[Avodah] Lag Ba'omer Upsherins and the sources of customs

[Prof. L. Levine]

Please see https://www.academia.edu/12271408/Lag_Baomer_Upsherins_and_the_sources_of_customs?email_work_card=view-paper to download this article.

>From the article

Another minhag that takes place at the
kever of Rashbi on Lag Ba’Omer is the upsherin.
Rabbi Binyamin Shlomo Hamberger
(Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz 3:251-67) writes
that there are several reasons to doubt that
it is an old minhag, as there is no mention
of this custom in any of the Rishonim. Furthermore,
he shows that in the times of the
Rishonim they cut a child’s hair long before
the child was three years old.

An early source given for the upsherin
custom is the Arizal, in the passage quoted,
where it is claimed that the reason the
Arizal traveled to Rashbi’s kever on Lag
Ba’Omer was to give his son an upsherin.
However, Rabbi Hamberger and others
point out this attribution is problematic as
it is documented that the Arizal did not
cut hair during the entire Sefirah—including
Lag Ba’Omer. The second researcher
says that this question could be resolved
by saying that what the Ari did to his son,
and what he himself did were two different
things. Another possible solution
could be that this story took place prior
involved in Kabbalah.

An early source for upsherin can be
found in the Radvaz (2:608), but the upsherin
was done at the kever of Shmuel
Hanavi not at Rashbi’s kever. This would
support the theory of the first researcher
mentioned earlier that the minhagim of
Lag Ba’Omer stemmed from the celebrations
at the kever of Shmuel Hanavi.
to the time that the Arizal began to be involved
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