Birthday bash includes haircut
April 3, 2006 12:00 AM
Levik Loschak got a quite a birthday bash: A table full of presents, cake, Kosher Chinese food, games — and a group hair cut. The 3-year-old could have passed for a girl before his celebration Sunday in keeping with a little-known Jewish tradition called Upshernish, a party at which guests are invited to cut the hair of the birthday boy. It's a rite of passage that signifies the beginning of Jewish education, when children start learning the Torah and are expected to obey Jewish law, or mitzvot. "They're at an age where they are processing things on their own," said Rochel Loschak, Levik's mother. "This is really the start of their schooling." Mrs. Loschak and her husband, Mendel, started UCSB's Chabad, a Hassidic Jewish organization, around the same time their son was born. His party Sunday at Corwin Pavilion on the university campus was fittingly attended by dozens of students and family members, some of whom flew in from out of state for the occasion. No one is quite sure how the tradition started, but the hair symbolizes the leaves on a growing tree that is just beginning to bear fruit, family members said. For Levik, it was clearly his big moment. But first, he had to pass a quick test, reciting letters of the Hebrew alphabet that he has already been working to learn. Then, one-by-one, guests filed to the front to cut a snippet of hair. The tradition is important to signify to the community, and to Levik, "who he is and what his purpose is here," said Rabbi Yosef Loschak, Sr., Levik's grandfather and a rabbi at Chabad in S. Barbara. "Continuation of the faith is key." Girls get a similar ceremony, although scissors are not required. They light a candle, signifying that they will now be lighting a candle every Friday at sundown for Shabbat. Boys such as Levik will now wear yarmulka on their heads and tzitzit, a twisted and knotted rope that symbolizes the 613 laws spelled out in the Torah. His aunt, Ella Loschak, even baked cakes in the shape of the Torah, a yarmulka and the tzitzit garment that her nephew will now wear. "It is so important to teach young people the ways of the Torah," Rabbi Loschak said.