Q&A From the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

The Great Leap Forward

Dayan Yosef Greenwald

March 3, 2022

Q  My son was born in Adar thirteen years ago, in a non-leap year. In which Adar this year does he become a bar mitzvah?

A Discussing the same question with regard to yahrzeits, Rishonim disagree. The Shulchan Aruch rules that such yahrzeits are commemorated in Adar Sheini, while according to the Rama, they are marked in Adar Rishon (see O.C. 568:7).

Although there is also a machlokess concerning a bar mitzvah, the accepted halacha seems to be that it happens in Adar Sheini (see Rama O.C. 55:10). Still, there are grounds to be machmir—with regard to both yahrzeit and bar mitzvah—to accommodate both opinions if possible (see, e.g., Gra O.C. 568:7).

In light of this preference to be strict, R’ Shmuel Wosner rules (Sheivet Halevi 6:9, 10:105) that even those who do not normally begin donning tefillin thirty days before the bar mitzvah should be machmir in this case, to accommodate the shitah that Adar Rishon is the actual bar mitzvah.

Those who do begin hanachas tefillin thirty days in advance may normally delay it a bit where necessary (e.g., if one wishes to daven with a gadol the first day of hanachas tefillin and receive a bracha). In our leap year scenario, however, for the reason stated, it is recommended that one begin a full thirty days before the Adar Sheini bar mitzvah.[1]

Note that if a boy is born in a leap year Adar, and the year of his bar mitzvah is also a leap year, he becomes a bar mitzvah in the Adar of his birth.

[1] The Sheivet Halevi in the second teshuvah cites from the Bais Shlomo that one should not begin on the exact day of Adar Rishon that the bar mitzvah falls on in Adar Sheini, so that people don’t mistakenly think that the halacha follows the Maharash Halevi that the bar mitzvah is really in Adar Rishon.