A central place is reserved for the hallah (koyletsh in Yiddish) at the redemption of the firstborn ceremony (pidyon ha-ben), held when a Jewish couple's firstborn son is thirty days old. According to Jewish law, every firstborn son is destined to serve in the Temple, and - unless he belongs to a family of kohanim (priests) or Levites - the father is obliged to symbolically redeem his child from the kohen with a payment of five coins of pure silver or its equivalent in gold jewelry. |
Pidyon ha-ben celebration in Meah Shearim
Jerusalem , 2003
Photo: Menahem Kahana |
For this ceremony, parents dress the infant in festive clothes and deck him with jewelry. The mother carries him to the officiating kohen on a silver tray laden with garlic cloves and cubes of sugar. Once she has assured him that this is indeed her firstborn son, the kohen recites a blessing over the hallah. Those present then make a dash for the bread he has blessed and hastily tear pieces from it, sometimes keeping a portion as an amulet.
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