- Q. Kevod Horav Shli’a. I was very surprised when I heard that this last Shabbos (Chayei Sarah), the family of the Rov and the shul offered a Kiddush to honor his birthday.
With all respect to the Rov since when do we frum Torah people celebrate birthdays and especially for the Rov himself?
A. Dear friend it is a pity that you didn’t join us, as I addressed that shailah when I spoke. I mentioned that indeed we don’t have the tradition of making birthday parties for anyone as it is commonly celebrated, yet we do have the minhag of celebrating a siyum as part of the learning of Shas, when one ends a mesachta (tractate), even though one has not ended the complete Talmud.
I explained that besides performing a siyum on learning Torah, one may perform a simcha at the end of performing an important part of it. And B’H indeed we had a very successful year in many different Torah activities and shiurim and it was a good time to rejoice.
I added that after all one can have the intention to just celebrate the great gift of Hashem of thankfully having granted us one more year of life and for myself complying with the mitzva of having given pleasure to my parents when I was born and hopefully maintaining that Nachas until today. (more to follow).
Important Numbers
