Upsherin
Continued from Page 7
honor reserved for a rabbi or a Kohen on
hand. Whether the hair is saved as some
sort of testimonial changes from family to
family, too.

Th ere’s also the question of when
exactly the ceremony should take place.

For some families, according to Cohen,
having the upsherin on the exact date of
the third birthday (on the Hebrew calen-
dar, of course) is an important factor; for
others, it just needs to be in the general
vicinity of the date itself.

If you’re a close reader of the Jewish
holiday calendar, you already know where
that leads. What if a boy’s third birthday
falls during the counting of the Omer,
when haircuts are forbidden?
Like any Jewish person, they have to
wait until Lag B’Omer to get their haircut.

For Jewish boys celebrating their upsherin
in Israel, however, families will endeavor
to perform the ceremony at the graveside
of a tzaddik, a holy person; in particular,
the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also
Elya Cohen, son of Rabbi Mendy Cohen and Temma Cohen, just before his upsherin
Photo by Sarah R. Bloom
8 MARCH 26, 2020
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