Seudat mitzvah Seudat mitzvah A seudat mitzvah (, "commanded meal"), in Judaism, is an obligatory festive meal, usually referring to the celebratory meal following the fulfillment of a "mitzvah" (commandment), such as a bar mitzvah, a wedding, a "brit milah" (ritual circumcision), or a "siyum" (completing a tractate of Talmud or Mishnah). "Seudot" fixed in the calendar (i.e., for holidays and fasts) are also considered "seudot mitzvah", but many have their own, more commonly used, names. Attendance at a "brit milah" (circumcision) and its subsequent "seudah" is of such great significance that Rabbi Moshe Isserles ("the Rama") notes ("Yoreh De'ah" 265:12) that
Bar and Bat Mitzvah the minyan" ceremony, in which boys of thirteen and girls of twelve recited a blessing) since the mid-19th century. There were also bat mitzvah rituals held in the 19th century in Iraq. All this may have influenced the American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, who held the first public celebration of a bat mitzvah in the United States, for his daughter Judith, on March 18, 1922, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, his synagogue in New York City. Judith Kaplan recited the preliminary blessing, read a portion of that week's Torah portion in Hebrew and English, and then intoned