Shalom Zachar

What consolation can we offer the soul? What can we answer to its cry: Why did I have to come down here?!

The refreshments almost always include chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and beer. To understand why, we need to understand the main reasons behind the shalom zachar.

he knocking persisted. I took the baby out of his bath, wrapping him in a towel, and made my way to the front door. “Who is it?” I looked in the peephole and saw an eleven-year-old from the neighborhood . . .

The laws and customs associated with birth, the mitzvah of circumcision and redeeming the firstborn.

The festive gathering on the Friday night following the birth and the custom that the father is called up to the Torah.

Circumcision on the eighth day of a baby boy’s life has been part of Judaism since the dawn of our peoplehood. Learn 20 facts about this ritual that is so central to Jewish life.

This lecture surveys some of the laws and customs on the mitzvahs of circumcision and the “redemption of the first born.”