Pragmatist
Pragmatist

I went to an upsherin this afternoon.  Now stay with me.  I'm going to explain.

Upsherin is what happens when a boy turns 3 years old.  His parents invite a lot of people and put a lot of food out for the invitees.  The little boy is parked on a chair, and sits patiently (sometimes) while people cut off some of his hair.  This is the boy's first haircut.  I don't know about the other branches of Judaism, but in orthodoxy, a boy doesn't get a haircut until his third birthday.

The reason for three is this:  Jewish law says that we're not to harvest from a tree until the third year.  A child is likened to a tree.  Therefore, his hair is not harvested until his third birthday.

Girls start lighting Shabbat candles when they turn three.

The child's Torah education starts now.  I don't know about this little boy.  He seems awfully babyish, so we'll wait and see.  He's the son of the cantor in our shul, so maybe Abba (Papa) knows how to teach a very young three-year-old.

This is a family thing, so there were scads of children.  They had balloons and whistles.  One little girl was blowing her whistle almost constantly.  The noise level was pretty high with the addition of the several conversations to the children's noise going on all around in a fairly large room.  My ears were still ringing when I got home.

Even so, I was happy to be included in this celebration.

Shalom