How many times in their life wpuld the typical person sit in the chair that gets lifted up and down at a party?

I’m not Jewish so I haven’t been to many Jewish parties. My boss was though, and he invited my wife and I to the combined bar/bat mitzvah for their kids (for whatever reason they did it at the same time rather than when each one came of age – the daughter was older and I guess she waited until her brother was of age less than a year later I think?)

Side note on language: if an event is for both a boy and a girl do you refer to it as a bar mitzvah event or do you say bar/bat mitzvah?

Anyhow, at one point they did the chair dance. The dad and mom each had a turn, but nobody else, so it seems to me that it is a pretty rare and special thing to be up there.

How rare and special is it? Like most people would get it maybe 2-3 times in a lifetime?

And it was certainly a lively event. Much more fun to watch than most events even though I didn’t have much pf a clue what was happening.

Oh, just thought of another question. When he read from the Torah, is the pointer he used his to keep like a special momento or does it stay at the synagogue and everybody uses the same one? Well, I guess the rabbi might have a personal one, but for the others?