Reply To: Does Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita prohibit men from shaving their beards?

Age of maturity in Torah is expressed for example: כל העובר על הפקודים, NOT by the age of growing a beard!

We are debating the terms describing a person as:
בעל זקן, (possess a beard)
נתמלא זקנו (full beard)
זקנו מגודל (grown beard)

In a nitshell:

You say the descriptive terms includes someone that is without a beard as long as he theoretically could have one, reached the age that a beard could grow, is capable of having a beard – but does not need to have a beard.

I say it means he ACTUALLY has a beard, not theoretically, not figuratively, but actually.

Read the list of term above!

A Talmid CHochom is not someone who has the potential to know Torah, but someone who actually has the knowledge of Torah. Shchita is not an animal that is capable of being shechted, but one that actually got shechted.

A “fat person” is not someone that has the ability to consume lots of food and become fat, but someone who actually is fat

What is:
בעל זקן, (possess a beard)
נתמלא זקנו (full beard)
זקנו מגודל (grown beard)
Capable of a beard or actually have a beard?

Let others decide!

The seforim you quote say that dispensation “can” be extended to someone that is older, even without a beard. That is a kulah. It is NOT the strict compliance of a chazon “having a beard” (literally not “figuratively”) as stated in Chulin and the Rishonim.

Yes, there are kulas, as I listed that an avol is allowed even withoiut a beard (as per Biur Halacha).

We also see today chazonim can go to omud without a beard.

But the maalah of a beard on a chazon (which Chazal state) does not simply “disappear” based on these kulos. That is distorting the clear meaning of these terms because you have trouble accepting the truth, that a בעל זקן is someone with a beard.