The United Synagogue

The Pidyon Haben Ceremony

The Pidyon Haben Ceremony takes place on the thirty-first day of a child’s life, in front of a minyan of ten men. Even in cases where the Brit Milah has had to be postponed for some reason, the pidyon will still go ahead.

As with all good Jewish lifecycle events, a slap-up meal is incorporated into the event, which even has it’s own specific associated foods. Cloves of garlic and cubes of sugar are placed around the table or wrapped up and given to the guests to take home, bonbonniere style. The kabbalistic reason behind this little ritual is that garlic and sugar are both foods with strong tastes. Hopefully, they will subsequently be cooked and used to flavour large quantities of food, thus extending the merit of the mitzvah to as many people as possible.

After the assembled guests have washed, been seated and eaten some bread, the baby is carried in to a Cohen on an ornate silver tray. In order to adorn him as finely as possible for his Pidyon Haben, women guests may also be invited to remove some of their jewellery and arrange it around the baby. Then, the baby is redeemed by his parents, as they hand the Cohen five special silver coins. Finally, the Cohen blesses the child and hands him back to mum and dad.


For the full service see pages 789 – 792 in the Singers Prayer Book or pages 218 – 221 in the Artscroll Siddur.

this week
shabbat times

Mar. 12th - 13th
27th Adar
Begins: 17:45
Ends: 18:48
Sedra: Vayakel-Pekude & Hachodesh (Mevorachim Hachodesh)

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