NEWS FEATURE: Haircutting Ceremony Signals Beginning of Religious Education

c. 2000 Religion News Service LIVINGSTON, N.J. _ There were cakes and balloons, a traditional red wagon and a truck, candy and more presents, even Koko the Clown. But this was much more than the usual birthday celebration for a 3-year-old boy. Mendel Grossbaum, an Orthodox Jew, was to receive his first haircut in a […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

LIVINGSTON, N.J. _ There were cakes and balloons, a traditional red wagon and a truck, candy and more presents, even Koko the Clown. But this was much more than the usual birthday celebration for a 3-year-old boy.

Mendel Grossbaum, an Orthodox Jew, was to receive his first haircut in a ceremony called opsherenish, which also celebrates the beginning of his formal religious education.


Mendel, whose family are members of the Lubavitcher community, spent most of the evening in the arms of his father, Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, at their home.

In a note prepared for guests at the party, Rabbi Grossbaum wrote, “The Torah states, `Behold man is like a tree of the field’ (Deuteronomy 20:19). Man is compared to a tree, as he and the tree both grow from a small seed, reach maturity, bear fruit and extend branches. In light of this, many Jewish communities have the custom of symbolically applying the laws of a tree to man.”

Just as a farmer does not take fruit from the tree during its first three years, Orthodox Jews do not cut a boy’s hair until he is 3 years old. The opsherenish brings together family and friends for this ceremony.

As friends and family took turns cutting his hair, Mendel sat on a high stool in front of the fireplace beneath a portrait of Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. He climbed into his father’s arms as some snips were made and later Grossbaum carried him around the living room. Guests took turns making snips periodically throughout the evening, and most of the time Mendel thought this was fine.

He did get a bit cranky about halfway through the evening, but then cheered up again. It was clear his mother and father had spent much time preparing him for this party.

As they cut his locks, many of the guests said “Mazel tov” _ or told him what a good and big boy he is.

Meanwhile, the clown entertained the children while the adults milled around the living room, dining room and kitchen. There was a cake in the shape of a yarmulke and another decorated to look like a prayer shawl.


Grossbaum’s brother, Moshe, a rabbinical student in New York, made the first snip. The hair on the forehead is cut first at the place where the tefillin, phylacteries (leather boxes containing scripture), rest. A boy receives those at his bar mitzvah.

Each adult at the party was asked to make a small cut, being careful, however, to leave hair in front of his ears, what Grossbaum called “the biblically prescribed peyot, side-locks.”

To distract him and also underline another religious teaching, each adult gave Mendel a coin or bill that he put into a charity box.

From this time, Mendel, who has sometimes worn a yarmulke, now will wear the head covering all the time. “This is to remind us there is a Supreme Being hovering over us,” Grossbaum said.

Mendel also received his first tallit, a four-cornered shawl with fringes. He will wear this every day for morning prayers, and the miniature version called tzitzis, which he will wear around his waist all the time with the fringe showing.

To underline the importance of education, honey is rubbed onto letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The child is asked to say the blessing for food and then lick the honey. Mendel didn’t think it was a great idea, and Grossbaum didn’t push him.


Guests at the party, too, literally showered him with candies. The rabbi said these are like “sweets thrown from heaven to make his life nice and sweet.”

Grossbaum said the candy and the honey are intended to teach the child that education is “meaningful, everlasting and sweet with love. We jump-start it (his education) in a dramatic way. We do this so the Torah is sweet to the child.”

Some families also have a ceremony for girls at age 3, Grossbaum said. “The first Shabbat after her third birthday, she stands proudly next to her mother and older sisters and lights her very own Shabbat candle.”

The Grossbaums, who also have an 18-month-old daughter Chaya, will have this ceremony for her, he said.

DEA END TURNER

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