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 siddur. In some Modern Orthodox circles, bat mitzvah girls will read from the Torah and lead prayer services in a women's tefillah. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a prominent Orthodox "posek," has ruled that bat mitzvah celebrations are permissible, but should not be held in a synagogue, because then they would be construed as imitating Reform and Conservative customs; in any case, they do not have the status of seudat mitzvah. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef holds that it is a seudat mitzvah. There were occasional attempts to recognize a girl's coming of age in eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, the