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Please see <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12271408/Lag_Baomer_Upsherins_and_the_sources_of_customs?email_work_card=view-paper" id="LPlnk782213">
https://www.academia.edu/12271408/Lag_Baomer_Upsherins_and_the_sources_of_customs?email_work_card=view-paper</a> to download this article.</div>
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>From the article</div>
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Another minhag that takes place at the
<div>kever of Rashbi on Lag Ba’Omer is the upsherin.</div>
<div>Rabbi Binyamin Shlomo Hamberger</div>
<div>(Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz 3:251-67) writes</div>
that there are several reasons to doubt that</div>
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it is an old minhag, as there is no mention
<div>of this custom in any of the Rishonim. Furthermore,</div>
<div>he shows that in the times of the</div>
<div>Rishonim they cut a child’s hair long before</div>
<div>the child was three years old.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>An early source given for the upsherin</div>
<div>custom is the Arizal, in the passage quoted,</div>
<div>where it is claimed that the reason the</div>
<div>Arizal traveled to Rashbi’s kever on Lag</div>
<div>Ba’Omer was to give his son an upsherin.</div>
<div>However, Rabbi Hamberger and others</div>
<div>point out this attribution is problematic as</div>
<div>it is documented that the Arizal did not</div>
<div>cut hair during the entire Sefirah—including</div>
<div>Lag Ba’Omer. The second researcher</div>
<div>says that this question could be resolved</div>
<div>by saying that what the Ari did to his son,</div>
<div>and what he himself did were two different</div>
<div>things. Another possible solution</div>
<div>could be that this story took place prior</div>
<div>involved in Kabbalah.</div>
<div><br>
<div>An early source for upsherin can be</div>
<div>found in the Radvaz (2:608), but the upsherin</div>
<div>was done at the kever of Shmuel</div>
<div>Hanavi not at Rashbi’s kever. This would</div>
<div>support the theory of the first researcher</div>
<div>mentioned earlier that the minhagim of</div>
<div>Lag Ba’Omer stemmed from the celebrations</div>
at the kever of Shmuel Hanavi.<br>
</div>
to the time that the Arizal began to be involved<br>
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