429. A Bar Mitzvah

61:8 One whose son becomes bar mitzvah recites the bracha “Baruch shepatrani,” that he is no longer responsible for his child’s deeds. (There are different opinions as to whether or not this bracha should be recited including the mention of G-d’s Name and His Kingship – Mishnah Brurah 225:8.) This is typically recited when the son is called to the Torah for the first time, after he the concluding bracha of his aliyah. (It can also be done when the son leads the congregation in communal prayer, which also publicly declares that he has reached the age of majority –MB 225:6.) It is a mitzvah to make a festive meal on the day his son becomes bar mitzvah, which is the first day of his fourteenth year. If the son gives a dvar Torah, then this meal is a mitzvah even if it is not held on the actual bar mitzvah day.

61:9 If there was a drought and it rained to the extent that the bubbles in the puddles that formed meet, one recites a bracha. (We will see what specifically he recites in 61:10.) This is true both in Israel, where there is a particular rainy season, and even in our countries where rain is common and does not usually cease for too long.