Bereavement in Judaism as Rosh Hashanah, cancel the mourning period completely. The thirty-day period following burial (including "shiva") is known as "shloshim" (). During "shloshim", a mourner is forbidden to marry or to attend a "seudat mitzvah" (religious festive meal). Men do not shave or get haircuts during this time. Since Judaism teaches that a deceased person can still benefit from the merit of "mitzvot" (commandments) performed in their memory, it is considered a special privilege to bring merit to the departed by learning Torah in their name. A popular custom is to coordinate a group of people who will jointly study the
Bar and Bat Mitzvah read from the Torah or lead prayer services whenever there is a minyan (quorum of 10 males) available to do so. However, the public celebration of a girl becoming bat mitzvah in other ways has made strong inroads into Modern Orthodox Judaism and also into some elements of Haredi Judaism. In these congregations, women do not read from the Torah or lead prayer services, but they occasionally lecture on a Jewish topic to mark their coming of age, learn a book of Tanakh, recite verses from the Book of Esther or the Book of Psalms, or say prayers from the