Upsherin
Encyclopedia
Upsherin or Upsherinish (Yiddish: אפשערן, lit. "shear off") is a Jewish
haircutting ceremony
, kabbalistic
in origin, held when a Jewish boy
is three years old. It is also known as "chalaka", written חלאקה, from the Arabic word حلاقة.
, cut his son's hair on Lag BaOmer, according to the well-known custom." This is one of the earliest mentions of the custom. We know from travellers that by the 18th and 19th centuries. the hilula at Meron on Lag BaOmer with bonfires and the cutting of children's hair had by then become an affair of the masses. A well-known Talmud
scholar from Europe, Rav
Avrohom Rozanes, writes that in his visit to Palestine in 1867, he saw an Ashkenazi Jew giving his son a haircut at the hilula. R. Rozanes says that he could not restrain himself, and went to the Jew and tried to dissuade him, yet was unsuccessful; he also complained that most of the Ashkenazi and Sefardi Jews of Israel were participating in this "insanity," with "drinking and dancing and fires."
A Chasidish rebbe, R. Yehudah Leibush Horenstein, who emigrated to Palestine in the middle of the 19th century writes that "this haircut, called halaqe, is done by the Sefaradim in Yerushalayim at the qever
of RaShB'Y during the summer, but during the winter they take the boy to the synagogue
or Beit Midrash and perform the haircut with great celebration and parties, something unknown to the Jews in Europe."
Indeed, the custom was not adopted in Europe until much later, and knowing no Arabic and having no Hebrew or Yiddish name for the custom of the haircut, called it by an ordinary Yiddish word for cutting off the hair: upsheren.
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky
(the Steipler) and Rabbi
Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik
opposed the practice on various grounds, but it is popular among Hasidic Jews and has spread in recent years to other Jewish groups.
In the Hasidic community, the upsherin marks a male child's entry into the formal educational system and the commencement of Torah study. A yarmulke and tzitzis
will now be worn, and the child will be taught to pray and read the Hebrew alphabet
. So that Torah should be "sweet on the tongue," the Hebrew letters are covered with honey, and the children lick them as they read.
Sometimes the hair that is cut off in the upsherin ceremony is weighed, and charity is given in that amount. If the hair is long enough, it may be donated to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients. Other customs include having each of those attending the ceremony snip off a lock of hair, and encouraging the child to put a penny in a tzedakah
box for each lock, as it is cut. Sometimes the child sings a Hebrew song based on the Biblical verse: "Torah tzivah lanu Moshe, morashah kehilat Yaakov" ["Moses
commanded the Torah to us, an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob
" (Deut
33:4).
Among the Skverer
Hasidim, the upsherin is held at age two. This is because they want to get the boys used to wearing a yarmulke, so that when they get their tzitzis
at age three, they are already used to wearing a yarmulke.
, that three-year-old boys are given their first haircuts while their parents distribute wine and sweets. Similar upsherin celebrations are simultaneously held in Jerusalem at the grave of Shimon Hatzaddik
for Jerusalemites who cannot travel to Meron.
In 1983 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz
, the second Bostoner
Rebbe, reinstated a century-old tradition among Bostoner Hasidim to light a bonfire and conduct upsherins near the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias on Lag BaOmer night. The tradition had been abandoned due to murderous attacks on sojourners to that relatively isolated place.
19:23, one is not permitted to eat the fruit that grows on a tree for the first three years. Some Jews apply this principle to cutting a child's hair. Thus little boys are not given their first haircut until the age of three. To continue the analogy, it is hoped that the child, like a tree that grows tall and eventually produces fruit, will grow in knowledge and good deeds, and someday have a family of his own. Hasidic Rabbis have made this comparison, and in some communities a boy before his first haircut is referred to as orlah, as we refer to a tree in its early years.
(Adam's "first wife"), was cast out of the Garden of Eden
before Adam was mated with Chava (Eve
), and in an act of revenge, she vowed to forever haunt and even harm male children. By growing their hair long, young boys cannot be distinguished by Lilith
as males and are therefore left unharmed.
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
haircutting ceremony
First haircut
The first haircut for a human has special significance in certain cultures and religions. It can be considered a rite of passage or a milestone.-Chinese babies:A Chinese baby often receives its first haircut at the end of its first month....
, kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
in origin, held when a Jewish boy
Boy
A boy is a young male human , as contrasted to its female counterpart, girl, or an adult male, a man.The term "boy" is primarily used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions or both...
is three years old. It is also known as "chalaka", written חלאקה, from the Arabic word حلاقة.
Background
Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in Sha'ar Ha-Kavanot that "Isaac LuriaIsaac Luria
Isaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi acronym "The Ari" "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
, cut his son's hair on Lag BaOmer, according to the well-known custom." This is one of the earliest mentions of the custom. We know from travellers that by the 18th and 19th centuries. the hilula at Meron on Lag BaOmer with bonfires and the cutting of children's hair had by then become an affair of the masses. A well-known Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
scholar from Europe, Rav
Rav
Rav is the Hebrew word for rabbi. For a more nuanced discussion see semicha. The term is also frequently used by Orthodox Jews to refer to one's own rabbi....
Avrohom Rozanes, writes that in his visit to Palestine in 1867, he saw an Ashkenazi Jew giving his son a haircut at the hilula. R. Rozanes says that he could not restrain himself, and went to the Jew and tried to dissuade him, yet was unsuccessful; he also complained that most of the Ashkenazi and Sefardi Jews of Israel were participating in this "insanity," with "drinking and dancing and fires."
A Chasidish rebbe, R. Yehudah Leibush Horenstein, who emigrated to Palestine in the middle of the 19th century writes that "this haircut, called halaqe, is done by the Sefaradim in Yerushalayim at the qever
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
of RaShB'Y during the summer, but during the winter they take the boy to the synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
or Beit Midrash and perform the haircut with great celebration and parties, something unknown to the Jews in Europe."
Indeed, the custom was not adopted in Europe until much later, and knowing no Arabic and having no Hebrew or Yiddish name for the custom of the haircut, called it by an ordinary Yiddish word for cutting off the hair: upsheren.
Customs
Some Haredi rabbis, among them RabbiRabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as The Steipler or The Steipler Gaon , was a rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and posek .-Biography:...
(the Steipler) and Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik
Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik
Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik , also known as Velvel Soloveitchik or as the Brisker Rov Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik (Hebrew: יצחק זאב הלוי סולובייצ'יק), also known as Velvel Soloveitchik ("Zev" means "wolf" in Hebrew, and "Velvel" is the diminutive of "wolf" in Yiddish) or as the Brisker...
opposed the practice on various grounds, but it is popular among Hasidic Jews and has spread in recent years to other Jewish groups.
In the Hasidic community, the upsherin marks a male child's entry into the formal educational system and the commencement of Torah study. A yarmulke and tzitzis
Tzitzit
The Hebrew noun tzitzit is the name for specially knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews. Tzitzit are attached to the four corners of the tallit and tallit katan.-Etymology:The word may derive from the semitic root N-TZ-H...
will now be worn, and the child will be taught to pray and read the Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
. So that Torah should be "sweet on the tongue," the Hebrew letters are covered with honey, and the children lick them as they read.
Sometimes the hair that is cut off in the upsherin ceremony is weighed, and charity is given in that amount. If the hair is long enough, it may be donated to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients. Other customs include having each of those attending the ceremony snip off a lock of hair, and encouraging the child to put a penny in a tzedakah
Tzedakah
Tzedakah or Ṣ'daqah in Classical Hebrew is a Hebrew word commonly translated as charity, though it is based on the Hebrew word meaning righteousness, fairness or justice...
box for each lock, as it is cut. Sometimes the child sings a Hebrew song based on the Biblical verse: "Torah tzivah lanu Moshe, morashah kehilat Yaakov" ["Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
commanded the Torah to us, an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
" (Deut
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
33:4).
Among the Skverer
Skver (Hasidic dynasty)
Skver is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rebbe Yitzchok Twerski in the city of Skver . Followers of the rebbes of Skver are called Skverer hasidim....
Hasidim, the upsherin is held at age two. This is because they want to get the boys used to wearing a yarmulke, so that when they get their tzitzis
Tzitzit
The Hebrew noun tzitzit is the name for specially knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews. Tzitzit are attached to the four corners of the tallit and tallit katan.-Etymology:The word may derive from the semitic root N-TZ-H...
at age three, they are already used to wearing a yarmulke.
Lag BaOmer upsherins
It is customary at the Lag BaOmer celebrations by the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel, dating from the time of Rabbi Isaac LuriaIsaac Luria
Isaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi acronym "The Ari" "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
, that three-year-old boys are given their first haircuts while their parents distribute wine and sweets. Similar upsherin celebrations are simultaneously held in Jerusalem at the grave of Shimon Hatzaddik
Simeon the Just
Simeon the Just was a Jewish High Priest during the time of the Second Temple...
for Jerusalemites who cannot travel to Meron.
In 1983 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz
Levi Yitzchak Horowitz
Levi Yitzchak HeLevi Horowitz was a rabbi and the second Rebbe of the Boston Hasidic dynasty founded by his father, Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz...
, the second Bostoner
Boston (Hasidic dynasty)
Boston is a Hasidic sect, originally established in 1915 by Grand Rabbi Pinchas Duvid Horowitz. Following the custom of European Chassidic Courts, where the Rebbe was called after the name of his city, Bostoner Chassidus was named after Boston, Massachusetts...
Rebbe, reinstated a century-old tradition among Bostoner Hasidim to light a bonfire and conduct upsherins near the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias on Lag BaOmer night. The tradition had been abandoned due to murderous attacks on sojourners to that relatively isolated place.
Hasidic interpretation toward Biblical allusion
In the Bible, human life is sometimes compared to the growth of trees. According to LeviticusLeviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
19:23, one is not permitted to eat the fruit that grows on a tree for the first three years. Some Jews apply this principle to cutting a child's hair. Thus little boys are not given their first haircut until the age of three. To continue the analogy, it is hoped that the child, like a tree that grows tall and eventually produces fruit, will grow in knowledge and good deeds, and someday have a family of his own. Hasidic Rabbis have made this comparison, and in some communities a boy before his first haircut is referred to as orlah, as we refer to a tree in its early years.
Mystical interpretation
The mystical text Alphabet of Sirach suggests that LilithLilith
Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...
(Adam's "first wife"), was cast out of the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
before Adam was mated with Chava (Eve
Eve
Eve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...
), and in an act of revenge, she vowed to forever haunt and even harm male children. By growing their hair long, young boys cannot be distinguished by Lilith
Lilith
Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...
as males and are therefore left unharmed.