An Upsherenish is a Yiddish word for the ceremony that celebrates a 3-year old boy’s first hair cut and the beginning of his Jewish education. This custom is celebrated mainly among Chassidim, but it is such a beautiful way to initiate a child into the joys of learning that Jews from all walks of life engage in this ritual. In Israel, I notice that many of the families who celebrate the Upsherenish of their son are not Chassidic, but love the ritual.
The basis for waiting three years before cutting a boy’s hair is the Torah’s many comparisons of human beings, particularly righteous men, to trees, as expressed in the verse from Psalms “Man is a tree of the field.” When the Holy Temple still stood in Jerusalem, the first fruits were brought from trees that were more than three years old, since Torah law forbids eating fruit from trees that are “younger” than three years. Today, in the Land of Israel, fruit from very young trees is not kosher, and a rabbi must check the age of the tree where the fruit originated before giving it his seal of approval (any fruit from outside of Israel may be eaten). Since a human is compared to a tree, we wait three years before cutting a boy’s hair, to symbolize the fact that he can now bear “fruit” with his learning and good deeds.
My son, Schneur Zalman, had his Upsherenish earlier this week on the 18th of Elul, his third birthday (we named him Schneur Zalman because he was born on the same day as Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad movement. The Baal Shem Tov was also born on that day.) It is traditional for Jews in Israel to go the tomb of the genius of the Kabbala and the author of the Zohar, the Rashbi, in Meron. Since, Thank Gd, I also have a newborn infant, the trip up north would have been too difficult, so we held the first part of the celebration at the tomb of Samuel the prophet just outside of Jerusalem. We brought cakes and refreshments and my husband drank L’chaims (toasts) with people there. Everyone cut off a bit of my son’s hair (he didn’t know what was going on! But he giggled.)
The next day, we brought him to his preschool, wrapped in a tallis (a prayer shawl). He led the other children in reciting the Hebrew alphabet along with Torah verses, and licked honey off of some of the letters; this is an important part of the custom to express the fact that learning is sweet. They sang songs and lifted him up on a chair (with the help of the grownups there, of course). He began to wear tzitzit on that day, which is a garment with fringes on its four corners. After his haircut, all of those curly ringlets were gone except for one on each side of his head to form peyos (sidelocks. Although not all Chassidim wear them long).
It was a sweet ceremony, Thank Gd, and a wonderful way to begin a child’s education. Now we have ten years to prepare for the Bar mitzvah! Iy’h