Bar and Bat Mitzvah "son" (), while "bat" () means "daughter" in Hebrew, and "mitzvah" () means "commandment" or "law" (plural: "mitzvot"). Thus "bar mitzvah" and "bat mitzvah" literally translate to "son of commandment" and "daughter of commandment". However, in rabbinical usage, the word "bar" means "under the category of" or "subject to". "Bar mitzvah" therefore translates to "an [agent] who is subject to the law". Although the term is commonly used to refer to the ritual itself, in fact the phrase originally refers to the person. The modern method of celebrating becoming a bar mitzvah did not exist in the time of the
Milkhemet Mitzvah yet plowed their field before the war. All of these exemptions are given only in the case of "Milhemet Reshut." Talmud Scholars of both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds discussed the nature of the wars commenced by the Israelites during the biblical era (Tanakh) generally tend to describe the conquest of the Land of Israel in the Book of Joshua as Mitzvah Wars, while the wars fought by King David were meant to expand his kingdom, hence regarded as discretionary wars. Modern scholars also suggested that Mitzvah Wars originally signified a religious act. Questions about the halakhic justification for war