DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 530 KB)
Scheduling a Bar Misva During a Leap Year for a Boy Born in Adar

If a boy was born in Adar during a regular, twelve-month year, and the year of his Bar Misva is a leap year, when there are two months of Adar, he becomes Bar Misva in Adar Sheni. Halacha views Adar Sheni as the actual month of Adar, and it is therefore in Adar Sheni when a boy born in Adar thirteen years earlier becomes a Bar Misva.

The Shulhan Aruch (55:10) famously addresses an intriguing case involving twins born during a leap year who become Misva during a regular twelve-month year. The particular situation he discusses is when the older twin exits the womb in the final moments of 29 Adar Rishon, and the younger twin is born when it is already 1 Adar Sheni. If, thirteen years later, there is only one Adar, then the younger brother will become a Bar Misva nearly one month earlier than his older twin. The older brother was born on 29 Adar Rishon, and thus he will be considered a Bar Misva according to Halacha only on 29 Adar. The younger brother, however, who was born on the first day of Adar Sheni, becomes a Bar Misva on the first day of Adar – four weeks before his older brother! This is an especially fascinating situation, where a boy becomes a Bar Misva nearly a month before somebody born a few moments before him.

Summary: If a boy was born in Adar during an ordinary twelve-month year, and the year of his Bar Misva is a leap year, he becomes Bar Misva during Adar Sheni. If a boy was born on 29 Adar Rishon, and the year of his Bar Misva is an ordinary twelve-month year, he becomes Bar Misva on 29 Adar, yet a boy born one day after him, on 1 Adar Sheni, will become Bar Misva four weeks earlier, on 1 Adar.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Is There a Requirement Nowadays to Give Portions of a Slaughtered Animal to a Kohen?
Showing Respect to a Kohen
Lighting a Candle in Memory of the Deceased
Reciting She’hehiyanu Upon Seeing a Friend or Loved One for the First Time in 30 Days
Can a Minor be Counted as the Tenth Person for a Minyan?
Saying the Name of a City That is Named After a Pagan Deity
Does One Recite a Beracha When Seeing the President of the United States?
The Disqualification of a Kohen Who Accidentally Kills
Reciting Tikkun Hasot in the Afternoon During the Three Weeks, and Every Night
Sources of the Concept of Gematria
Does a Minor Recite Birkat Ha’gomel?
Praying at the Graves of the Righteous
The Prohibition Against Taking A Short Cut Through a Synagogue
Eating a Special Meal on Rosh Hodesh
Reciting “Va’ani Tefilati” and “Mizmor Shir” When Praying Minha Privately on Shabbat Afternoon
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found