核心畫面
Picture one morning: a thirteen-year-old boy stands up in front of the whole congregation, and when he sits down again he is counted as an adult in his community, responsible for keeping its rules himself. Everything the word does circles that one morning. The morning itself is a bar mitzvah. The boy at the centre of it is the bar mitzvah. And putting him through it is the verb — he was bar mitzvahed.
可以想成一個早上：一個十三歲的男孩站到全體會眾面前，等他坐下來的時候，他在社群裡已經算是大人了，要自己承擔戒律。這個…更多收起
可以想成一個早上：一個十三歲的男孩站到全體會眾面前，等他坐下來的時候，他在社群裡已經算是大人了，要自己承擔戒律。這個詞的每一個用法都繞著那一個早上轉。那個早上本身就是 a bar mitzvah。站在中間的那個男孩也叫 the bar mitzvah。而讓他走完這一趟，就是動詞的用法：he was bar mitzvahed。From the word’s history
The name is Hebrew for 'of the age of mitzvah' — the age at which the commandments become your own responsibility. The name states the change the ceremony makes.
這個名字來自希伯來文，字面是「到了 mitzvah（誡命）的年紀」。也就是開始要自己承擔戒律的年紀。名字本身就講出了這場儀式造成的改變，所以它能同時指儀式和那個人。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet: 'From Hebrew בר מצווה (literally of the age of mitzvah).'