Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

And they are.

Three fasts before the bar mitzvah is a myth.

There is no chinuch anaveilus.

So there is no din that you're supposed to fast three fasts before the bar mitzvah.

and that is something that seems to be a prevalent custom that people have, or an understanding that people are supposed to do that.

No such thing.

There is a din in Shulchan Aruch that if a person is healthy, if a child is healthy, he's supposed to fast two Yom Kippurs before the bar or girl before the Bas Mitzvah.

Two Yom Kippurs, so that sometimes the child is quite young.

It could be that it was just their 11th birthday, and...

and they have to fast Yom Kippur already, but none of the minor fasts at all, not tishbav, nothing for a katan.

The other two, by the way, are that if you take the other two threes that are part of the three misconceptions that Rav Shlomo Zalman Orbach used to say, is that if you take Torah to a base Avel, you take a Sefer Torah to a base Avel, you need to lean from it three times.

That's not true.

You just need to bring an Aron Kodesh with it so that it's not just out there.

So that's why most Chavar Kadishos have an Oron Kodesh that they'll give you, or now Misaskim will give you an Oron Kodesh together with the Sefer Torah.

And the third thing that people, that's a misconception, is that after the bathroom they have to wash three times.

There's no such thing after the bathroom.

You just have to wash until you're clean.

So all three of those things are misconceptions about the number three.

So what should a child do when it comes to Yom Norayim, let's say?

So Rav Shechter often points out that they should listen to the easy things.