Judaism and sexuality Judaism and sexuality The Jewish tradition devotes considerable attention to sexuality. Sexuality is the subject of many narratives and laws in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature. In Judaism, sexuality is viewed as having both positive and negative potential, depending on the context in which it is expressed. According to the Rabbinical enumerations of the 613 commandments, the commandment to procreate is the first mitzvah in the Torah: "And God blessed them; and God said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply ["peru urevu" (פרו ורבו)], and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
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