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magidI went to my college friends' fourth kid's upsherin, a first-haircut birthday party on his third birthday. I didn't expect much of this, since I think of an upsherin as a rather chassidic custom, not filled with meaning for me. But it was really nice.
I happened to meet up with others going to the same place when I got off the commuter rail (sat on the upper deck, which was fun (I must have a really interesting life if that's fun... there, now I've said it first! :-). So I got a ride to the house.
Lots of people were already there, and more kept arriving. Lots of little kids all over the place. Many grownups I recognized, even. There was a double-sided page with intro/explanation stuff that expressed things much better than I could've, even with the couple of typos and subject/verb agreement issues.
Eventually people gathered in the chosen room, and the birthday boy, Noam, sat on a chair in the middle. He has hair that goes in amazing curls... He was very excited. After his mom gave an intro, he got up and said the bracha (blessin) over wearing tzitzit (those strings put on 4-cornered garments) for the first time, then put on his new talit katan (a 4-cornered garment worn by many men under the shirt, over the undershirt (it's not just the frum women wearing lots of clothes in the summer...). It's decorated with his name, and silhouetted dancing Jewish men, etc. He was pleased as punch. There was an intro to the custom of cutting a boy's hair for the first time at age 3, then R. Schafer separated the peyot (the hair at the temples that is not cut short) so they wouldn't be cut. Next, family members, then other adults, gave Noam a blessing, cut a bit of his hair, gave tzedaka (charity) to one (or more) of the 3 tzedaka boxes there. Listening to the blessings was amazing. I also loved to see how R. Schafer leaned forward so as not to miss a word of how his wife was blessing Noam. (R. Schafer is a very wonderful person, one who sees goodness in everyone, and acts accordingly. If I were asked to name someone I know who is holy, it would be him.)
Upstairs for food (much food. abundant food. mountains of food.), then the oldest son gave a d'var torah, as a siyyum (party celebrating the conclusion of some major piece of learning) on Mishnah Yoma (on the laws of Yom Kippur), which he just finished learning with R. Schafer. It was beautiful, discussing the mishnah he'd chosen, and also how what is said at a siyyum mentions the joy of coming back to learn something again. He linked this to how he was going to start learning Chumash (Torah, Bible) with Noam, starting with Noah (which he then did).
And it was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in a long while, too. (I admit, nice to hear I'd been missed...). Funny how people who hadn't seen my hand before thought it looked awful....
I was also lucky enough to get a ride home afterward with one of my friend's cousins. I know I must be old, because I found myself thinking how fast his kids had grown...
Somehow, the whole evening had a sweetness to it that was love(ly) (what I'd written first, later chopped by the LJ gremlins. I'm not sure either way is wrong....)
I happened to meet up with others going to the same place when I got off the commuter rail (sat on the upper deck, which was fun (I must have a really interesting life if that's fun... there, now I've said it first! :-). So I got a ride to the house.
Lots of people were already there, and more kept arriving. Lots of little kids all over the place. Many grownups I recognized, even. There was a double-sided page with intro/explanation stuff that expressed things much better than I could've, even with the couple of typos and subject/verb agreement issues.
Eventually people gathered in the chosen room, and the birthday boy, Noam, sat on a chair in the middle. He has hair that goes in amazing curls... He was very excited. After his mom gave an intro, he got up and said the bracha (blessin) over wearing tzitzit (those strings put on 4-cornered garments) for the first time, then put on his new talit katan (a 4-cornered garment worn by many men under the shirt, over the undershirt (it's not just the frum women wearing lots of clothes in the summer...). It's decorated with his name, and silhouetted dancing Jewish men, etc. He was pleased as punch. There was an intro to the custom of cutting a boy's hair for the first time at age 3, then R. Schafer separated the peyot (the hair at the temples that is not cut short) so they wouldn't be cut. Next, family members, then other adults, gave Noam a blessing, cut a bit of his hair, gave tzedaka (charity) to one (or more) of the 3 tzedaka boxes there. Listening to the blessings was amazing. I also loved to see how R. Schafer leaned forward so as not to miss a word of how his wife was blessing Noam. (R. Schafer is a very wonderful person, one who sees goodness in everyone, and acts accordingly. If I were asked to name someone I know who is holy, it would be him.)
Upstairs for food (much food. abundant food. mountains of food.), then the oldest son gave a d'var torah, as a siyyum (party celebrating the conclusion of some major piece of learning) on Mishnah Yoma (on the laws of Yom Kippur), which he just finished learning with R. Schafer. It was beautiful, discussing the mishnah he'd chosen, and also how what is said at a siyyum mentions the joy of coming back to learn something again. He linked this to how he was going to start learning Chumash (Torah, Bible) with Noam, starting with Noah (which he then did).
And it was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in a long while, too. (I admit, nice to hear I'd been missed...). Funny how people who hadn't seen my hand before thought it looked awful....
I was also lucky enough to get a ride home afterward with one of my friend's cousins. I know I must be old, because I found myself thinking how fast his kids had grown...
Somehow, the whole evening had a sweetness to it that was love(ly) (what I'd written first, later chopped by the LJ gremlins. I'm not sure either way is wrong....)