Seudat mitzvah 7:37). It is customary at a "bar mitzvah" meal for parents to give thanks and praise to God for giving them the merit to raise a child to "bar mitzvah" and to educate him in the ways of Torah and the commandments. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef holds that a Bat Mitzvah is also a seudat mitzvah. Based on the Talmud and Midrash, the "seudah" celebration upon the completion of a Talmudic tractate is considered a "seudat mitzvah" ("Yam Shel Shlomo", "Bava Kamma", "Merubah" 37; "Maharam Mintz" 119; "Shach", "Yoreh De'ah" 246:37). This "seudah" is made to rejoice over the accomplishment, and
Judaism and abortion requested abortion. He argues the abortion, like certain forms of contraception, frustrates the mitzvah of reproduction and destroys the "seed" needed to be "fruitful and multiply." With the emergence of modern Jewish identity in the late 18th century, Jewish views on abortion have bifurcated along movement lines, especially between Orthodox Judaism and its more liberal counterparts. By the 20th century, liberal-minded Jews were among those most active in the pro-choice movement. These reproductive rights activists included Betty Friedan, Bernard Nathanson, and Gloria Steinem (however, later in life Nathanson became a pro-life activist and converted to Catholicism). In the U.S., a