The Peyos of Yemenite Jewry

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In all seriousness I believe its an old tradition that dates back to the time of the Bais Hamikdosh however I believe it was davka a Yementite thing to look different from the Muslims and there were Jews in specific areas that did it. You would some real sources that such payos dated back to the time of Moshe.

Hmmm. I wonder how this minhag was never mentioned in the mishna or the gemara?

That being the case, should we all not emulate many of their upstanding and original practices? I submit that wearing peyos as they do (and the Chasidim have emulated) is how Moshe Rabbeinu had. And what a zchus it would be for us all to emulate.

Whay do you assume that there ever was only one set of “original practices”? Just because the Parsha coloring sheets depict Moshe with long peyos doesn’t mean that’s what he had.

Let us also never forget that the zionist reshoyim maliciously cut off the peyos of these innocent Teimanim as soon as they arrived in Eretz Yisroel. And then they kidnapped their babies to take them away from the Yiddishkeit the Teimanim faithfully practiced for thousands of years, and lied to their mothers that the babies had died.

Betzalel:

I think you are correct that “There were Jews in Yemen before there were any Muslims there” BUT the term “simanim” that they use for their peyot IS because of the reason mentioned above.

“helpful”:

Do you feel better now that you got in your daily dig at the terrible Zionists? Of course I agree that what you referred to WAS a very terrible thing, so should I now mention a thousand wonderful things done by Zionists? The point is that what you wrote about is NOT what this thread is about.

How about if all the vicious anti-Zionists try to, at least, keep their comments for articles and CR threads that have to do with Israel.

Bezalel: Yes, but we don’t know what kind of peyos they had, now do we?

OP: I think your original premise (Teymani Jews were undisturbed by outside influences) is highly questionable, if not plainly incorrect. First, the whole of the Arabian Peninsula has been populated since ancient times, both by nomadic tribes and smaller settled communities and city-states. Second, Yemen, of all places, was probably more susceptible to external influences than many other places in the Peninsula; it sits at the juncture of some of the most important sea-trade routes in history. The trade between China, India, Indonesia, East Africa, Egypt, and the entire Mediterranean Basin passed along the Yemenite Arabian Sea and Red Sea coasts.

Even if you are correct that Teymani Jews practice Judaism as closely as possible to the original B’nei Yisrael, I’m not sure why this should matter. Teymani Jews live in a culture most akin to that in which the original B’nei Yisrael lived, so it makes sense that their customs would be similar. For the rest of us, it seems that we follow the customs that have developed out of our own unique individual, familial, and communal experiences throughout the world. Our customs are preferable for us precisely because we do have interactions with other cultures, and our customs grew out of those interactions. Teymani customs are not halachah. As another poster pointed out, they are not recorded in the gemarah; they are not particularly preferable or halachik, otherwise they would have been recorded for posterity by the compilers of the Torah shebaal pe.

Teymani customs are preferable for Teymanim (again, if your original premise is correct) precisely because Teymanim were isolated and there customs grew out of their unique circumstances. Our own customs are preferable for us precisely because they grew out of our interactions with other peoples and represent the way we molded the non-halachik aspects of our practice to deal with our particular living conditions.

The Sefardim are originally from Spain. So they too were just as far away.

But over the last 600 years they spread throughout North Africa and Southwest Asia.

I don’t think the chassidim wear peyos because the Yemenites do but rather because its brought al pi kabbalah.

Also what would the zchus be in emulating the Yemenites’ minhagim or along the lines of your thought- emulating the minhagim of the dor dea’ah?

I am not convinced that eating chamin instead of chulent will act as a meilitz yoshar for me at my din v’cheshbon.

The minhagim that they took on were for their reasons and the minhagim that we have today are for our reasons.