Everything has its price. For the redemption of a firstborn son, the Torah is quite specific: Numbers 18 instructs that the first son to pierce his mother’s womb belongs to God. You can bypass a life of priestly service through the pidyon haben, the ritual of redemption, held 31 days after the son’s birth. During this ceremony, the baby boy is placed on a large silver tray and brought before the rabbi. The father says a blessing and hands the rabbi five silver shekels and the son is redeemed, free to live his baby boy life.
My husband and I, Reform Jews, hadn’t planned a pidyon haben even though we met the requirements of the commandment. Our religion is more by the heart than by the book.
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