Upsherin

What it is

An upsherin is the first time a Jewish boy's hair is cut. Most families hold it when he is three, though some Hasidic groups do it at two and some Sephardic families, especially in Jerusalem, wait until five. The boy begins wearing a skullcap (yarmulke) and fringed garments (tzitzit), and he starts learning the Hebrew letters and prayers. Among Hasidic families the day is treated as his first step into the classroom. The ceremony is kept by a broad range of Jewish households, and it is most at home in Haredi and Hasidic circles.

Origins and history

The custom is fairly recent in Jewish life, though its pieces are older. The anthropologist Yoram Bilu, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, argues that it rests on little religious footing and that its spread is mostly social. Two habits of hair met in it: letting the ear-locks grow, and cutting the hair of the head. A ritual cut for boys, perhaps borrowed from the practice of shaving a Muslim child's head at a saint's shrine, was known in medieval times among the Musta'arbim, the Jewish communities native to the land. In the 1500s the kabbalist Isaac Luria gave the ear-locks a mystical weight and helped fix the ceremony's current shape. It stayed largely Sephardic for a time, then took hold among East European Hasidim over roughly two centuries and later spread to Jewish communities abroad.

How it is kept

The cutting itself is often shared out. Guests take turns snipping a lock, and the boy drops a coin into a charity box for each one. Sometimes the cut hair is weighed, and a gift to charity matches its weight. Long hair may be handed to an organisation that turns donated hair into wigs for people who lose theirs to cancer treatment. A Hasidic family links the day to the start of study: the Hebrew letters are coated in honey and the child licks them off, so that learning tastes sweet. A Hebrew song drawn from Deuteronomy 33:4 may be sung, and at Lag BaOmer gatherings parents give out wine and sweets.

Lag BaOmer and Meron

Hair is not cut while the Omer is counted, from Passover until Lag BaOmer, but the rule lifts on the day itself. A boy whose third birthday falls inside that stretch therefore waits for the festival. By the 1700s and 1800s travellers described crowds at Meron in Israel on Lag BaOmer, where bonfires burned and children's hair was cut. First haircuts there come with wine and sweets handed out by the parents. Families in Jerusalem who cannot make the journey gather instead at the burial place of Simeon the Just. A Bostoner Rebbe, Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, revived an older practice in 1983: a bonfire and haircuts at Tiberias, close to where Rabbi Akiva is buried.

What it means

Jewish teaching often compares a person's life to a tree. Leviticus 19:23 says the fruit of a newly planted tree is set aside for three years, and some families read the same three years into a boy's hair: no cut until he turns three. The hope is that he will grow in knowledge and good deeds, and one day have a family of his own. Some communities call a boy who has not yet had the cut an orlah, the word for a tree whose fruit may not be picked. Chabad Hasidim put it another way: for three years a child takes in what surrounds him, not yet ready to give, and at three his education begins and he can start to offer something of his own.

How Upsherin is kept

A family decides on the day, often a boy's third birthday, and invites relatives and friends. Someone cuts the first lock. Then each guest takes a turn with the scissors, and with every snip the boy puts a small coin into a charity box. In some families the hair is weighed and matched with a donation, or given away to be made into wigs. Hasidic parents turn the occasion into a first lesson: the Hebrew letters coated in honey for the child to lick, a song from Deuteronomy. At Meron or Jerusalem on Lag BaOmer the same act happens in a crowd, with wine and sweets passed around.

When and where

The usual age is three. Some Hasidic groups, Gur among them, hold it at two, following a reading of Genesis 21:8 in which Abraham marks Isaac's weaning. In some Sephardic circles, especially Jerusalem, the age is five. Many families wait for Lag BaOmer, the day in the Omer count when haircuts are allowed again, so a boy whose birthday falls earlier in the season celebrates then.

The rite belongs to Jewish communities everywhere, and its strongest settings are in Israel and in the old centres of Jewish life in Europe and the Middle East where Hasidic and Sephardic families settled. Meron's Lag BaOmer gathering became a mass affair. Jerusalem has its own meeting place for those who stay behind, and Tiberias has hosted a revived celebration since 1983.

What Upsherin means

For those who keep it, the first haircut says something about growth. A child is likened to a young tree: for three years nothing is taken from him, and then he begins to bear fruit in learning and kindness. The ear-locks left uncut carry their own meaning, a mark of devotion that Isaac Luria taught his followers to value. The honey on the letters is meant to leave the taste of study sweet. And the day itself is a threshold: the boy stops being only a receiver and starts to belong to the community of learners.

Days Upsherin is marked

Questions people ask about Upsherin

See also

Bar and bat mitzvahA Jewish rite of passage marking when youth reach adulthood and take responsibility for their own actions.TallitA four-cornered Jewish prayer shawl with ritual fringes worn during worshipHoraA circle dance from Southeast Europe, danced at weddings and festivalsProfession of FaithA public declaration of religious belief across Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions

Good reading and sources

• Upsherin on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-10.