Shnayim Mikra - Shabbos Bar Mitzvah

QUESTION: If someone will become Bar Mitzvah on Shabbos, can he read Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum during the previous week when he is not yet obligated in mitzvos, or must he wait until Shabbos?

ANSWER: Sefer Divrei Chachamim (21, question 256) quotes Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky zt”l who said that if a boy whose Bar Mizvah is on Shabbos read Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum during the preceding week, he fulfilled his obligation and does not have to reread it on Shabbos. The Ksav Sofer (OC 99) writes in general that if a child performed a Rabbinic mitzvah before his/her bar/bas mitzvah, there is no need to repeat those mitzvos after becoming bar/bas mitzvah.

It would seem that if a child became bar mitzvah in the course of a year after Shabbos Bereishis, he is not obligated to make up all of the parshiyos that he missed, even if he did not read Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum from Bereishis until this point. Since he was not yet bar mitzvah when those parshiyos were read, he was not obligated to review Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum, and there is no need to make them up.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.