beard types and lengths in Judiasm

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  • #596073
    wag the dog
    Member

    Having a beard is considered a positive thing in Judaism.

    However, there are different styles. Some keep a trimmed beard. Others let it sprout a bit longer, but do not let it extend to far.

    Then there are those that let it thrive.

    Is a longer beard more Jewish?

    Or is the whole point of a beard not to violate the Torah command of destroying the beard, thus any kind of beard would have equal status in Judaism (Goatees and mustaches excluded)?

    #1088876
    yogibooboo
    Member

    according the lubavitch (which i am) they dont shave because the Rebbe said that you are not supposed to touch the 5 corners of your face. since we dont know what they are we dont shave.(well the men i mean) they dont even touch the hairs at the tips to trim it since its alll attached

    #1088877
    deiyezooger
    Member

    The idea is not to have a long beard, its not to cut the beard.

    #1088878

    All I know is that the Gedolim (virtually) don’t trim. So it must be a good thing, even if I can’t explain why.

    #1088879

    The Chofetz Chaim has a sefer about it. Mentions the kabalistic part as well.

    #1088880
    real-brisker
    Member

    You are jewish if you are born from a jewish mother. Beards dont make people more or less jewish.

    #1088881

    You are jewish if you are born from a jewish mother. Beards dont make people more or less jewish.

    Nor does being religious make you more or less Jewish. But what does that have to do with this topic?

    #1088882
    walton157
    Member

    @Real-Brisker: You are correct that if one’s mother is Jewish the child(ren) is/are Jewish.

    On a personal note, as a woman, I personally like beards that are closed-cropped to the skin. Looks more professional and less unkempt. But that’s just me.

    #1088883

    I’ve heard, (although I haven’t seen this inside) that keeping a trim beard versus not trimming the beard is a machlokes between the Arizal and the Ramchal. The Arizal holds not to touch it at all and the Ramchal says that there just needs to be a beard even if it is trim. Again, I can’t vouch for this veracity of these statements, but it is what I’ve heard.

    #1088884
    real-brisker
    Member

    HRH – The OP asked “If a longer beard is more jewish?” So my answer was you are only jewish one way, and there is no such thing as more jewish, or less jewish.

    #1088885
    real-brisker
    Member

    walton – Thank you for the haskama 😉

    #1088886
    brotherofurs
    Participant

    i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)

    #1088887
    ItcheSrulik
    Member

    Derech HaMelech: I heard that the beard is associated with the chutim through which bracha come down to a person. I’ve also seen in various places that the Ramchal himself did not have a beard though it isn’t known whether he couldn’t grow one or he deliberately removed it like other Jews in Italy.

    #1088888
    jewishness
    Participant

    So is the whole thing of not trimming a beard Kabalistic? It is certainly not Halachik because either way you are not cutting the corners. Whats this whole things of bracha come down through chutim? Sounds shady.

    #1088889
    cherrybim
    Participant

    If there is a problem with shaving, then why did most litvak Rosh Yeshivas and g’dolim shave for many years; until they felt worthy enough to wear a beard?

    #1088891

    I’ve definitely read that the beard is associated with the 13 midos of rachamim.

    There’s a really thick sefer on beards. I never opened it, and I don’t have access to it. But I’m sure it explains everything there.

    I don’t know the whole story with the Ramchal at all. I was just putting out what I heard.

    jewishness: Why does something kabbalistic sound ‘shady’?

    cherrybim: because that was the minhag and since following minhagei kabballah is also not halacha it seems they opted to not be poresh from the klal.

    #1088892
    sayid
    Member

    To yogibooboo

    The reason why Lubavitch doesnt shave is because they pasken like the tzemach tzedek who holds that it is assur min hatorah to shave due to the issur of Lo Silbash. So even if we would know where the five corners were it would still be assur. This is besides for the kabbalisitic reasons that all the brachos are drawn down through the beard, and it represents the 13 middos harachamim.

    #1088893
    cherrybim
    Participant

    “because that was the minhag”

    It seems that this minhag is still followed.

    “The reason why Lubavitch doesnt shave is because they pasken like the tzemach tzedek who holds that it is assur min hatorah to shave due to the issur of Lo Silbash.”

    Well women don’t shave their either, so by this reasoning lo silbash might require men to shave.

    #1088894
    walton157
    Member

    @Real-Brisker: You are welcome (for the haskama).

    Is the haskama for our agreeing about one’s mother being Jewish or is it that you have a closed-cropped beard?

    #1088895

    can someone explain the lubavitch phenomenon: many of the men have long beards that have a fork in the beard at the end resulting in a two sided beard with nothing in the middle

    #1088896
    real-brisker
    Member

    walton – to what you quoted me on.

    #1088897
    walton157
    Member

    @Real-Brisker: Thanks for getting back and answering my question.

    #1088898
    walton157
    Member

    @ brotherofurs: i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)

    So, why don’t women grow beards? After all, women are people too. Correct? Please don’t say hormones. Too easy an answer.

    #1088899

    I was told personally by a Gadol in EY that the Beard could be long, but the Mustache needs to be trim.

    #1088900
    cherrybim
    Participant

    While other Lubavitcher Rebbes did, in his later years the last Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l did not trim his mustache.

    #1088901
    ItcheSrulik
    Member

    Derech Hamelech: I think I know the sefer you’re talking about; it’s called ???? ???? ???. While I’ve never learned it I’ve picked it up a couple of times. It’s a book on the beauty of beards as the “tzura” of a Jewish face and their importance in kaballa. It’s written by a Lubavitcher chossid and mentions the Tzemach Tzeddek’s shita which seems to me to be a big chiddush. Also, if I’m not mistaken the concept of chutim as conduits for bracha refer to it emanating down from the sfiros but then again I don’t claim to know any kaballa that isn’t in a chumash sefer.

    #1088902
    charliehall
    Participant

    “the Ramchal says that there just needs to be a beard even if it is trim”

    I’m with Ramchal. I keep mine trimmed.

    I have seen photographs of yeshiva classes in Europe from the 1930s — all the bocherim were clean shaven. A Rosh Yeshiva who was in one of those photos told me that they used depilatories. Electric razors were first marketed in 1933 and many poskim hold that they are really like scissors, not razors, and therefore mutar.

    #1088903
    charliehall
    Participant

    “All I know is that the Gedolim (virtually) don’t trim. “

    Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein is clean shaven. Perhaps one of his students might be able to inform us of his position regarding beards and shaving?

    #1088904

    I spoke to Rabbi Pinchas Chaim Scheinberg. This is what he told me about Beard Length and about trimming my mustache which I do.

    #1088905

    cherrybim:

    It seems that this minhag is still followed.

    Not so much anymore. I had a rebbe who, when he went to the Mir they made him trim down his sideburns because they went past the bone.

    Nowadays there are plenty of Mirs with beards.

    yankdownunder:

    but the Mustache needs to be trim.

    This is like the Arizal who says you can trim your mustache as much as it interfere’s with eating, because swallowing the hair is a sakana.

    walton157:

    I don’t understand the idea 100% but there is some type of kabbalistic correlation between hair growth and activity.

    YitzchokYisrael:

    Yeah, I think that’s the name of the sefer too. I’ve vaguely heard something about conduits for bracha, but I don’t really understand any of this. Alot of people are also makpid not to let hair from the beard that falls out, get thrown away. Usually they put it in a sefer.

    #1088906

    The Chofetz Chaim wrote a whole sefer encouraging beards. He writes about the kabalistic side as well.

    #1088907
    walton157
    Member

    @Derech HaMelech: I don’t understand the idea 100% but there is some type of kabbalistic correlation between hair growth and activity.

    What type/kind of activity?

    #1088908
    cherrybim
    Participant

    Derech HaMelech – we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; all without beards.

    #1088909

    “…i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)”

    What from, frostbite?

    #1088910
    cherrybim
    Participant

    It didn’t protect honost Abe.

    #1088911
    AinOhdMilvado
    Participant

    I have a full, but short trimmed beard on the left side of my face, and am clean-shaven on the right side.

    I do this to confuse the cops by the different witness descriptions of me when I rob banks.

    #1088912

    cherrybim:

    I’m not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.

    #1088913
    cherrybim
    Participant

    Actually the post was for brotherofurs- “i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people”)… beard, honest Abe (Lincoln), assassination. Get it?

    #1088914

    The other post:

    Derech HaMelech – we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; all without beards.

    #1088915
    cherrybim
    Participant

    “cherrybim: It seems that this minhag is still followed.”

    “Derech HaMelech:Not so much anymore.”

    “cherrybim: we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; ALL without beards.”

    “Derech HaMelech:I’m not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.”

    #1088916
    Bar Shattya
    Member

    regarding being a lightning rod for bracha i figure i can grow the hair on my head longer so i shave and just dont take haircuts

    #1088917

    Oh I thought you were referring back to the other post “It didn’t protect honest abe”

    #1088918
    mik5
    Participant

    Every hair of a Jew’s beard has extreme holiness.

    Bar Shattya – According to kabbala, the hair on a Jewish males’s head should be as short as possible. This is in addition to the fact that we are concerned about having a chatzitza that hinders the proper fulfillment of the biblical commandment of donning the tefillin shel rosh.

    #1088919

    The ramchals beard style was nice

    #1088920
    DaMoshe
    Participant

    Of course, this thread needs the famous story with R’ Yoelish. He had a good relationship with R’ Moshe Sherer zt”l. One day a chossid asked him why he didn’t push R’ Sherer to grow a beard. The response was, “When R’ Sherer gets up to Shamayim, they will say, R’ Yid, where is your beard? When you get up to Shamayim, they will ask, R’ Beard, where is the Yid?”

    Just to note, I’ve seen the story with R’ Sherer zt”l, Mike Tress zt”l, and R’ Leib Malin. I have no clue who it really happened with. I just wrote R’ Sherer this time because he was the one who popped into my head.

    #1088921
    Excellence
    Participant

    Can we organise a petition to get the Chofetz Chaim publishers to translate Tiferes Adam?

    To point out, the holy Maharil Diskin and the Baba Sali were strongly against trimming or shaving.

    #1088922
    old man
    Participant

    Long hair is not a chatzitzah for tefillin or anything else.

    Proof: Nezirus.

    #1088923
    Excellence
    Participant

    I just remembered, there is a publication talking beards from various nusach rabbonim. Don’t know the exact name. Haven’t read it, but worth looking up.

    #1088924
    mik5
    Participant

    The Machatzis HaShekel (OC 27:4) says that excessively long hair is a Chatzitza.

    MB 27:15

    #1088925
    Excellence
    Participant

    When hair recedes bangs are not an issue. Ha.

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