Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/663

613 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

613

removal on the ground that God gave a Beard to distinguish him from woman, and

tiou to such

man

Beard

The

Cabalists succeeded where the Talmudists they declared even the shortening of the Beard with scissors to be a great sin, and they related of their master, Isaac Luria, that he kept his hands from his Beard lest the contact should cause any hairs to drop from it (Judah Ashkenazi, "BaBr Ileteb," on Yoreh De'ah, I.e.). With the spread of failed;

Lima's Cabala in Poland and the Slavonic lands, any trimming of the Beard with scissors was gradually

The Italians, even the Italian Cabashaved, according to the custom of the land, one of them even going so far as to demonstrate cabalistieally that shaving off the Beard was interdicted only in the Holy Land, and that elsewhere the opposite practise was rather to be recommended (Shabbethai Beer, "Responsa BePr 'Eshek," 670). In Eastern lands the Jews, like their Mohammedan neighbors, did not cut their beards and in 1720 this led to a violent controversy between Italian Jews who had settled for business purposes in Salonica, Turkey, and the rabbinate there, the latter insisting The that the newcomers must wear their beards. Italian rabbis, called into the discussion by their countrymen, could not decide the matter; for the further question was involved as to the obligation of sojourners to govern themselves by the rules of their temporary abiding-place (Joseph Ergas, " Dibre Yosef," No. 36, decides against the Italians; in their favor were S. Morpurgo and Mordecai Zahalon, in the first responsa collection, "Shemesh Zedakah," No. 61). This "cult of the Beard " had also its opponents, and among them was especially noticeable Joseph Solomon del Medigo, from whom, or from whose pupil, Moses b. Mcir j«d (Metz?), flic followprohibited.

lists, still



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H

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Beard of au Assyrian King. (From Bulla, " Monuments de Nineve.")

ing epigram "

is

extant:

be judged wise by their beards and tbeir girth, Then goats were the wisest of creatures on earth.'

If

men

1

that

it

is

therefore

wrong

to antagonize

nature

(among Jewish commentators compare Bahya and Abravanel on Lev. xix. 27). In Palestine, where a large Hellenic

Tn the second half of the seventeenth century the

population resided, the clipping of

the Beard (except in periods of mourning) seems to have been prevalent as early as the third century in learned circles of Jews, who probably respected the

above-mentioned tannaite Halakah, while the uninformed people scarcely regarded the distinction between clipping and shaving ( Yer. R. H. i. 57b). In medieval times, as in the Talmudical period, the custom of the country seems to have been followed in regard to the Beard.

In Medieval Times.

In the East,

among Mohammedan nations, the Jews wore long beards; in Germany, France, and Italy, it was entirely removed

with scissors (Levi, "Tisporet LulyKimhi to II Sam. x. 5; Asheri, Makkot hi., beginning; marginal gloss on the Tos. to Shab. 2b, quoted by Isserlein, "Terumat haDeshen," p. 295; authoritative thus for the period from the twelfth to the fifteenth century). Scrupulous German rabbis, however, sought, as early as anit,"

pp. 70, 71;

the fifteenth century, to forbid the cutting of the Beard, doubtless because the majority paid little attention to the strict letter of the Halakah, and, instead of cutting with the scissors, shaved smooth But this rigor was with a razor (Isserlein, I.e. p. 9). too much even for Issorles (Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah, 181, 9).

of a Judeau from Egypt. (From Sayce, " Races of the Old Testament.")

Head Showing Beard

practise arose among the Jews in Germany and Italy removing the Beard by means of pumice-stone or

of