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Having a beard is considered a positive thing in Judaism.
However, there are different styles. Some keep a trimmed beard. Others let it sprout a bit longer, but do not let it extend to far.
Then there are those that let it thrive.
Is a longer beard more Jewish?
Or is the whole point of a beard not to violate the Torah command of destroying the beard, thus any kind of beard would have equal status in Judaism (Goatees and mustaches excluded)?
according the lubavitch (which i am) they dont shave because the Rebbe said that you are not supposed to touch the 5 corners of your face. since we dont know what they are we dont shave.(well the men i mean) they dont even touch the hairs at the tips to trim it since its alll attached
The idea is not to have a long beard, its not to cut the beard.
All I know is that the Gedolim (virtually) don’t trim. So it must be a good thing, even if I can’t explain why.
The Chofetz Chaim has a sefer about it. Mentions the kabalistic part as well.
You are jewish if you are born from a jewish mother. Beards dont make people more or less jewish.
You are jewish if you are born from a jewish mother. Beards dont make people more or less jewish.
Nor does being religious make you more or less Jewish. But what does that have to do with this topic?
@Real-Brisker: You are correct that if one’s mother is Jewish the child(ren) is/are Jewish.
On a personal note, as a woman, I personally like beards that are closed-cropped to the skin. Looks more professional and less unkempt. But that’s just me.
I’ve heard, (although I haven’t seen this inside) that keeping a trim beard versus not trimming the beard is a machlokes between the Arizal and the Ramchal. The Arizal holds not to touch it at all and the Ramchal says that there just needs to be a beard even if it is trim. Again, I can’t vouch for this veracity of these statements, but it is what I’ve heard.
HRH – The OP asked “If a longer beard is more jewish?” So my answer was you are only jewish one way, and there is no such thing as more jewish, or less jewish.
walton – Thank you for the haskama 😉
i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)
Derech HaMelech: I heard that the beard is associated with the chutim through which bracha come down to a person. I’ve also seen in various places that the Ramchal himself did not have a beard though it isn’t known whether he couldn’t grow one or he deliberately removed it like other Jews in Italy.
So is the whole thing of not trimming a beard Kabalistic? It is certainly not Halachik because either way you are not cutting the corners. Whats this whole things of bracha come down through chutim? Sounds shady.
If there is a problem with shaving, then why did most litvak Rosh Yeshivas and g’dolim shave for many years; until they felt worthy enough to wear a beard?
I’ve definitely read that the beard is associated with the 13 midos of rachamim.
There’s a really thick sefer on beards. I never opened it, and I don’t have access to it. But I’m sure it explains everything there.
I don’t know the whole story with the Ramchal at all. I was just putting out what I heard.
jewishness: Why does something kabbalistic sound ‘shady’?
cherrybim: because that was the minhag and since following minhagei kabballah is also not halacha it seems they opted to not be poresh from the klal.
To yogibooboo
The reason why Lubavitch doesnt shave is because they pasken like the tzemach tzedek who holds that it is assur min hatorah to shave due to the issur of Lo Silbash. So even if we would know where the five corners were it would still be assur. This is besides for the kabbalisitic reasons that all the brachos are drawn down through the beard, and it represents the 13 middos harachamim.
“because that was the minhag”
It seems that this minhag is still followed.
“The reason why Lubavitch doesnt shave is because they pasken like the tzemach tzedek who holds that it is assur min hatorah to shave due to the issur of Lo Silbash.”
Well women don’t shave their either, so by this reasoning lo silbash might require men to shave.
@Real-Brisker: You are welcome (for the haskama).
Is the haskama for our agreeing about one’s mother being Jewish or is it that you have a closed-cropped beard?
can someone explain the lubavitch phenomenon: many of the men have long beards that have a fork in the beard at the end resulting in a two sided beard with nothing in the middle
walton – to what you quoted me on.
@Real-Brisker: Thanks for getting back and answering my question.
@ brotherofurs: i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)
So, why don’t women grow beards? After all, women are people too. Correct? Please don’t say hormones. Too easy an answer.
I was told personally by a Gadol in EY that the Beard could be long, but the Mustache needs to be trim.
While other Lubavitcher Rebbes did, in his later years the last Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l did not trim his mustache.
Derech Hamelech: I think I know the sefer you’re talking about; it’s called ???? ???? ???. While I’ve never learned it I’ve picked it up a couple of times. It’s a book on the beauty of beards as the “tzura” of a Jewish face and their importance in kaballa. It’s written by a Lubavitcher chossid and mentions the Tzemach Tzeddek’s shita which seems to me to be a big chiddush. Also, if I’m not mistaken the concept of chutim as conduits for bracha refer to it emanating down from the sfiros but then again I don’t claim to know any kaballa that isn’t in a chumash sefer.
“the Ramchal says that there just needs to be a beard even if it is trim”
I’m with Ramchal. I keep mine trimmed.
I have seen photographs of yeshiva classes in Europe from the 1930s — all the bocherim were clean shaven. A Rosh Yeshiva who was in one of those photos told me that they used depilatories. Electric razors were first marketed in 1933 and many poskim hold that they are really like scissors, not razors, and therefore mutar.
“All I know is that the Gedolim (virtually) don’t trim. “
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein is clean shaven. Perhaps one of his students might be able to inform us of his position regarding beards and shaving?
I spoke to Rabbi Pinchas Chaim Scheinberg. This is what he told me about Beard Length and about trimming my mustache which I do.
cherrybim:
It seems that this minhag is still followed.
Not so much anymore. I had a rebbe who, when he went to the Mir they made him trim down his sideburns because they went past the bone.
Nowadays there are plenty of Mirs with beards.
yankdownunder:
but the Mustache needs to be trim.
This is like the Arizal who says you can trim your mustache as much as it interfere’s with eating, because swallowing the hair is a sakana.
walton157:
I don’t understand the idea 100% but there is some type of kabbalistic correlation between hair growth and activity.
YitzchokYisrael:
Yeah, I think that’s the name of the sefer too. I’ve vaguely heard something about conduits for bracha, but I don’t really understand any of this. Alot of people are also makpid not to let hair from the beard that falls out, get thrown away. Usually they put it in a sefer.
The Chofetz Chaim wrote a whole sefer encouraging beards. He writes about the kabalistic side as well.
@Derech HaMelech: I don’t understand the idea 100% but there is some type of kabbalistic correlation between hair growth and activity.
What type/kind of activity?
Derech HaMelech – we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; all without beards.
“…i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people i think-(according to kabbalah)”
What from, frostbite?
It didn’t protect honost Abe.
I have a full, but short trimmed beard on the left side of my face, and am clean-shaven on the right side.
I do this to confuse the cops by the different witness descriptions of me when I rob banks.
cherrybim:
I’m not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.
Actually the post was for brotherofurs- “i heard that a beard is supposed to protect people”)… beard, honest Abe (Lincoln), assassination. Get it?
The other post:
Derech HaMelech – we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; all without beards.
“cherrybim: It seems that this minhag is still followed.”
“Derech HaMelech:Not so much anymore.”
“cherrybim: we have b”h many bochrim learning in our bais medresh, from various litvish yeshivos; ALL without beards.”
“Derech HaMelech:I’m not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.”
regarding being a lightning rod for bracha i figure i can grow the hair on my head longer so i shave and just dont take haircuts
Oh I thought you were referring back to the other post “It didn’t protect honest abe”
Every hair of a Jew’s beard has extreme holiness.
Bar Shattya – According to kabbala, the hair on a Jewish males’s head should be as short as possible. This is in addition to the fact that we are concerned about having a chatzitza that hinders the proper fulfillment of the biblical commandment of donning the tefillin shel rosh.
The ramchals beard style was nice
Of course, this thread needs the famous story with R’ Yoelish. He had a good relationship with R’ Moshe Sherer zt”l. One day a chossid asked him why he didn’t push R’ Sherer to grow a beard. The response was, “When R’ Sherer gets up to Shamayim, they will say, R’ Yid, where is your beard? When you get up to Shamayim, they will ask, R’ Beard, where is the Yid?”
Just to note, I’ve seen the story with R’ Sherer zt”l, Mike Tress zt”l, and R’ Leib Malin. I have no clue who it really happened with. I just wrote R’ Sherer this time because he was the one who popped into my head.
Can we organise a petition to get the Chofetz Chaim publishers to translate Tiferes Adam?
To point out, the holy Maharil Diskin and the Baba Sali were strongly against trimming or shaving.
Long hair is not a chatzitzah for tefillin or anything else.
Proof: Nezirus.
I just remembered, there is a publication talking beards from various nusach rabbonim. Don’t know the exact name. Haven’t read it, but worth looking up.
The Machatzis HaShekel (OC 27:4) says that excessively long hair is a Chatzitza.
MB 27:15
When hair recedes bangs are not an issue. Ha.
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