Bar Mitzvah Seforim Gift Ideas

It depends on the giver and the recipient. A very wealthy person can give a set of seforim, while a person of lesser means can give an individual but still meaningful sefer. Seforim are less appropriate coming from a person who never looks at them, or going to a boy who will never look at them. Coming from a chosuvah talmid chochom, it is seen as a personal recommendation and endorsement for the bar mitzvah boy to read that particular sefer.

If you feel that the bochur will use the sefer, (even if not for a few years) a sefer is a good idea. If he is a lamdun, a less common but still heard of sefer is okay. If he is less knowledgable, more modern, or non-scholarly, an English sefer or even a book might be more useful. Some ideas might include:

– Rabbi Ribiat’s 39 Melochos 4-volume set (useful but not cheap)

– Rabbi Bodner’s Brochos Guide

– Any new Biography

– Amazing Facts (book 4? just came out)

– Artscroll Rashi (small, medium, large)

– Artscroll Shas (just kidding)

– Many new seforim and books come out every month. Anything that ‘just came out’ is safe to assume that he does not have it yet.

I am sure that any decent seforim store can assess you and your description of the recipient, and make a few recommendations.

Of course the bottom line is, anything you give ought to be appreciated, and it doesn’t matter that much what you give.

If the local Torah bookstore is having a sale on Mesilas Yesharim, it is best not to give it, because the Bar Mitzvah boy may get twenty copies and feel like people are trying to tell him something!

As the mother of a few boys, I say give money. After the last bar mitzvah, we are surrounded by seforim, that will probably will not be opened as we have own quite a few copies of them. We have no additional shelf space and the seforim are in every nook and cranny, in corners all over the house. Let us say, we got swamped but the amount of seforim as gifts. And, no I do not do re-gifting. We appreciated the personalized gifts, like belts, cufflinks, garment bag, travel bag, toiletry bag, robe. Those are some nice ideas, other then seformim.

1) The Brisker Rav lived in Eretz Yisroel. Why would he have $50 bills?

2) If he gave it, how may he take it back?

3) Why would he put in a $50 bill and not a $1 (or a piece of paper, or hair, for that matter)?–or was the point that the money could be kept, but only if he uses it?

4) How does the fact that the bill was still there prove that he never opened it?

5) A lot of people have a lot of s’forim which they use only from time to time. The fact that after a few months, the boy was still finishing shas and hadn’t yet the opportunity to peruse the Rav’s Seifer doesn’t mean anything. If the seifer had been opened, we would be hearing something about our dor where 13 year old boys are learning Brisker Ravs before they know anything else.

Yankel Miller says he likes instead of seforim to give an umbrella; he’s sure that one day it’ll rain and the boy will open it.

So thats why there arent many people who own a copy of the Gri’z in “stenslach”.

The moral of the story is that squeak is the protector of the innocent.

Shearim B’Tefilah

You are all excellent at seeing trees. Now here’s a secret. If you climb up and look over them you will be able to see there is a forest.

Wow. I used to like you, Squeak.

I like to give a R’ Chaim al ha’Rambam or a Meshech Chochma.

I never knew, so how am I now to properly feel the loss? I feel like a ger on his first tisha bav.

Let’s start over. Tell me how to make you like me again, and then I can repost my forest/trees comment so that you can stop liking me and make it count.

And what do the babies usually tell you they’d like to get?

The babies need to grow up and have a baby before they get asked.