitive superiority of their classmate girls or the early maturing boys. Apparently, there is no simple solution other than educating teachers about the vast variation in pubertal age and its implications.
To understand the psychological implications of delayed puberty in a boy of 14, you do not have to be a psychologist or a physiologist; all you need is to read The Book of Intimate Grammar by David Grossman: a must read for pediatric endocrinologists and anthropologists. This is an artist’s view of delayed puberty and its uproar. The Bar-Mitzvah of the protagonist Aaron is looming, and he is anxious mostly about his slow growth and skinny physique. He is humiliated and self-hating as he observes signs of puberty in his pals. The Bar-Mitzvah scene is awesome; the corrupting influence of adult sexuality is all around him; his friends at the party enter puberty in full swing, their voices break, their hair sprouts under their arms, they grow inches before his eyes. He views his father’s fleshy body with horror: this is what he will become.
I easily sympathize with boys of delayed puberty, and do not hesitate much before I prescribe to them a short course of androgens to ameliorate their slowing growth. They love it also when their genitals grow, and when I see them after six months of androgens, I think of Aaron and his intimate grammar.
Jan-Maarten Wit, MD PhD, Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands
In many cultures, the age of 12-13 years is taken as an age at which the status of the child changes. As Ze’ev writes, at that age most children go from primary to secondary school, which confronts the children with a quite different and more demanding environment. In psychology, that age is also considered the end of the latency period.
I am sure that, also in the past, people had noticed that there was quite a wide range of maturity at that age. However, it is not astonishing that that age was taken as the criterion for Bar-Mitzvah, like age is taken as the criterion for the change from primary to secondary school.
Referring to the considerations of Alicia Belgorosky that she would expect complete catch-up growth in children born small-for-gestational age, I doubt if there would be any association with the evolution theory. Rather, this may be associated with the alternative of the evolution theory, the one proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829). De Lamarck postulated that offspring can inherit acquired characteristics, and can therefore be considered as the father of epigenetics.
Alan D. Rogol, MD, Ph.D, Professor emeritus of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, University of Virginia, USA
This concept has been playing out in the search for talent in sport. In age group categories, at least until the age of about 15 years for boys, the best football (soccer) players are those who are more mature. Many may use their strength and power to overcome deficiencies in technical skills and it is the rare delayed boys with superior technical skills that can compete in the under 13 years or under 15 years leagues [2]. However, a new concept is coming to the fore at least in youth football, that of bio-banding [1, 2, 3], that is having youth play sport based on their level of maturity. In the UK one of my colleagues is in the midst of evaluating having “camps” where for a few weeks, the players play on teams and compete with each other irrespective of calendar age, but in terms of biological age. It is seemingly a welcome break for both those who mature early—they require ball skills because they teammates and opposing team players are all “big and strong” and those who mature late—they use skills rather than raw power to play the game.
References:
- Cumming SP, Malina RM. Bio-banding in sport: Applications to competition, talent identification and strength and conditioning of youth athletes, submitted, 2017.
- Malina RM, Rogol AD, Cumming SP, Coelho e Silva MJ, Figueiredo AJ. Biological maturation of youth athletes: assessment and implications. Brit J Sports Med 2015; 49(13):852-859
- Myburgh GH, Cumming SP, Coelho e Silva MJCooke K, Malina RM. Growth and maturation of British junior tennis players. J Sports Sci 2016; 34(20):1957-1964.
Mark A Sperling MBBS,FRACP, Emeritus Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot-literal translation from the Hebrew is “Chapters of the Fathers”) is a Jewish compilation of ethical teachings and maxims based on Rabbinic sayings during the period 200-500 C.E. It deals solely with ethical and moral principles and no laws ae expounded. Chapter 5, v 22, provides a guideline for correlating age with intellectual (study) and physical (marriage, livelihood) parameters. Thirteen was chosen as the age to assume responsibility for one’s actions, presumably because, with or without puberty, one should be able to distinguish by that age right from wrong (do’s and don’ts). Later ages are suggested for marriage and getting a job, and with guideposts for understanding, counsel and wisdom as the years go by. I enjoyed the wise discussions.
Ben Hei Hei (one of the Rabbis of the period) would say: According to the pain is the gain. He would also say: Five years is the age for the study of Scripture. Ten, for the study of Mishnah. Thirteen, for the obligation to observe the mitzvot. Fifteen, for the study of Talmud. Eighteen, for marriage. Twenty to pursue a livelihood. Thirty, for strength, Forty, for understanding. Fifty, for counsel. Sixty, for sagacity. Seventy, for elderliness. Eighty, for power. Ninety, to stoop. A hundred-year-old is as one who has died and passed away and has been negated from the world”.
Michael B. Ranke, MD, PhD, Prof. emeritus of Pediatrics, University of Tübingen, Germany
Certainly in all cultures we observe the aspect of incorporating an individual formally into the world of adults – with rights and duties (including spirituality). This is probably to a degree separate from the aspect of sexual maturation. To my knowledge in medieval Europe the age of girls given into marriage was about 16 years. This was obviously the age (somewhat distant to menarche) which allowed using the regenerative potential of the woman fully.
The aspect of menarche in classical India during the period between ca. 500 B.C. and A.D. 500 has been investigated [1] and may add to our discussion: Abstract: Data from the writings of Indian legislators during the period between ca. 500 B.C. and A.D. 500 have been used to study menarcheal age among girls born in classical India. As these legislators were concerned mainly with the upper-caste population, it can be presumed that the recordings obtained are only from upper-caste Hindu girls. Throughout the period the age at menarche was about 12 years. A number of legislators considered the best age for conception to be around 16. When these data are compared with those obtained from classical Greece and Rome, the Indian age is found to be about 1-2 years earlier. Comparison of the data from the 19th century and present-day India reveals that the older data are about 0.8-2.2 years earlier when various areas are considered. These results contrast with the downward trend for the age at menarche seen in the industrialized countries during this century.
Reference [1] Datta B, Gupta D. The age of menarche in classical India. Ann Hum Biol. 1981;8(4):351-9.
Comment by Zvi Laron Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University
In the pursue to clarify why Bar Mitvah is held at age 13 we performed a prospective survey of 128 boys who attended our clinic regularly at intervals of 3 to 6 months. In addition to appraisal of their sexual development we noted the appearance of the first conscious ejaculation. We found that the first ejaculation occurred at a mean bone age of 13 6/12 , (mean chronological age 14 3/12y) and a mean testicular volume of 10±4ml. We concluded that the first ejaculation is the “male biological milestone” equivalent to the female “menarche”. This clinical observation made Jewish elders to decide to celebrate the start of the male reproductive capacity. This is the biological explanation of Bar Mitzvah at age 13.
Reference: Laron Z, Arad J, Gurewitz R, Grunebaum M, Dickerman Z. Age at first conscious ejaculation: a milestone in male puberty. Helv. Paediat. Acta 1980:35:;13-30
COMMENTS TO THIS CONVERSATION ARE TO BE MAILED TO IVO ARNHOLD [iarnhold@usp.br]