{"id":394,"date":"2006-10-31T10:53:28","date_gmt":"2006-10-31T08:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2006\/10\/31\/marring-the-edges-of-your-beard\/"},"modified":"2006-10-31T10:53:28","modified_gmt":"2006-10-31T08:53:28","slug":"marring-the-edges-of-your-beard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/31\/marring-the-edges-of-your-beard\/","title":{"rendered":"Marring the Edges of Your Beard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jewish lesson for today is on payot<\/em> or sidelocks that are worn by many Orthodox men. The reason that these exist goes back to Leviticus 19:27, which states:<\/p>\n

“You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard” (ESV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rabbis have interpreted this in different ways, such that some believe that payot must never be trimmed. Others say that it is permissible to trim or cut these with scissors but not a razor.<\/p>\n

\"man_with_payot_sidelocks_tb100906882wr.JPG\"<\/div>\n

One of the questions that I am often asked but cannot answer concerns why different Jewish men wear payot in different ways. For all of you who felt that your trip to Israel was incomplete because I couldn’t answer this, I offer this short explanation from Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although there is no prescribed style of wearing peyos, there are certain styles which usually identify the person to which sect or group he belongs.<\/p>\n

Yemenite<\/a> – The Yemenites wear distinctive long and thin twisted locks, often reaching to the upper arm. The actual area where the hair grows and where the ringlet begins is neat and tidy. The Yemenites refer to their peyos as “simanim” (signs) as this was the only external feature that made them recognisable as Jews and which distinguished them from their Muslims neighbours. There are those that claim that these may have been the way that the ancient Jews wore their peyos in Temple times, as the settlement of the Jews in Yemen dates back to after the dispersion after destruction of the Second Temple<\/a>, and until modern times they remained virtually isolated form the rest of world Jewry.<\/p>\n

Breslov<\/a> – Breslov Chassidim<\/a> sport long and thin locks, differing from the Yemenite<\/a> style in that the upper section where the hair actually grows is much more thick and frizzy before descending into the actual locks.<\/p>\n

Belz<\/a> – The peyos are wrapped around the ear a number of times.<\/p>\n

Gur<\/a> – The peyos are raised from the temple and tucked under the yarmulke<\/a>. This custom started in their native Poland<\/a> as a way to stop antagonism from non-Jews. To this end, in Jerusalem<\/a> where the Rebbes<\/a> of Gur<\/a> reside, the Chassidim<\/a> are accustomed to let down their peyos.<\/p>\n

Skver<\/a> – The peyos are twisted around themselves into a tight coil and are left protruding in front of the ear.<\/p>\n

Litvish<\/a> \u2013 A relatively few, short strands are left uncut and are neatly placed behind the ear. This is most commonly found among yeshiva<\/a> students who may remove them after marriage.<\/p>\n

Brisk<\/a> \u2013 The hair is brushed straight down, usually reaching till the ear lobe. Sometimes some is retained and curled back behind the ear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jewish lesson for today is on payot or sidelocks that are worn by many Orthodox men. The reason that these exist goes back to Leviticus 19:27, which states: “You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard” (ESV). Rabbis have interpreted this in different ways, such\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}