Shabbos Bulletin Parshas Nitzavim 5779, Rosh Hashanah 5780 and Tefilla Halacha

Yes Rosh HaShanah is looming.

But there is a major day which comes first, the actual bar-mitzvah day of Binyamin Meir Steinberg! So that’s what we’ll focus on: Why doesn’t a boy becoming bar-mitzvah make a “shehecheyahu” on the very metzi’us of becoming obligated in mitzvohs?

  • Some say that we make that berachah only celebrating a period of time which recurs.
  • Some say it is because he was obligated in mitzvohs before the bar-mitzvah day, albeit miderabonon (chinuch), and the change in the intensity of the obligation is not enough to warrant a “shehechiyanu”.
  • And some say it is because he is also entering the world of onesh, and so it is not completely joyful.
  • Many say that when the bar-mitzvah boy makes a “shehechiyanu” on his new suit, maybe a new hat, or this year, in Kiddush Sunday night, he should have in mind that he is making it for the bar-mitzvah as well!