A child's third birthday signals a major transition in his or her education. For the first three years of life, a child absorbs the surrounding sights and sounds and the parents' loving care. The child is a receiver, not yet ready to give. At the age of three, children's education takes a leap—they are now ready to produce and share their unique gifts.

For a Jewish boy, this transition is marked with a ceremony. It is age-old custom to allow a boy's hair to grow untouched until he's three years old. On his third Jewish Birthday his friends are invited to a haircutting ceremony—an upsherin in Yiddish, called a chalakeh by Sephardic Jews. The child's peyot (biblically mandated side-locks) are left intact; the initiation into his first mitzvah.

The world now begins to benefit from the Torah study and mitzvot of this young child. From this point on, a child is taught to wear a kipah and tzitzit, and is slowly trained to recite blessings and the Shema. The world now begins to benefit from the Torah study and mitzvot of this young child.

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