By Stan Goodenough
“Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the LORD, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty GERAHS.” (Numbers 18:15-16)
The second ritual for the newborn son, in this case only for the first-born, is called pidyon haben, “the Redemption of the Firstborn.”
Performed on the 31st day after the birth (with the day of the birth counted as day one), the Redemption of the First Born is in obedience to the LORD’s commandment given after He brought the Israelites out of Egypt, that all male children who “open the womb” of the mother are to be redeemed.
This redemption is connected to the fact that the the Angel of the LORD destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, but left the first-born of the Israelites untouched.
The ceremony is actually a simple one. The father presents the firstborn to one of the Kohens – descendants in the priestly line – who asks the father whether he would rather give the son away or redeem him. The father chooses to redeem the boy and, with the equivalent of five silver shekels in his hand, says:
“Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the redemption of the first-born son.”
The money is handed over to the Kohen who passes it over the boy’s head saying, “This is in place of this…” and then says the priestly blessing over the child. The ceremony ends with a blessing over a cup of wine.
© Israel My Beloved
