What Is an Upsherin?
It is a time-hallowed Jewish tradition to allow a boy’s hair to grow untouched for the first years of life.1 On his third Jewish birthday, friends and community members are invited to a festive haircutting ceremony: the Upsherin(“shearing”) in Yiddish, or chalakah in Hebrew. The peyot (side locks) are not cut to the skin, thereby fulfilling the biblical commandment that Jewish males should not “round the corners of their heads.”2 Some communities, particularly Sephardic ones, delay the Upsherin to, varyingly, ages four, five, six, and even seven.