Shalom Zachar

Shalom Zachar

A Shalom Zachar is celebrated on the birth of a baby boy
Halakhic texts relating to this article
Babylonian Talmud:	Niddah 30b
Other rabbinic codes:	Taz: Yoreh De'ah 265:13; Terumat HaDeshen 269; Zocher HaBris 3:6; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 164:8

A Shalom Zachar (also: sholom zochor, shulem zucher, (Hebrew: שלום זכר; trans. Welcoming the newborn male; lit. Peace be upon the male), is a gathering which takes place on the first Friday night after a baby boy is born. Although intended to "console" the newborn, the get-together is treated as a happy occasion.

There are no specific halachic guidelines or requirements regarding this practice. However, the reason given for the Ashkenazic custom is based on the Talmud in tractate Niddah which states that while a baby develops within the womb, he is taught the entire Torah. Just before birth, an angel touches the child on his mouth causing him to forget all that he has learnt. The gathering in the home of the newborn is to console him for the Torah he has forgotten.

The gathering takes place after the Friday night meal usually in the home of the newborn. Light refreshments include foods which are customarily eaten by mourners, such as beans and chickpeas since the baby is "in mourning" for the Torah he has lost.

A Shalom Zachar is not held when Friday night coincides with Passover or Yom Kippur: Yom Kippur is a fast day, and therefore all eating and drinking is forbidden; on the night of Passover it is forbidden to eat anything after eating the afikomen which is eaten at the end of the meal.

The Terumat HaDeshen and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch consider the Shalom Zachar a Seudat mitzvah.

Sephardic Jews make a Brit Yitzhak on the evening preceding the brit milah.

Sources

• It's a boy, aish.com
• The Shalom Zachor, by Larry Fine