HALACHIC RULING ~ Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv ~ ABOUT SHAVING THE BEARD
by the Gaon, Yerushalayim
The Chofetz Chaim wrote (Likkutei Halachos, end of Makkos)
that recently a machine had been introduced for shaving the
hair, and, [using it for shaving the beard] is, in his opinion,
close to [transgressing] a prohibition of the Torah itself.
In our opinion, if this was the case in his
time, when [the machine] was not so advanced and even the
lowest setting did not give a very close shave, how much more
so in our time when the machine works by electricity [giving a
much closer shave], it is considered destroying the
hair in the manner itself…