Q. When do you make the Shalom Zachor for a baby that has to remain in an incubator for about ten days and the brith will be delayed, do you make it the first Shabbat or when the baby is home before the brith?

A. Some Poskim maintain that the sholom zochor should not be celebrated when the newborn is not home yet (Even Yisroel, et. al.) since a basic reason for the sholom zochor is to console him on the loss of the Torah he has learned or to welcome him to this world.

However the common minhag or custom is to perform it on the first Shabbos (Pri megodim Y.D. 444: 9, Rivavos Ephraim O.H. 5: 203, Otzar Habris 2: p. 129-130, quoting Chamudei Doniel, and other Poskim) as they consider that the main reasons for the Sholom Zochor are the receiving and honoring of Shabbos and it being a seudas hodoah, thanking Hashem for the safe delivery and birth. Betoroso Yehegge (2: 94) quotes Horav Chaim Kanievsky Shlit”a as; “a sholom zochor not done on the first Shabbos is only a zecher or memory of a sholom zochor”. It is also common practice to observe it in a shul without the presence of the infant.

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that if there is no serious concern on the survival of the newborn, the sholom zochor should be done as customary on the first Shabbos.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a