First Haircut

It is traditional to let a child’s hair grow until his or her third birthday. According to some this is based on the prohibition against picking the fruit of a tree until it is three years old. For other chasidim, the cutting of a boy’s hair on his third birthday is really a creating of peot, or sidelocks (the hair is cut away to reveal the peot.). Similarly, the third birthday is significant from the point of view of tradition—a boy is obliged to the mitzvotLit. Commandment. It is traditionally held that there are 613 mitzvot (plural) in Judaism, both postive commandments (mandating actions) and negative commandments (prohibiting actions). Mitzvah has also become colloquially assumed to mean the idea of a “good deed." of peot and tzittzit (ritual fringes) and is seen as having arrived at the age of reason. His wildness (represented by his uncut hair) must now be channeled and tamed.

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica “hair is regarded as life index which possesses an independent soul and is the seat of the vital spirit (cf. The Samson story). The belief in the magic power of hair as the seat of man’s ‘life force’ may have given rise to the taboos on cutting hair during the first year (or three years) of an infant’s life.”

Many hasidim bring their three-year-old sons to Mt. Meron on Lag B’OmerA spring festival. According to tradition, the plague which killed many of Rabbi Akiba's students lifted on the 33rd day of the Omer. Thus, while the Omer is observed as a period of mourning, mourning is lifted on Lag B'Omer. It is a popular day to get married (the only one during the Omer, according to Ashkenazic practice: from that day forward, according to Sephardic and modern liberal practice). The holiday is traditionally celebrated with bonfires, and three-year-old boys receive their first haircut. Today, some three-year-old girls will also have their hair cut amidst celebration on Lag B'Omer. (the 33rd day of the OmerFrom the second day of Passover until Shavuot, Jews count seven weeks – seven times seven days – to commemorate the period between the Exodus from Egypt and the Revelation at Sinai. When the Temple stood, a certain measure (omer) of barley was offered on the altar each day; today, we merely count out the days.) for their first haircuts. There, outside the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the locks are clipped and blessings recited. This has become an important pilgrimage for hasidim and the halaka (haircutting), a communal celebration and significant rite of passage.

This custom has enjoyed something of a surprising renaissance among more modern Jews as well, who celebrate the chalaka for both their sons and daughters. In his book, Jewish Family and Life, Yosef Abramowitz describes his eldest daughter’s first haircut on Lag B’Omer following her third birthday: