Regarding the Cutting and Growth of the Beard
by HaGaon Rabbi Chayim Kanievsky, shlita
(Son of the Steipler Gaon)
excerpted from his sefer Orchos Yosher (p.19)
[With this our
having this [a beard]
is only in recent generations that some have started to treat this irreverently, having learned this from the non-Jews.
[non-Jewish]
quoted by the Chofetz Chayim in his Sefer Hamitzvos Hakotzer (Prohibitions 177).
Our teacher the Chazon Ish was highly displeased with this practice. His displeasure was not only with
permit selling one even to a Jew who shaves with a razor in order to save him from the prohibition of using a razor, but
instructed [the inquirer] to sell it to a non-Jew.
My father and teacher [Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, the Steipler Gaon], of blessed memory, was also
very strict about this, saying it is very likely that [a shaving machine] is considered literally a razor, so that
one transgresses five prohibitions for using it.
electric shaver, refer to Likkutei Halochos on tractate Makkos by the Chofetz Chayim, p.14b in Ein Mishpot there, where
he writes that it is forbidden and that one should not be lenient in this. It is also known that the Chazon Ish, of blessed
[In addition, the Chazon Ish] was highly displeased even with those who
[chemical].
care not to cut the beard even with scissors, for the Kabbalists write that thereby one uproots the channels of [the flow of]
Kedusha from Above. Our fathers and ancestors in our land were accustomed to observing this strictly. Especially today
when many of the lawless elements of our nation have the practice of shaving with a razor, it is a great Mitzva for the
whole Jewish people to reinforce this observance and not to trim the beard even with scissors, thereby showing everyone
that the commandments the Torah has given us to distinguish the Jewish man [from the non-Jew] are precious to us and
[depilatory cream]
[poison] [lifegiving potion] either, and I find this matter very painful,
for it is against the [Jewish] quality of modesty and is not the Jewish style of dress but [Jews] have learned it from the non-
of those who remove their beards [with scissors] similar to [the effect of] a razor [close cutting], for I am accustomed to
this being prohibited since the previous generations, and [the prohibition]
this sickness has spread even among Torah scholars, may they be well, the issue has not changed as a result of this, and