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Biblical Thirteen
Year Olds
A Conservative Perspective
by Rivka C. Berman
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Midrashic accounts of the
thirteen-year-old biblical figures are rife with drama. Abraham turned thirteen
and broke idols, beginning his turn to monotheism. Both of his grandsons, Jacob
and Esau, studied until age thirteen. Afterward, Jacob devoted himself to
further study, while Esau worshipped at “foreign shrines.” (Midrash Rabbah,
Genesis 25:27). Two of Jacob’s twelve sons, Simeon and Levi, wreaked havoc when
they were thirteen, decimating the male population of the city of Shechem (Midrash
on Genesis 34:25). Later when it came time to build the portable Temple in the
desert, a thirteen-year-old, Betzalel, was chosen as chief artist/architect.
Centuries later the menacing Philistine giant Goliath was felled by
thirteen-year-old David’s well-aimed stone. David’s son, Shlomo, became king,
and according to the Torah commentators, guess how old he was!
Ishmael, Abraham’s older son, was thirteen when he was circumcised (Genesis
17:25). In that same year, he and his mother, Hagar, were cast out to the
desert. Ishmael nearly died of thirst. An angel spoke to Hagar “What ails you,
Hagar? Have not fear because God has heard the voice of the boy from where he
is… for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a
well of water” (Genesis 21:17-19). Some scholars interpret this story as an
early tribal test of adulthood. A boy enters the wilderness, survives, and
returns a man.
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