When Does a Bar Mitzvah Boy Read Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum? — Part 3

When Does a Bar Mitzvah Boy Read Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum? — Part 3 

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This article will address an interesting question that has ramifications for many halachot concerning a bar mitzvah boy, and more generally for mitzvot that we fulfill when we are subject only to a lighter level of obligation, while later on we become fully obligated. For example, according to many poskim, kiddush is a Torah obligation. If one fulfills the mitzvah of kiddush at a time when one is obligated only rabbinically, during the additional Shabbat time from plag haminchah, will that also exempt him from the more stringent obligation? If a minor offers the Korban Pesach, will that exempt him from Pesach Sheni after his bar mitzvah? If a minor counted Sefirat HaOmer, may he recite the blessing after his bar mitzvah, which occurs during the days of Sefirat HaOmer? Must the bar mitzvah boy recite the blessings over the Torah again after nightfall?

When should a bar mitzvah boy read Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum during the week of his bar mitzvah?

There is an interesting question concerning a boy whose bar mitzvah takes place during this week: when should he begin reading that week’s Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum? The sides of the doubt are as follows: before his bar mitzvah, a minor is obligated in mitzvot only rabbinically, by virtue of the law of chinuch (education), and not in the mitzvah itself; whereas after his bar mitzvah he becomes fully obligated by law. Therefore, there is broad discussion regarding many mitzvot: when a bar mitzvah boy performs the mitzvah only by virtue of chinuch while he is still a minor, has he fulfilled his obligation, and is he exempt from performing the mitzvah also when he becomes an adult and is obligated in the mitzvah itself?

In this case as well, the question arises whether he may already read that week’s Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum from the beginning of the week, and although he fulfilled the obligation while still a minor, he has discharged his obligation; or perhaps he must wait until his bar mitzvah and only afterward read that week’s Shnayim Mikra Ve’echad Targum, in order to fulfill his obligation as an adult.

In practice, this question depends on several parallel cases found in halachah, and we will detail some of them:

Ma’ariv on the night of the bar mitzvah from plag haminchah

A similar question arises on the night of the bar mitzvah: may the minor pray Ma’ariv from plag haminchah [an hour and a quarter before sunset]? After all, the boy becomes an adult only at sunset or at nightfall, whereas Ma’ariv may be prayed from plag haminchah. Therefore, if the prayer is from plag haminchah, the bar mitzvah boy prayed Ma’ariv while still a minor, and the question is whether this prayer will exempt him also at night, when he becomes an adult.

From the words of the Rema (Orach Chaim 53:10), it is clear that a bar mitzvah boy may pray Ma’ariv from plag haminchah, but he may not lead the service in order to discharge others’ obligations until nightfall, because he is still a minor, and the prayer of a minor does not discharge the public’s obligation. We learn from this that although the Ma’ariv prayer at plag haminchah is the prayer of a minor who cannot discharge others’ obligations, he does discharge his own obligation, even though the fulfillment of the mitzvah of prayer was only by virtue of chinuch.

Kiddush every Shabbat from plag haminchah

Similarly, the words of the Mordechai (Megillah 19) are well known: mitzvot performed at a time when the obligation is rabbinic are effective even for the time when their obligation is biblical. For example, a person accepted Shabbat upon himself from plag haminchah and is rabbinically obligated in kiddush; however, on a Torah level, he becomes obligated in kiddush only at sunset or nightfall. The question arises: can the kiddush that a person recited during the additional Shabbat time that he accepted upon himself, which is effective only rabbinically, exempt him from his obligation from the time when he is obligated biblically? Regarding this, the Mordechai wrote that there is no problem. In light of the Mordechai’s position, the ruling of the Rema is also understandable. [The Rishonim disagree on this; see the Gemara (Moed Katan 4; Rosh Hashanah 9; Yoma 81; and Biur Halachah 261)].

However, the Magen Avraham (267:1) challenged the above words of the Mordechai: if a rabbinic mitzvah is effective to exempt a person from his Torah obligation, why can a minor not discharge an adult’s obligation in the reading of the Megillah or in blessings (see Megillah 19b; Berachot 48; and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 186)?

The Chayei Adam (Hilchot Shabbat, Rule 6) explained that there is a distinction between mitzvot that a person performs for himself, in which case it is effective if he is rabbinically obligated even for the time when he will become biblically obligated, and discharging the obligation of other people.

The Imrei Binah (Shabbat 11) offers an additional answer to the Magen Avraham’s question: there are many views that hold that the obligation of chinuch is not upon the minor himself but upon his father; the minor himself is not obligated to perform mitzvot by virtue of chinuch (see Rashi, Berachot 48; Ramban and Ran, Kiddushin 31). Since the minor himself is not a “bar chiyuva” — meaning he is not obligated in the mitzvah even rabbinically — he therefore cannot discharge the adult’s obligation.

How does a bar mitzvah boy fulfill the law of Sefirat HaOmer?

The Minchat Chinuch (mitzvah 306) was uncertain regarding another similar and interesting case: a bar mitzvah boy born during the days of Sefirat HaOmer. According to the opinions that a person who missed one day of Sefirat HaOmer can no longer count and fulfill the mitzvah, can the bar mitzvah boy fulfill the mitzvah? For example, if he was born on Lag BaOmer, the first 32 days he counted only as a minor. If we say that with regard to a boy who has become an adult through bar mitzvah, this counting is not considered a mitzvah, since it was counted by a minor who was not obligated in mitzvot [biblically, or even rabbinically], then on Lag BaOmer as well he cannot count the Omer, for he has missed part of the days of counting. Or perhaps we say that even what he fulfilled as a minor is considered a fulfillment of the mitzvah, and he may continue counting with a blessing?

A bar mitzvah boy between the first Pesach and Pesach Sheni: is he obligated to offer Pesach Sheni?

In practice, a similar question is found in the Rambam (Hilchot Korban Pesach 5:7). There is a halachah that a person who, for whatever reason, was unable to offer the Korban Pesach on the fourteenth of Nisan is obligated to do so on the fourteenth of Iyar, on Pesach Sheni. The Rambam writes that a minor who became an adult between the first Pesach and Pesach Sheni is likewise obligated to offer Pesach Sheni, even though at the first Pesach he was a minor and was exempt from mitzvot. However, in a case where the first Pesach was offered also on behalf of this minor, he has fulfilled his obligation and is not obligated to offer Pesach Sheni. Thus, a mitzvah that the minor fulfilled in his minority, when the obligation was only by virtue of chinuch, is effective and exempts him from fulfilling the mitzvah again when he grows up.

However, the Acharonim discussed at length whether this is a special law regarding the Korban Pesach, that the Pesach offered by the minor exempts him in adulthood, or whether it is a general law regarding all mitzvot (see Kesef Mishneh, Korban Pesach 5:7; Chiddushei HaGrach ad loc.; Minchat Chinuch, mitzvah 10, section 25; mitzvah 31; mitzvah 306; Kehillat Yaakov, Sukkah 2).

The blessing over the Torah on the night of the bar mitzvah

This issue also determines whether a young man who becomes bar mitzvah, and who recited the blessing over the Torah in the morning when he was obligated in mitzvot only rabbinically, and at night became bar mitzvah and biblically obligated in mitzvot, must recite the blessing again when he becomes an adult. Therefore, some hold that it is proper for him to have intention during the blessing of Ahavat Olam in Ma’ariv that it should exempt him (Responsa Maharsham 3:121; and Responsa Eretz Tzvi 16; 18).

In practice one may read already at the beginning of the week of the bar mitzvah, but it is preferable, as an enhanced fulfillment, to be careful to read after the bar mitzvah (Azmera Lishmecha, issue 122).

Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 285); Azmera Lishmecha (issue 122)