[Avodah] Upsheren

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jan 06, 2011 at 06:32:13PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 6/01/2011 4:21 PM, Meir Shinnar wrote:
>> Do you have a source?    My understanding is that upsheren was first
>>  introduced when the talmide habesht made aliya

> http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39166&pgnum=227
> http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39166&pgnum=228
>
> Hebrew translation at:
> http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39167&pgnum=146

It's in R' Chaim Vital's Sha'ar haKavanos that the Ari took
his son to meiron on Lag baOmer for his first haircut, and
that it was a "well known custom" already before then.

OTOH, the Steipler Gaon and the Brisker Rav were venemently opposed. In
Orechos Rabbeinu vol 1 p 233 (R' Avraham Horowitz, a talmid) describes
the Steipler as getting angry when someone approached him to cut their
son's hair, and would chase them away.

R' Binyamin Shelomo Hamburger (Shoreshei Mnhag Ashkenaz II pp 251-267
notes it is not found among rishoni, and many mentions of baby boys
getting their hair cut.

We usually do this topic closer to Lag baOmer. Check out the "U"
page in the archive index. That's where I'm getting this stuff from.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
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