Judaism prohibits shaving with a razor on the basis of a rabbinic interpretation of Leviticus 19:27, which states, "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."[1] The Mishnah interprets this as a prohibition on using a razor on the beard.[2]
This prohibition is further expanded upon in kabbalistic literature.[3]
In the Torah
The book of Leviticus in the Torah makes mention of corners of the head, and prohibits the marring of the corners of the beard, with particular emphasis on priests (kohanim) not marring the corners of the beard;[4] as with many other parts of Leviticus, the Book of Ezekiel describes different regulations, stating that the priests should not shave their heads, or let their locks grow long.[5]
However, there were exceptions, with the Book of Ezekiel itself adding that priests should keep their hair trimmed,[5] and Leviticus arguing that, in certain cases of tzaraath, the beard and hair should be completely shaved away.[6] Numbers (Ch. 6) additionally requires that Nazarites shave their heads, 7 days after any contact with corpses.[7]
Origin
According to biblical scholars, the shaving of hair, particularly of the corners of the beard, was originally a mourning custom;[8] the behaviour appears, from the Book of Jeremiah, to also have been practiced by other Semitic tribes,[9][10][11] although some ancient manuscripts of the text read live in remote places rather than clip the corners of their hair. Biblical scholars think that the regulations against shaving hair may be an attack on the practice of offering hair to the dead, which was performed in the belief that it would obtain protection in sheol;[12] Nazirites shaved after contact with a corpse, captive women shaved after mourning the death of their parents, and the general prohibition in the Holiness Code is immediately followed by a rule against people cutting their own bodies for the benefit of the dead.[13]
Textual scholars date the Priestly Source, and the Holiness and Priestly Codes within it, to the late 7th century or later;[14] it appears that before this time, the shaving of the head during mourning was permitted, and even encouraged.[12] The Book of Amos, which is dated by textual scholars to the mid 7th century,[12] as well as the Books of Isaiah and of Micah, which textual scholars date to a slightly later period, portray God as instructing the Israelites to shave their head as an act of mourning:[15][16][17]
... God ... called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins-[16]
The prohibition against cutting the corners of the beard may also have been an attempt to distinguish the appearance of Israelites from that of the surrounding nations, and reduce the influence of foreign religions;[18]Maimonides criticises it as being the custom of idolatrous priests.[19] The Hittites and Elamites were clean-shaven, and the Sumerians were also frequently without a beard;[20] conversely, the Egyptians and Libyans shaved the beard into very stylised elongated goatees.[20][failed verification]
In classical rabbinical literature
The forbidding of shaving the corners of the head was interpreted by the Mishnah as prohibiting the hair at the temples being cut so that the hairline was a straight line from behind the ears to the forehead;[21] thus it was deemed necessary to retain sidelocks, leading to the development of a distinctly Jewish form of sidelock, known as payot. As for the beard, more complicated views arose; the corners of the beard were explained to refer to five extremities in the Talmud. There are many opinions in medieval scholars as to what these five points are. For example, it may be a point on each cheek near the temples, a point at the end of the cheek bone towards the centre of the face, and the point of the chin.[22][23] Or it may be two on the mustache, two somewhere on the cheek, and one on the point on the chin. As a result, Shulchan Aruch prohibits the shaving of the entire beard and mustache.
Because the biblical prohibition against shaving uses the Hebrew word gelech (גלח), which refers to shaving with a blade against the skin, Talmudic rabbis interpreted it to only refer to a blade, and only to the hair being cut close to the roots, in a smooth manner.[20][24][25] This means that only a razor would be prohibited, trimming or non-razor shaving would be permitted. In the ancient land of Israel, it was common among more scholarly circles of Jews to clip beards.[26]
Ezekiel's request for priests to keep their hair trimmed was read by the Talmudists as referring specifically to the artistic Lydian style of haircut, in which the ends of the hair of one row reaches the roots of the next.[18] This hairstyle was apparently a distinguishing feature of the nobility, as the common population shaved their heads entirely except for the sidelocks;[18] the king is said to have had his hair cut in this manner each day, the Jewish High Priest to have done so each week just before the Sabbath, and ordinary Jewish priests to have done so every thirty days.[27] The Talmudic Rabbis also argue that anyone who was constantly in contact with government officers could adopt tonsures, although they do state that to everyone else it was forbidden;[28] during the period of Hellenic domination over Judah, the tonsure was a fashionable haircut among the Greeks.[18]
In rabbinic literature of the Middle Ages
The Shulchan Aruch quotes the Talmud that because scissors have two blades, it would therefore be permitted to trim the beard by using them, since the cutting action would come from contact between two blades and not from that between blade and skin.[29] In Germany and Italy, by the end of the seventeenth century, Jews started removing beards with the aid of pumice stones and chemical depilatories, which would leave the face smooth, as if it had been shaven. These are non-razor shaves which are not prohibited.[18]Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (Tzemach Tzedek) argued that shaving a beard would fall under the biblical regulation against crossdressing (he also extended the prohibition for wanton destruction to destroying the hair of the beard); the Shulchan Aruch interpreted this regulation[30] in a different way, arguing that it forbade men from removing hair from areas where women were accustomed to remove hair, such as underarm hair and pubic hair.[31]
In the early Middle Ages, Jewish custom, in regard to beards, followed the fashions of each nation;[20] in Germany, France, and Italy, Jews removed their beards, but in Islamic nations, Jews grew them long.[20] In 1720, a mild confrontation arose between a group of Italian Jews, who had migrated to Salonica in the Ottoman Empire, and the local Jewish population, because the migrant Italians didn't wear beards, but the local population insisted that beards should be worn.[20] It was later remarked by Jacob Emden that the Jewish population in western Europe had objected to these regulations so much that it had been impractical to enforce them;[32] there had also been prominent opponents of beards, such as Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, to whom is attributed the epigram:
If men are judged wise by their beards and their girth, then goats were the wisest of creatures on earth[20]
In Kabbalah
The Zohar, one of the primary sources of Kabbalah (a form of Jewish mysticism), attributes holiness to the beard, and strongly discourages its removal, declaring that even the shortening of a beard by scissors is a great sin;[18][33] it was even said that Isaac Luria, a significant figure in the history of Kabbalistic mysticism, meticulously avoided touching his beard, lest he should accidentally cause hairs to drop from it.[34] Kabbalistic teachings gradually spread into Slavonic regions, and consequently beard trimming was discouraged in these areas, even if it involved scissors;[18] it was the Hasidic Jews who more closely followed Kabbalistic practices than Jews of a Lithuanian or Misnagdish background, and thus it became the Hasidic Jews who are known for the distinctive traditional practice of growing their beards. However, in Italy, shaving the beard was so popular that even the Italian followers of Kabbalah did it; an Italian Kabbalist even went to the extent of arguing that beard shaving was only prohibited in Canaan, and was actually to be encouraged elsewhere.[35]
Electric shavers
The rotary head on the right still has the primary blades (tin color) adjacent to each of the secondary blades, while the head on the left has had these Lift and Cut blades removed.
In Leviticus 19:27, Jews are prohibited from "destroying" the corners of the beard. The Talmud (Makkos 20a) has different views on this, to mean the use of a single-bladed razor (as opposed to any scissors-like device which requires two blades to cut) or to remove any beard hair even with tweezers. Therefore, Jewish men may not use a razor to cut certain parts of their beards. For practical purposes, those who comply with halacha as defined by Rabbinic Judaism refrain from the use of razors altogether.
Many Orthodox Jews, especially Haredi Orthodox Jews, refrain from cutting their beards altogether, and, with the exception of occasionally trimming their mustaches with scissors when they interfere with eating, never cut their facial hair. Orthodox Jews who do shave their facial hair must utilize electric shavers, as opposed to razors.
Some modern Jewish religious legislators in Orthodox Judaism, including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, permit the use of electric razors for the purpose of remaining clean-shaven, because, in their view, electric razors work like scissors, cutting by trapping hair between the blades and a metal grating.[36][37] However, other modern rabbinical authorities, such as Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz and Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, consider electric razors, particularly rotary models which use "Lift and Cut" heads made by Philips, to work in the manner of primitive razors, and consequently prohibit their use.[38][39] According to some interpretations of the permissive view, these shavers can be used if the lifters attached to the shaver's cutters are removed first. According to other interpretations of this view, these shavers can be used without removing the lifters, and, indeed, according to some, it may even be preferable not to do so.[40][41][42]
The rotary electric shaver was invented by a Jewish engineer named Alexandre Horowitz.[43] Many Orthodox Jews prefer to grow beards, for a variety of religious, social, and cultural reasons, even if they believe that electric shavers would be permitted; many Orthodox Jews, even Hasidic Orthodox Jews, today grow beards to keep the tradition of their ancestors, regardless of the permissibility of their removal.[44]
Kosher depilating chemicals were also a common way to remove hair in accordance of the religion. [citation needed]
Mourning (including Sefirat Haomer and The Three Weeks)
Orthodox Jewish mourners do not shave or get a haircut for thirty days.[45] This refers to those who are observing one of the seven types of personal loss: Father, Mother, Spouse, Brother, Sister, Son, Daughter.
There is another type of mourning. Haircut and shaving customs apply, each according to custom, for the communal mourning during The Three Weeks,[46] and to part or all of the period known as Sefirat Haomer.
Body and pubic hair removal for men
The Talmud prohibits men from shaving their body and pubic hair because such activity is considered feminine behavior, violating the prohibition of: "A man shall not put on a woman’s garment."[47] Ashkenazi Jewish men followed the Talmudic law as they lived in a European society in which such shaving was regarded as feminine. Sephardic men since the Geonic era have shaved their body and pubic hair as this was the practice amongst Muslim men of their society.[48]
Antisemitic attacks
During twentieth century antisemitic violence, especially the Holocaust, Germans and other perpetrators would forcibly shave Jewish men as a form of humiliation.[49]
Halakha, also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and halocho, is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments (mitzvot), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch. Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root which means "to behave". Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs; it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life.
The Shulchan Aruch, sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Ottoman Syria by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of halakha or Jewish law ever written.
Shaving is the removal of hair, by using a razor or any other kind of bladed implement, to slice it down—to the level of the skin or otherwise. Shaving is most commonly practiced by men to remove their facial hair and by women to remove their leg and underarm hair. A man is called clean-shaven if he has had his beard entirely removed.
A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to start growing beards, on average at the age of 21.
Counting of the Omer is a ritual in Judaism. It consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The period of 49 days is known as the "omer period" or simply as "the omer" or "sefirah".
Tenth of Tevet, the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, is a fast day in Judaism. It is one of the minor fasts observed from before dawn to nightfall. The fasting is in mourning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia—an event that began on that date and ultimately culminated in the destruction of Solomon's Temple, downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, and the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people.
Yibbum is the form of levirate marriage found in Judaism. As specified by Deuteronomy 25:5–10, the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go through with the marriage, both are required to go through a ceremony known as halizah, involving a symbolic act of renunciation of their right to perform this marriage.
Kosher foods are foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of kashrut. The laws of kashrut apply to food derived from living creatures and kosher foods are restricted to certain types of mammals, birds and fish meeting specific criteria; the flesh of any animals that do not meet these criteria is forbidden by the dietary laws. Furthermore, kosher mammals and birds must be slaughtered according to a process known as shechita and their blood may never be consumed and must be removed from the meat by a process of salting and soaking in water for the meat to be permissible for use. All plant-based products, including fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs and spices, are intrinsically kosher, although certain produce grown in the Land of Israel is subjected to other requirements, such as tithing, before it may be consumed.
Negiah, literally "touch", is the concept in Jewish law (Halakha) that forbids or restricts sensual physical contact with a member of the opposite sex except for one's spouse, outside the niddah period, and certain close relatives to whom one is presumed not to have sexual attraction. A person who abides by this halakha is colloquially described as a shomer negiah.
Sidelocks in English, or pe'ot in Hebrew, anglicized as payot or payes, is the Hebrew term for sidelocks or sideburns. Payot are worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Tanakh's injunction against shaving the "sides" of one's head. Literally, pe'a means "corner, side, edge". There are different styles of payot among Haredi or Hasidic, Yemenite, and Chardal Jews. Yemenite Jews call their sidelocks simanim, literally, "signs", because their long-curled sidelocks served as a distinguishing feature in the Yemenite society.
In Jewish religious law (halakha), the laws of yichud prohibit seclusion in a private area of a man and a woman who are not married to each other. Such seclusion is prohibited out of fear that sexual intercourse or other, lesser acts may occur. A person who is present in order to prevent yichud is called a shomer.
According to halacha, married Jewish women are expected to cover their hair when in the presence of men other than their husband or close family members. Such covering is common practice nowadays among Orthodox Jewish women.
The subject of loans and interest in Judaism has a long and complex history. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Ezekiel classifies the charging of interest among the worst sins, denouncing it as an abomination and metaphorically portraying usurers as people who have shed the borrower's blood. The Talmud dwells on Ezekiel's condemnation of charging interest.
The mixture of meat and dairy is forbidden according to Jewish law. This dietary law, basic to kashrut, is based on two verses in the Book of Exodus, which forbid "boiling a (goat) kid in its mother's milk" and a third repetition of this prohibition in Deuteronomy.
Forbidden relationships in Judaism are intimate relationships which are forbidden by prohibitions in the Torah or rabbinical injunctions.
Jewish traditions across different eras and regions devote considerable attention to sexuality. Sexuality is the subject of many narratives and laws in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature.
The prohibition of Kohen defilement to the dead is the commandment to a Jewish priest (kohen) not to come in direct contact with, or be in the same enclosed roofed space as a dead human body.
The prohibition of extracting semen in vain is a Biblical prohibition derived from, this is explained in the Midrash and Talmud. The prohibition forbids a male from intentional wasteful spilling of his semen. Unintentional wasting of seed is also a (lesser) sin according to the Oral Torah.
Chukot Akum or Chukat Ha'Akum is a prohibition in Judaism of imitating Gentile manners in their dressings and practices. The prohibition comes from the Torah commandment "You shall not follow gentile customs". Modern life has created many dilemmas on what constitutes a violation of this prohibition and there is ongoing debate about this topic, such as discussions on whether a Jew can attend Thanksgiving dinner or Mother's Day observance without violating this prohibition.
↑ "The punishment for this [shaving with a razor] is delineated by the holy Zohar and the books of the Mekubalim, and is considered a great and terrible sin, among the most grievous." -- Shaving With a Razor, by Rabbi Meir Gavriel Elbaz, http://halachayomit.co.il/EnglishDefault.asp?HalachaID=2355, dated Jan. 4, 2012.
↑ " And in truth, according to the [kabbalistic] writings and books of holiness, even destruction by other methods permitted by law is also a very, very tremendous blemish, God spare us; the Merciful One save us from that punishment." – s:Likutei Halakhot Yoreh Deah#Hilkhot Giluach
↑ Barclay, Rabbi Elozor; Jaeger, Rabbi Yitzchok (2003). Guidelines: Over Four Hundred of the Most Commonly Asked Questions About the Three Weeks. Targum Press. ISBN1-56871-254-5.
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