[Avodah] Odd bar-mitzvah custom in Selish ca. 1923

[Zev Sero]

On 27/02/2011 8:33 AM, Joel C. Salomon wrote:
> This came up a few years ago when I was talking to my grandfather z"l
> about his childhood in Selish (AKA Seylesh, now Vynohradiv, Ukraine).
> He was an orphan -- his father died in WWI -- and therefore had his
> bar-mitzvah at age 12. He apparently was given to believe this was the
> rule for yesomim.
>
> I have a *theory* about the possible source for such a "rule", but does
> anyone here have actual knowledge of why such practice existed?  (I'm
> aware there's no actual halachik basis, of course.)

There exists a minhag that a yosom starts putting on tefillin a full year
before his bar mitzvah, rather than merely a few weeks or months.  But
to consider him bar mitzvah from 12 is surely wrong, and I can't believe
there was ever such a minhag anywhere.


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Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
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