Birkas HaTorah - Bar Mitzvah

QUESTION: Should a bar mitzva boy, on the night he becomes a bar mitzva, recite birchos haTorah?

ANSWER: According to many poskim, reciting birchos haTorah daily is a Biblical obligation, derived from the pasuk (Devarim 32:3) “When I call out the name of Hashem, ascribe greatness to our God.” This is understood by the Gemara (Berachos 21a) to mean that before I read the Torah, I must recite a blessing. The beracha we recite each morning lasts the entire day, until we go to sleep at night. However, when a bar mitzva boy recites the beracha in the morning before his thirteenth birthday, he was not yet obligated in mitzvos. Does his beracha which he recited in the morning satisfy his obligation in the evening when he becomes obligated in mitzvos? If it does not, then he should be required to recite the beracha again. Rav Chaim Soloveitchik posed this question to his father, the Beis HaLevi, when he became bar mitzva. The Beis HaLevi responded that indeed the matter is in doubt, and therefore a bar mitzva boy should have in mind to fulfill his obligation of birkas haTorah with the beracha of “Ahavas Olam” he recites during Maariv (which is also a beracha on Torah).

Rabbi Genack (Gan Shoshanim) points out that in Hilchos Korban Pesach (5:7), Rav Chaim writes that before a child becomes bar mitzva he cannot fulfill mitzvos. If so, what was the doubt of the Beis HaLevi? Surely, when he becomes bar mitzva at night, he should be required to recite the beracha again. Rabbi Genack answered based on another position of Rav Chaim. Rav Chaim is quoted by his son, the Brisker Rav, as explaining that birkas haTorah is unlike other berachos on mitzvos: it is not a beracha on the mitzva of studying Torah but on the “cheftza” of Torah itself (on our encounter with Torah). Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik compared birkas haTorah to birkas ha’nehenin (berachos recited before eating food). We recite birchos haTorah to show our appreciation for being given the gift of Torah study. Based on this principle, the Brisker Rav explains why the Shulchan Aruch permits women to recite birchos haTorah, even though they are exempt from the mitzvah of Torah study. Although ordinarily the Shulchan Aruch does not permit women to recite berachos unless they are obligated in that mitzva, he permits women to recite birchos haTorah, because birchos haTorah are not a birkas hamitzva, but a beracha on the gift of Torah, and Torah was given to woman as well. The same can be applied to a child. Even though a child is not obligated to study Torah, one can argue that his birkas haTorah can exempt him when he becomes an adult, since the Torah studied by a child is also a cheftza shel Torah. The Brisker Rav (Arachin 10b) offers a similar explanation.

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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.