[Avodah] Upsherin (was The Strange History of Lag B'Omer)

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Thu, 14 May 2009 15:36:59 -0400
"Prof. Levine" <llevine at stevens.edu> wrote:

> At 12:39 PM 5/14/2009, Shoshana L. Boublil wrote:
> 
> >I heard a lecture on this topic 15 years ago, given by Rav Gruzman 
> >at the Midrasha LeBanot at BIU.
> >
> >He discussed the custom mentioned in TNCH where Shmuel's mother 
> >brought him to Eli when he was a child.
> >
> >Rav Gruzman stated that this was the source of an ancient minhag 

How ancient is this custom?  What's the earliest evidence for it?

> >(that most don't know about) to take a 3 yr old child to kever 
> >Shmu'el HaNavi and there a ceremony of starting school (with honey 
> >etc.) took place.

The standard view is that Shmuel was two upon being brought to the
Temple, not three; see Ta'anis 5b "u'mi siv Shmuel kuli hai ..." and
Rashi s.v. yamav shel Shmuel nun-beis shanah.

> >It also apparently included upsherin.

Upsherin in particular is apparently not all that ancient; from Brodt's
article:

"The source for the Upsherin custom is highly problematic. R. Benyamin
Shlomo Hamberger, Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz 3:251-267, attacks it for
the following reasons: there is no mention of this custom in any of the
rishonim. Now do not say they did not bother to write it down as we
have very detailed discussions from the rishonim about this time period
in a Jewish boy’s life how to take him to cheder etc. (discussed by R.
Hamburger at great length in volume two of his Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz
2:502-532) but there is no mention of the Upsherin custom.[4]
Furthermore, he shows from many places in the times of the rishonim
they cut their hair long before three years old. Another big question
dealt with by Yaari and later on in more detail by Hamberger is the
attributing the custom of Upsherin on Lag Ba-Omer to the Arizal. This
attribution is problematic as it is documented that the Arizal did not
cut hair the entire sefirah – including Lag Ba-Omer. This particular
issue M. Benayahu does not find to be such a problem as it could be
what he did to his son and what he himself did were two different
things. Another issue R. Hamberger raises is even if there is such a
minhag what does it have to do with Rashbi and where do we find such a
thing to give a haircut in a grave yard? Further more he brings sources
[amongst them a National Geographic Magazine!] which claim that it come
from outside – Arabic influences. R. Hamburger does defend it a little
that it still makes sense to keep if it comes from outside sources.
However after seeing all this documentation of R Hamburger notes that
it makes sense why we can not find sources in litvishe or Hungarian
sources – as there are no early sources in rishonim!

Professor Sperber [Minhagei Yisrael 8: 13-30] takes Hamberger's
discussion much further documenting how this comes from many completely
outside ancient sources. R. Yechiel Goldhaber (author of the Minhagei
ha-Kehillos) told me that he just saw a manuscript of a letter of R.
Akiva Yosef Schlesinger who writes very sharply that this whole custom
is taken form outside sources."

http://seforim.traditiononline.org/index.cfm/2008/5/22/Lag-BaOmer-and-Upsherins-in-Recent-Jewish-literature-Revisionist-History-and-Borrowing-and-Plagiarism

or

www.kitzur.com/5w4l3

Yitzhak
--
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