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According to this question, the Annotated Tehillat Hashem Siddur (a Chabad siddur) encourages the Bar mitzvah boy to get his first aliya on Monday, Thursday, or Shabbat Mincha or Rosh Chodesh. This seems to be pointing to Torah reading occaisions other than Shabbat morning.

So why not Shabbat morning? I suspect the answer is a Chabad custom. What is the source of this custom?

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  • I would have asked my question there, but I knew I would get "The ask button is right there" as an answer.
    – Ze'ev
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 2:43
  • I've seen Chabad do bar mitzvahs Shabbat morning, but admittedly those were for non-Chabad kids.
    – Scimonster
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 13:18
  • I've seen it done on Shabbat morning for Lubavitchers.
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:14

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The reason for the custom is that according to those who understand these matters, Monday and Thursday are Yemei Rotzon, days of added Divine "favor", and Shabbos afternoon is also known in Kabbala as a time of Raava d'Raavin, a time of extreme Divine favor. So it is seen as especially auspicious to have one's first aliya during that more Jewishly "auspicious" time of the week.

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  1. One should endeavor to arrange that a bar-mitzvah should be called to the Reading of the Torah for his first aliyah on a Monday or Thursday morning, or at Minchah on Shabbos.

-Taken From Sefer HaMinhagim English translation p. 173

(footnote:A directive of the Alter Rebbe; see Likkutei Dibburim, Vol. II, p. 533 [and in English translation: Vol. II, ch. 14, sec. 57], at length.)

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