Pronunciations
Definitions
n. The ceremonial first haircut of a 3-year-old.
Example Sentences
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"We are going up the hill to celebrate Itzik's upsherin."
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"Can someone please give me the words to the poems that people use on the classic upshernish invitations" (source)
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"Sandwiched between the simchah of a boy's bris and the simchah of his bar mitzvah is yet another simchah: that of his upsherin." (source)
Languages of Origin
- Yiddish
Etymology
אָפּשערן ópshern 'give a haircut', אָפּשערעניש ópsherenish 'a haircut'
- Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
- North America
- Great Britain
- South Africa
- Australia / New Zealand
- View More
- The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
Who Uses This
Regions
Dictionaries
Alternative Spellings
opsherin, upsherinish, upshernish, upsherenish, opshern, upfsherin, upfshernish
Notes
Originally a Hasidic custom (based on Middle Eastern traditions) that has become popular with non-Hasidic, religious Jews. It incorporates the halachic principle that a child begins religious education at 3 years old and the prohibition against eating fruit from the first three years of a tree's life, applied to humans in Hasidic thought.
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