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I have noticed more 83 year old men celebrating their second bar mitzvahs, and cannot find any source for this. Is it a new custom? Does it have any basis in pre-20th century practice?

Isaac Moses
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cmose
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    cmose, welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks very much for bringing your question here! I hope you get useful answers to this question and that you'll also look around the site and find other material that interests you, perhaps including our 30 other [tag:bar-mitzvah] questions. – Isaac Moses Feb 10 '14 at 21:21
  • The first time I heard of this concept, was back in 1999 when Kirk Douglas had a second "Bar Mitzvah" which was well covered by the media. (He has since had a third בר מצוה!) – Ephraim Feb 11 '14 at 08:28

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The rationale behind it is that Tehillim describes a lifetime as seventy years in the verse

ימי שנותינו בהם שבעים שנה ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה

(90:10.) Thus -- the reasoning goes -- 83 is 13 years into your "second lifetime" which is as good an excuse for a kiddush as any. I do not know of any source for it prior to the twentieth century or of any book of halacha or official minhagim that quotes it, but that doesn't mean anything.

Yitzchak
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  • Is that your own reasoning or you heard it somewhere? Either way, it's cute. +1 – Y     e     z Feb 11 '14 at 00:41
  • I heard it from several people, mostly people celebrating their own second bar mitzvahs – Yitzchak Feb 11 '14 at 02:44
  • So when we all Gd-willing hit 93, on our way to many more years, do we make a 3rd bar mitzvah? +1 – Baby Seal Feb 11 '14 at 06:31
  • I would guess so. שנזכה! – Yitzchak Feb 11 '14 at 15:37
  • It's a cute idea, but I've always been a little confused by the practice. Why do we choose this particular milestone in the "second lifetime" to celebrate? It's not like someone becomes patur from mitzvot from 70 to 83. – Daniel Apr 24 '15 at 14:07
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    @BabySeal No, it would be every 70 years since the Tehillim says you live 70 years Therefore, you a reborn Jew, and at 83 you are 13. My father always asks the question if a 70 year need to get recircumscised? –  Apr 24 '15 at 12:56
  • @BabySeal it might be at 133 (120 + 13) or 153 (70 + m70 +13). However, it is more of a joking reference. – sabbahillel Nov 18 '18 at 00:28