{"id":14470,"date":"2025-12-04T14:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=14470"},"modified":"2025-12-11T19:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:36:08","slug":"upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/","title":{"rendered":"Upsherin Part 2: The Significance of the Upsherin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why is the first haircut so significant in Jewish tradition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a Jewish man receives a haircut, he must be sure not to completely remove his <a href=\"https:\/\/ohr.edu\/ask_db\/ask_main.php\/5\/Q1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>pe\u2019ot <\/em>(side locks)<\/a>. The Torah forbids a Jewish man from cutting off his side locks. We learn this from the <em>Pasuk <\/em>(verse) in the Torah &#8220;<em>Lo takifu pe\u2019at roshchem&#8221;<\/em><sup>1<\/sup>, You shall not round off the edge of your head. Rashi explains this to mean that one may not remove the hair in the area of his sideburns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When a Jewish boy gets his first haircut (Upsherin or Chalakah) and refrains from removing his sideburns, he performs this mitzvah for the first time.<sup>2<\/sup> Thus, at his third birthday, the very first stage of his maturity, we introduce him to the observance of the mitzvot! &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another reason suggested for the significance of this haircut is that excessive hair is a symbol of bodily arrogance.<sup>3<\/sup> The commentators explain that excessive hair, not needed for the function of our physical body, represents the redundant growth of the body. This contradicts the Jewish ideology where our bodies are given to us in order to serve our real selves, our soul, in fulfilling our elevated mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A child\u2019s first haircut signifies his recognition of his true identity, a proud servant of God! &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-1-a-jewish-boys-first-haircut\/\">Read Upsherin Part 1: A Jewish Boy&#8217;s First Haircut<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-3-the-age-for-the-upsherin-haircut\/\">Upsherin Part 3: The Age for the Upsherin Haircut<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter tm-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">Learn more about the meaning of the upsherin with a weekly study partner. Join TorahMates today!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By Rabbi Mayer Smith<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Upsherin Part 2 Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><sup>1<\/sup> <a href=\"https:\/\/library.alhatorah.org\/?r1=Vayikra_19:27&amp;s1=1&amp;l1=he,en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vayikra 19:27<\/a><br><sup>2<\/sup> Shu\u201dt Arugat Habosem 210<br><sup>3<\/sup> Shu\u201dt Maharam Brisk 2:98 and Sefer Shefa Chaim Michtivei Torah 5:357<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is the first haircut so significant in Jewish tradition? When a Jewish man receives a haircut, he must be sure not to completely remove his pe\u2019ot (side locks). The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,8,701],"tags":[823],"class_list":["post-14470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","category-judaism-101","category-mitzvot","tag-upsherin"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Upsherin Part 2: The Significance of the Upsherin - Jewish Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn why three year old boy birthdays are celebrated with an Upsherin. Learn about sidelocks and why all Jewish men have them on their side.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Upsherin Part 2: The Significance of the Upsherin - Jewish Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn why three year old boy birthdays are celebrated with an Upsherin. Learn about sidelocks and why all Jewish men have them on their side.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/torahmates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-04T14:58:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-11T19:36:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/upsherin-boy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1060\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"805\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TorahMates\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@oorah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@oorah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TorahMates\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TorahMates\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/df1cd798c41777159e9fee85cb392ef9\"},\"headline\":\"Upsherin Part 2: The Significance of the Upsherin\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-04T14:58:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-11T19:36:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\"},\"wordCount\":284,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Upsherin\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Guides\",\"Judaism 101\",\"Mitzvot\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/upsherin-part-2-the-meaning-of-the-upsherin\/\",\"name\":\"Upsherin Part 2: The Significance of the Upsherin - Jewish Resources\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-04T14:58:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-11T19:36:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn why three year old boy birthdays are celebrated with an Upsherin. 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