shaving during Chol Hamoed

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  • #605006
    simcha613
    Participant

    I know it’s assur according to most poskim but it still always bothered me. It was a takanah for the honor of Yom Tov so that be people shave for the first days and don’t push it off to Chol Hamoed… but as a result everyone looks like slobs for the second days! A takanah for the first days at the expense of the second days? I always feel guilty entering the second days with messy stubble even though I know (or at least I think) I’m doing the right thing.

    #898813
    bubka
    Participant

    Real men have beards. Shaving any time of the year is slobby. Refraining from shaving — any time of the year — is acting like a real mentch.

    #898814
    takahmamash
    Participant

    bubka:

    Real men have beards. Shaving any time of the year is slobby. Refraining from shaving — any time of the year — is acting like a real mentch.

    So, right after Yom Kippur, you just denigrated a large percentage of frum men who DO shave. Are you really that eager to ask mechila?

    #898815
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Real men have beards. Shaving any time of the year is slobby. Refraining from shaving — any time of the year — is acting like a real mentch.

    Wow. You not only manage to insult and disparage thousands of yidden with two short lines, but you also didn’t even address the OP or any previous poster.

    Great work for less than a week following Yom Kippur.

    The Wolf

    #898816
    Sam2
    Participant

    Simcha: Shailos Utshuvos Nodah Bihudah Orach Chayim 1:13, I believe.

    #898817
    Chacham
    Participant

    sam2- are you forgetting what the chasam sofer wrote about that noda beyihuda?

    #898818
    bubka
    Participant

    Gevalt! The OP suggested that by following halacha and not shaving people look like “slobs”. I retorted that if anything people who do shave (and it would be remiss to not mention, even though there are those that differ, there are many authorities who maintain completely shaving is always forbidden) are the real slobs. And while the next two commenters took no umbrage with the OP’s characterization of calling followers of halacha as “slobs”, they only let loose their fury at me??

    #898819
    Sam2
    Participant

    Chacham: Nope, didn’t forget. I am entirely unaware of it though. Care to enlighten me?

    Simcha: I just re-read your OP. The Aruch Hashulchan brings up your precise point and says that if you shaved for the first days then you can shave for the second if you don’t look nice with a week of growth.

    #898820
    Chacham
    Participant

    sam- teshuvas Oc 154– http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14663&pgnum=118

    Also in igros rav moshe is only matir someone who has a huge tzoirach…..

    #898821
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    Um? Are you planning to hire a starving poel to shave you?

    #898822
    Chacham
    Participant

    also see the orchas chaim in 531 who brings down from the pachad yitzchak bsheim magidei haemes that the Noda biyehuda was chozer

    see- http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=8760&st=&pgnum=194

    #898823
    Chacham
    Participant

    sam- can you direct me to this aruch hashulchan?

    ???? ???? ???? ?

    [ ?

    #898824
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    I retorted that if anything people who do shave (and it would be remiss to not mention, even though there are those that differ, there are many authorities who maintain completely shaving is always forbidden) are the real slobs

    And you had to throw in the gratuitous insult that they’re “not real men.”

    The Wolf

    #898825
    WIY
    Member

    Loving the scholarly debate keep it coming.

    #898826
    Sam2
    Participant

    Chacham: I’ll try and look it up. I was pretty sure it was him, but I could be wrong. I thought he was Mechalek between shaving and cutting fingernails and says that you can’t do the latter because even after a week those don’t look bad. I’ll have to look this up again. I could be misremembering things.

    #898827
    abe435
    Participant

    um r moshe states clearly that if someone shaves on chol hamoed just for beautifying one self it says

    “ein limchos” because todays day people shave daily,therefore there is zero chance you wil not shave before yom tov……

    #898828
    yitayningwut
    Participant

    Sam – I’m not getting involved in this discussion but just FYI that is probably the most contested opinion of the Noda BiYehuda out there.

    #898829
    simcha613
    Participant

    bubka- Just because someone is following halachah doesn’t mean that they can’t look like a slob. An aveil looks like a slob even though he is following halachah. 30 days without shaving makes one look like a slob. In addition, 6 days without shaving makes men look like slobs. Just because one is following halachah doesn’t change that reality. Most men (who don’t have beards) would not go to work with that messy stubble. Most of those same men wouldn’t enter Shabbos with that messy stubble. We aren’t supposed to shave during Chol HaMoed so people do not enter the first days with that messy stubble. So we enter the last days with that messy stubble making us look like slobs. Following halachah may be the right thing to do, but that doesn’t change the fact that 6 days without shaving is a slobby and messy look.

    #898830
    bubka
    Participant

    Simcha613: You are absolutely wrong. Chas V’Shalom to call someone a slob because he follows the Torah, whereas your illogic leads to the conclusion that only by violating the Torah can one avoid being a slob.

    This above point is absolute besides my previous point that between shaving and not shaving — all year round — if one is to be considered slobbish, it is the act of shaving – while not shaving is mentchlich.

    And, no, an aveil is NOT a slob by not shaving. He would be a slob if he shaved.

    #898831
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    And, no, an aveil is NOT a slob by not shaving. He would be a slob if he shaved.

    You obviously have a different definition of “slob” than everyone else.

    The Wolf

    #898832
    bubka
    Participant

    It is you with the “different” definition of slob.

    Following the Torah is in no way, shape or form being “lazy”.

    Period.

    #898833
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    It is you with the “different” definition of slob.

    It’s fairly obvious that you are the one with the misunderstanding since the rest of us understand that one can appear unkempt and messy even if the Torah commands it.

    In any event, I don’t want to engage in a meaningless argument about the meaning of the word “slob” with you. I’ve got far better things to do. If you want to believe it means what you think it means, go right ahead.

    The Wolf

    #898834
    Sam2
    Participant

    Yitay: I had no idea. Oops…

    #898835
    rabbiofberlin
    Participant

    yitai- the MOST contested opinion by the Nodah bejehudah? you took a poll? Incidentally, the nodah bejehudah wrote ttwo teshuvos on this subject, if memory serves me right.

    #898836
    old man
    Participant

    ???? ?????? ?????? ???, ??”?, ????? ?”? ??”?

    My opinion is that if one normally shaves every day, he must also shave on every day of chol ha’moed.

    #898837
    Avi K
    Participant

    Old man, Rav Solooveichik paskened that way as does Rav Lichtenstein. However, most poskim disagree.

    #898838
    Chacham
    Participant

    old-man

    is that based on the Chasam Sofer I linked to?

    #898839
    nishtdayngesheft
    Participant

    Wolf,

    Bunks is making a very valid which you are loathe to concede for some reason. There is a huge difference between appearing unkempt and being a slob. Were you chas vshalom to be an avel, you would understand if someone said you looked unkempt, you, and I think we can be specific here, would be highly offended if someone called you a slob.

    While you may to be to busy to argue what the meaning of the word “slob” is, you should find time to consider why calling someone slob because he is following Halacha would be offensive to those follow Halacha.

    By extrapolation you are calling many of our Gedolim and Rabonim slobs and I am sure Bubka is offended by that, rightly so, I might add.

    #898840
    simcha613
    Participant

    For the record, I never said that a person who follows halachah is a slob. I never said an aveil or a person who doesn’t shave during Chol Hamoed is a slob. I said that a person who doesn’t shave, whether it’s because of halachah or any other reason, looks like a slob which I equate with looking unkempt or messy. I didn’t meant to characterize followers of halachah as slobs or lazy people. I meant that sometimes halachah requires us to look messy and it bothers me that we are supposed to look messy for the second days of Yom Tov (and Shabbos Chol Hamoed) when it seems antithetical to the concept of kavod Shabbos and kavod Yom Tov.

    #898841
    gregaaron
    Member

    you should find time to consider why calling someone slob because he is following Halacha would be offensive to those follow Halacha.

    Actually, it seems that the majority of us here – who are following the Halacha – agree with him.

    And anyway, there’s a difference between saying someone looks like a slob (which the OP correctly did) and saying that someone is a slob.

    #898842
    shmoel
    Member

    Someone who doesn’t shave during the times it is prohibited per the Torah does not even look like a slob. Chas V’Shalom to even say as such.

    #898843
    YW Band
    Member

    Chacham: Shkoyach for the actual words. But i still dont get why cutting nails is mutar ONLY if before Yom Tov it was fine, so why is shaving different if you shaved the 1st days?! Please enlighten me rabbosai. Gut moed & Shabbos!

    #898844
    shtiky shlo
    Member

    i dont understand why any one would want to shave i’ve been growing a beard for 15 years it gets a bit itchy but people look at me respectfully. I’ve also been growing my nails for 15 years my wife gets upset but it’s a pain to cut

    #898845
    gregaaron
    Member

    @shtiky shlob –

    You serious?

    #898846
    simcha613
    Participant

    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.

    #898848
    avhaben
    Participant

    Borderline apikorsus. (Not quite, perhaps, but really close.)

    #898849
    Sam2
    Participant

    Avhaben: That’s not even close to Apikorsus. We say things like that all the time. In fact, the Nodah Bihudah said it first. R’ Schachter often says that if they had floss and toothbrushes in Chazal’s time that Chazal might have mandated doing that instead of waiting hours.

    #898850
    Wisey
    Participant

    I think that all Divrei Toras Nigleh (even takanos) have deep reasons al pi sod so I wouldn’t suggest that the takanah wouldn’t be made nowadays unless I had done serious research into the topic. Also Chazal didn’t say that if you are in a place where daily shaves are the norm it is fine.

    #898851
    Chacham
    Participant

    simcha– you are saying the noda beyehuda and every singel acharon since his time argued very strongly. se the above chasam sofer I linked. I suggest you learn through the inyan before you speak

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