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<p>In Avodah Digest V26#88, RSP wrote:<br>
> There is a German custom of Chol Kreiss, i.e. verses of the Torah read by<br>
youth by a male child before giving a secular (chol) name. When was this<br>
practice started and by whom? It can be found in the Seligman Baer Siddur,<br>
after the Torah readings on p 494 (Seder Avodat Yisrael, Tel Aviv 5717<br>
[1957] edition).<br>
> The term has a combination of Hebrew (chol) and German? (Kreiss). I doubt<br>
it's an original Jewish minhag or perhaps it is to give sanctity (?) to a<br>
non Jewish name. <<br>
and R'Micha responded (in the next digest):<br>
> I was thinking the reverse -- it's to remind the child (and his parents)<br>
that he's a Jew, despite being about to get a German name. <<br>
"Sharshei Minhag Ashk'naz" Vol I, pp. 415-455. It's a minhag, RSP, which dates to the Rishonim, and its name might better be transliterated "hollekreisch," that is, to _call out_ the sheim-_chol_ of the child, but that "calling" was but a small part of the event, at least for boys, as can be seen from the seider p'suqim which was read and from the seider b'rachos ("yilmod zeh mah shekasuv bazeh...") revolving around the chumash which was placed on the tinoq. (The "hollekreisch" for girls seems to have been more like what I see nowadays in shul: "v'niqra shmah b'Yisrael" as part of a "Mi sheBeirach.")<br>
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All the best from<br>
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager</body></html>