Reply To: shaving during Chol Hamoed

I thought about it more, and it seems that the takanah, if I may say, is a bit outdated. I am not saying that’s a reason to stop listening to it, we have to listen to takanos Chazal even the reason no longer applies, but here is my logic.

In the days of Chazal, most people probably had beards and even those who shaved probably didn’t shave so often. I wouldn’t be surprised if people shaved (or trimmed) every 4 to 6 weeks. Chazal were afraid that people would push off their monthly shave to Chol Hamoed which would be disrespectful to Yom Tov, and therefore forbade it. In addition, since people shaved once a month, it wasn’t really disrespectful to enter the second days with a weeks worth of stubble.

Nowadays however many people shave every day, at the very least for Shabbos, so it’s unlikely that people would push off their shave to Chol Hamoed. In addition, since people shave so often, it is disrespectful to enter the second days with a weeks worth of stubble.

Like I said, we have to listen to takanos even if the reason no longer applies (unless you want to argue that being machmir in this issue is actually being meikil in kavod Yom Tov), but I am rather sure that if Chazal were around nowadays, they wouldn’t have made this takanah.