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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][/quote]Shabbat morning services have 3 parts but they all flow together.  There is morning service, the Torah service, and afternoon service.  The most important part for the bar mitzvah is the torah service.  This is the first time that the young man will be allowed to read from the torah.  The torah is in hebrew but without any vowels.  It is chanted in what is called [i]trope[/i].  Learning trope takes months.  You just have to learn the inflections, the pauses, the ups and the downs of the chat.  Since there are not hints in the torah scroll, you really can't "read" it.  Then the bar mitzvah will present his d'var torah.  This is his interpretation of what is important about the passage he has just chanted.  And then it's over.  The reason it's such a big deal is that now the bar/bat mitzvah is considered an adult in the community and they now have the right (and hopefully the ability) to lead the congregation in prayer on shabbat and they count in a minyan--a quorum for prayer.

About going to the bathroom--the congregation will stand when the arc is open.  The arc is where the torah is kept.  When the congregation stands as a sign of respect for the torah, it is not time to turn your back and exit for the bathroom.  Bathroom breaks occur when every one is sitting down but not during the rabbi's sermon either.  From start to finish is about 3-3.5 hrs.  But the morning service is about 30 min so if you show up for the torah service, that's fine and you are not considered late.[/quote]

Whoa! Are your Orthodox, or ...? We're Conservative Jews and the Saturday morning services do NOT last three hours! Mayyyyybe 2 hours, but that's at the long end. [/quote]

Depending on the Shul, many Conservative services are three hours long.  You are supposed to know that you need not show up on time.  Orthodox services are always that long and the men and women sit separately.  In the Conservative Shuls that I've gone, women wear a headcovering of some sort, especially if they are going up to say a prayer for the dead.  I wear a scarf on my head.  Some women use lace doilies, much like a yamulke and hold it in place with a bobby pin.  [/quote]

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