Beards

Beards
Rabbi Yehudah ben Shomeyr

Many ask me why sometimes I let my beard grow long and other times I trim it down. To be true it is a matter of preference, mood, weather or even job related. A short cropped beard is hard from my Autistic clients to grab and pull when they are having a melt down. A short cropped beard feels good in the summer. Many also ask if it is wrong to trim ones beard because of what the Orthodox Jews say, believe and practice. Sore here is my answer with in the breakdown of the verse in Torah dealing with beards.

I have combined the translations of KJV and the Stones Tanak.


Lev. 19:27a You shall not round off the edges or corners of your head/scalp.


This means your are not to shave bald the circumference of your head as in a bowl cut or to leave a tuft of hair on the top of your head like the Egyptians, Krishnas, or some Chinese Avatars do. This also forbids the practice of the catholic monks who shave the circumference and the top of their heads and leaves but a ring of hair around the head.


Lev. 19:27b Neither shall you mar or destroy the edges and or corners of your beard.


To mar or to destroy means to remove the facial hair in a violent manner so as to leave decay as in ripping ones beard out by the roots or in such a way that prevents ones beard from growing back. Ripping or burning so as to destroy the hair follicles and thus preventing beard growth is prohibited.

The last part of the verse, your beard implies if men can grow one, should. Jewish tradition tells us not to use scissors or a razor upon ones head and or face so as to make one smooth bald. Jewish tradition also says the way the head is shaped we have so many corners or points and that we are not to cut them with a razor or scissors. However, the plain text of the Hebrew tells us that a man, if he can, should grow a beard and there is nothing wrong with trimming it, even with scissors. But one must not shave ones head or facial hair completely off so as to make one bare and bald. A Jewish tradition creates a loophole for a man not to have a beard and that is to chemically remove the hair so there is no pulling or cutting. I totally disagree with that. To me chemical removal partly fits the definition of mar, which partially means, to decay.

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