The first haircut for a human has special significance in certain cultures and religions. It can be considered a rite of passage or a milestone.
A first haircut, 1957
A rabbi performs the traditional first haircut on a three-year-old boy in Meron on Lag BaOmer 1970.
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism, is a religious movement within Judaism that arose as a spiritual revival movement in Poland and contemporary Western Ukraine, during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affiliated with the movement, known as hassidim, reside in Israel and in the United States.
A tish of the Boyan Hasidic dynasty in Jerusalem, holiday of Sukkot, 2009
Rebuilt synagogue of the Baal Shem Tov.
Rebbe Yisroel Hopsztajn, a great promulgator of Hasidism in Poland, blessing acolytes c. 1800. Hasidism gave the elite Tzadik a social mystical role.
The Kaliver Rebbe, Holocaust survivor, inspiring his court on the festival of Sukkot