Shabbos Bulletin Parshas Bo 5775

Tefilla Halacha

When a boy becomes bar-mitzvah, the father publicly makes a berachah “baruch shep’tarani…” The common custom is to make the beracha without shem u’malchus.

Sha’arei Efrayim writes that the father should have the two explanations of this berachah in mind:

1. The father is from now on exempted from being punished for any negligence in the chinuch of his son.
2. The son will no longer be punished as part of the father’s “personal effects” (see RamBam Hilchos Teshuvah 6:1). Thus, the father is now “exempt” from the “sin” of having someone be punished due to him.

The custom is to make the beracha at the first public manifestation at the son’s being bar-mitzvah.