In response to those concerned with the fact that talmidim in the Litvishe Yeshivos in Europe shaved:
1) Electric shavers were first introduced in the 1930s and did not reach Europe immediately (and many Yeshivos did not have adequate access to electricity). Most of those who shaved used depilitory cream (“Sam”), not electric shavers. Consequently, the issue of the shaving practices in the Litvishe Yeshivos in pre-war Europe is totally irrelevant to this discussion (and how most people shave today), which is focused on the halachic status of electric shavers.
2) In his Kovetz Igros (#198), the Chazon Ish already responded to this very argument and wrote: “And although this sickness has spread even among those who are part of the Torah world, may they live and be well, that does not change the matter in any way, and therefore my soul burns with rage regarding this.”
3) The following response by Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt’l to the “argument” that the students of the Litvishe Yeshivos of yesteryear used to shave their beards, was recently publicized (in a kuntres with a haskama from Rav Chaim Kanievsky):
ואומר רבינו: “כי מה שנהגו פעם בישיבות לגלח, כי לא היה ידוע האיסור” (פרי חיים ממרן הרב שטיינמן שליט”א, שופר ארגון להפצת יהדות, צוות שופר גנזי המלך, כו תמוז תשע”ב).
“The reason it was once common for yeshiva bochurim to shave is because the issur involved was not widely known.”
4) How did the Chofetz Chaim react when the talmidim started shaving?
When bachurim in Radin shaved their beards in later years, it was absolutely without the consent and contrary to the position of the Chofetz Chaim, as his son wrote in his biography of the Chofetz Chaim (published in Kol Kisvei Chofetz Chaim):
“Year after year my father admonished [people] regarding shaving the beard, both orally, in writing and in his publications, but hardly anyone listened to him.”
In fact, the Chofetz Chaim wrote an entire sefer called “Kuntres Tiferes Odom” in which he vigorously refuted all the justifications used for shaving (e.g., to help find a shidduch, to help find a job, to improve one’s appearance, and so on), and he sharply declared (as well as providing a thorough explanation) that these justifications were against the Torah.
5) When the bochurim in Slabodka started shaving, the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein zt’l (author of the Levush Mordechai), wanted them to keep their beards, but the bochurim did not listen to him (as recorded in Shaalos U’Teshuvos Pe’as Sodcha, sec. 101). Furthermore, the Slabodka Rosh Yeshiva wrote very sharply in his introduction to Levush Mordechai (on Bava Kamma):
“Every Jew should reflect on this [that a raven forsakes its children since they do not appear like it] and have mercy on his children only when they walk in the paths of Hashem, through which they are similar in their appearance to their parents, keeping Shabbos and growing a beard. However, [he should] not [display mercy] to those who are not at all similar in their appearance to the Jewish people, for they have become distant and have garbed themselves in a different style, desecrating Shabbos and disdaining the sacred…. Their appearance is not similar to the Jewish people, for they have removed the tzelem Elokim [Divine image, a reference to the beard] from themselves.”
Regarding the Telz (Telshe) Yeshiva, it is recorded that
“…when the disease of cutting the beard spread among students of the [Litvishe] Yeshivos, the well-known Gaon, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon [Rov and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz], of blessed memory, adopted the most stringent measures [to stop it]. When he saw that they persisted in their defiance, he mobilized the Geonim of that time — the venerable Rabbi Y. Dovid Friedman [Rov of Pinsk-Karlin], the venerable Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Meisel [Rov of Lodz, Poland], and the mighty Geonim Rabbi Chaim HaLevi [Soloveitchik, Rov of Brisk], and Rabbi Chaim Ozer [Grodzenski, Rov of Vilna], of blessed memory. He demanded that they place a prohibition on Rabbonim against granting [students who cut their beards] Rabbinic ordination [semichah], on Shochtim against teaching them the skill of ritual slaughtering [shechitah], and on Jewish communities against employing them in any religious position” (Kovetz Yagdil Torah 7:5).
6) WHY did the talmidim in the Litvishe Yeshivos of pre-war Europe start shaving their beards — for reasons of Yiras Shomayim we should learn from, or just the opposite? See “Visions of the Rov: Highlights from the Life and Times of Moreinu Hagaon Harav Rav Avrohom Kalmanowitz zt’l” (published by the Mirrer Yeshiva), where we find (ch. 1, p. 28) Rav Kalmanowitz’s testimony in this matter. Rav Kalmanowitz is quoted there as saying that the reason the bochurim in Slabodka removed their beards was (not for reasons of yiras Shomayim that should be emulated, but just the opposite:) because “Western influences had infiltrated the Yeshivos of that time, making…beardless faces the norm.” Rav Kalmanowitz therefore refused to shave, and the Roshei Yeshiva and his friends respected him for it.
Similarly, Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita attests in his sefer Orchos Yosher (ch. 5), recently published in English by Artscroll:
“Throughout our history, it has been a disgrace for anyone not to have a beard. It is only in recent generations that some have started to treat this irreverently, having learned this from the non-Jews…”
Similarly, the Chazon Ish zt’l wrote in Kovetz Igros (vol. 1, #197) [regarding sam, depilatory cream]: “If it is not a sam hamoves [poison], it is certainly not a sam hachayim [lifegiving potion]. This matter is very difficult for me to bear, for it runs contrary to the [Jewish] quality of modesty and it is not the Jewish style of dress. Instead, [the Jews] have learned it from the non-Jews during their exile, thereby negating holiness.”
Rav Chaim Kanievsky wrote further in his sefer Orchos Yosher (ibid.): “[The Chazon Ish] once said that when someone who removes his beard…comes in to see him, he feels so sick that he almost vomits.”
7) Was the “mesorah” of the Litvishe communities is to be beardless? In contrast to this assertion, the Chofetz Chaim zt’l attests (in his Kuntres Tiferes Odom, ch. 1) that (in his home country of Lita) only “one in a thousand” did not have a beard.
Similarly, Rav Aharon Kotler zt’l stated (as quoted in the second volume of the sefer Aish HaTorah [p. 265], an authoritative biography of Rav Aharon Kotler [authored by Rav Aharon Sorosky shlita, acclaimed biographer of many Gedolim]):
“Growing a beard is a malbush yehudi, the traditional appearance of a Jew and the way our fathers and forefathers all conducted themselves. Hence, the beard falls under the halachic mandate to uphold the traditional practices of our people (“Do not abandon the Torah of your mother” [see Pesachim 50b]).”
8) This reality regarding the Chofetz Chaim’s vehement objection to shaving is documented further in the testimony of the Chofetz Chaim’s grandson, Rav Gershon Zaks zt’l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Suffern, New York. This testimony is cited by HaGaon Rav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita, in Teshuvos V’Hanhagos, Vol. 5, Section 264, and is quoted verbatim in Hadras Ponim Zokon, p. 18:
“I heard the following story in this regard from my revered father, the gaon, R. Menachem Yosef Zaks, son-in-law of the Chofetz Chaim and the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, Radin, which shows the extent the matter caused anguish to the Chofetz Chaim, zt’l.
“In the latter years of the Chofetz Chaim’s life, his hearing was severely compromised. Therefore, his practice was to stand next to the reader’s platform in order to fulfill his obligation to hear the Torah reading. Nevertheless, on several occasions, he suddenly moved away from the platform in the midst of the Torah reading.
“When my revered father asked him the reason for his conduct, the Chofetz Chaim answered that he cannot bear the fact that an aliyah is being given to a person who does not have a beard. Therefore he refrains from hearing the Torah reading, because of his anguish.
“From that time on, my father, zt”l, and my uncle, zt”l, ordained that on the days when the Chofetz Chaim would come to hear the reading of the Torah, an aliyah would not be given to a person who cut his beard.”
9) Rav Naftoli Trop zt’l served as the Rosh Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim’s Yeshiva in Radin from 1903 until his passing in 1928. In the introduction to Chidushei HaGranat published in more recent editions, we find the following account (p. 8, note 21): “The Yeshiva in Radin was founded by the Chofetz Chaim… Most of the students in Radin (and similarly those of Navardok) did not shave their beards due to the objection of the Chofetz Chaim to this practice.” If bachurim in Radin shaved their beards in later years, it was absolutely without the consent and contrary to the position of the Chofetz Chaim, as attested to earlier by the Chofetz Chaim’s son and son-in-law.