[Avodah] More on Upsherin - Cutting a Boy's Hair

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 09:17:24AM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> The following is from  Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz, Minhag Ashkenaz:  
> Sources and Roots by Rabbi Binyamin Shlomo Hamburger, Synopsis of Volumes 
> I-IV.

> The German custom to bring a young boy to the synagogue with a wirnpel
> (wrapping for the Torah scroll) has no connection whatsoever to the
> practice of the chalaka (the Arabic term for Upsherin) observed by
> Sepharadirn and later adopted by many Chasidirn...

I would have interepreted the data this way:

There was an old inyan to celebrate the transition from babyhood to
childhood, the boy being ba liydei chinukh in his first mitzvos.

In Germany, this evolved into a minhag involving a wimpel.

In the Middle East (and from there to Mequbalei Tzefat to Chassidim)
it got conflated with the chaluqa. Particularly since they were able to
find Jewish meanings in having a first haircut at 3 -- which is where
Mequbalei Tzefat play a significant role.

We have a number of minhagim that we found meaning to that probably were
at one time assimilations from the surrounding religion:

Carnivale and its costumes is usually around Purim time.

Whitsun (White Sun[day]) was a pagan holiday celebrating the return
of grass to the fields, and thus the resurgance of milk production in
the spring. Xianity built on top of it a holiday marking 7 weeks from
Easter. In Medieval Germany, Whitsun was marked with bringing grass into
the home and eating dairy products.

Yes, I know the reasons generally given for the resulting minhagim. I
would suggest that's what made them into minhagim. That, and the general
forgetting of the historical origins.

And if that mechanism is okay for Purim costumes and milchig on Shavuos,
why not for Upsherin too? Just because it's not /my/ minhag??? Or is
it more about a fear that Minhagei America and EY are emerging, and
our own community's minhag appears to be losing this particular battle
for permanence?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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Micha Berger             A cheerful disposition is an inestimable treasure.
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