Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/662

612 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beard

English). Anointing of the Beurd seems to be refurred to in Ps. cxxxiii. 2 (contrast the neglect of the Beard in I Sam. xxi. 14 as a sign of madness). In II Sam. xx. 9, taking a man by his Beard is, possibly, a sign of special friendship.

To mutilate the Beard of another by cutting or shaving is, consequently, considered a great disgrace, II Sam. x. 4 ("plucking out," Isa. 1. 6). Mourners bring a sacrifice by disfiguring themselves in this way:

612

modified Semitic esteem for the Beard: indeed,

it

had rather the contrary effect for it led to its consideration as something specifically Jewish (Baruch

vi.

The Halakah, accordingly, occupied

31).

itself

with the subject, having

in early times

reference to the precepts in Lev. xix. 27,

xxi.

These

5.

see references to cutting off, in Isa. xv. 2; to clipping, in Jer. xlviii.37; and plucking off in Ezra

passages were supposed to contain

3 (contrast Jer. xli. 5, where shaving is found even in the presence of the Lord, with the prohi-

o prohibitions, the removal of the side-locks ("pe'ot") and the shaving of the Beard. As regards the former, some authorities Beard of a Semite of the Upper Class. prohibit not only (From the tombs of the Beui-Htssau.) the total removal of these locks, but even clipping them (sec Pe'ot). Concerning the Beard, however, the Halakah only forbids its removal with a razor, and not even by this means except when the hair is removed smoothly and close to the roots (Misknah Mak iii. 5 Sifra, Kedoshim, vi. ed. Weiss, 90c). This modification of the actual Biblical prohibition was probably due to Jewish intercourse with the Greeks, as the regulation is expressly In made by the Rabbis that any one havTalmudic ing constant intercourse with the offiTimes. cers of the government might adopt the heathen tonsure, while to others it remained strictly forbidden (B. K. 83rt). Eliezer b. Hyrcanus, the representative of the old Halakah, opposed this innovation (ib. the reading " Elazar "

,

ix.

Lev. xix. 27, xxi. 5). The latter seems to mean the corners; i.e., sides, the clipping or shaving of which produces a pointed Beard. In distinction from the settled Semites, the nomadic tribes of the desert wore such a pointed Beard (compare Jer. ix. 25, xxv. 23. xlix. 32). On Egyptian representations, see W. M. Mailer," Asien unci Enropa," The shaving prescribed for lepers seems p. 140. intended to call public bition,

specially

attention to this dread

ed

-

disease

(Lev.xiv.9).

The n

busi-

of

e ss

barber (Ezek. v. 1) the

>j5Tty

^

'.•>';-/. ";•**•

",

i

.

«

may,

emonial

..V> rf:,

yjCiS

out-

side of cer-

shaving, have con-

'1

s''

i

s t e

d

in

trimming andpolling. Captive

Jew with (From the

In xli.

Clipped Beard.

British

Museum.)

Gen.

14,

Joseph's

shaving does not belong to the Palestinian, but to the Egyptian, custom. The Egyptians of the higher classes shaved the Beard carefully fashion allowing only sometimes a small tuft under the chin.

The

long, pointed chin-tuft of the primitive

Egyp-

tians (preserved among their Hamitic relatives, the Libyans and the inhabitants of Punt) was kept as an artificial Beard, tied to the chin on state occasions and at religious ceremonies. Of the other nations coming in contact with Israel, the Hittites and the Elamitio nations shaved the Beard completely, as the earliest Babylonians had done (in part?).

Bibliography Benzinger, HehrtUsche Archtloloyie, Nowack, Lehrhuch iter HebrUisehen Archilnlooic, W. M. Muller, Asien undEuropa, pp. 29t> et sfq.

W. M.

a.

p. 110 p. 134

M

In Rabbinical Literature That " the adornment of a man's face is his beard " (Shab. 152«) was a favorite saying among the Jews of Palestine in the second century of the common era; two centuries later, the expression " adornment of the face " was current among the Babylonian Jews as a designation

Beard (B. M. 84a). Intercourse with Greeks and Romans during all this period had evidently not for the

t

w







unsupported; compare Rabbinowicz, "Dikduke Soferim," on the passage), and forbade any removal of the Beard whatever, either with forceps or with is

a cutting instrument. Some of the ancients explain a passage in the Tosefta (Ber. i. 4) as if its removal were the custom of a heretical sect in the second century (Tos. of Judah Hasid and Solomon b. Adret, on Ber 11a). .

Although this passage admits another ex-

of

planation,

phanius

Epi("

Ad-

versus Hoereses,

lxx. 7



ed

.

Migne, ii. 765) mentions that a certain heretical sect regarded a

shaven face as a religious tial.

essen-

The "Apos-

tolic

tions,"

Constitui. 3, lay

insistence

Jewish Envoy with Beard.

upon

(From the Black ObuJiak of Shalmaaeser

II.)

the Biblical prohibition against the removal of the Beard, as does Clement of Alexandria ("Predagogus," chap. iii. ed.

Migne, 20),

i.

580-592



compare Jerome on Ezek.

and the Jewish sages agree

in

xliv.

basing the obiec-