[Avodah] Why are beards considers so choshuv?

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Avroham Yakov _avyakov at hotmail.com_ (mailto:avyakov at hotmail.com) 




>>Why are beards considers so choshuv?



We know from  the seder how Rav Azariah had a big gray beard
come via a  miracle.



But to get a beard requires two things: good genes and  not
shaving.  A person has no control over
the genes, and to grow a  beard, a person just does not shave.  That is the 
opposite of l'fum tzara  agra.



So with that, why does Judaism consider a beard so  chashuv?



Aside from the issue of the permissibility of eclectic  razor,
why is a beard so chashuv?  And why do
many men feel  embarrassed by their inability to grow a full bread (having  
peach
fuzz)?  <<







>>>>>
 
1.  It wasn't R' Azariah, it was R' Elazar ben Azariah, quoted in the  
Hagadah, "Harei ani keven shiv'im shanah" -- "I am like a man of seventy years  
old."  He was the man who was appointed head of the Sanhedrin or something  
like that at the age of 18 and miraculously his beard turned white, so that  
the other chachamim would respect him as an elder and not look down on him 
as a  youngster.  The white beard is a sign of age and in general, in the 
Torah  world the elderly are given more respect than the young, because they 
are  presumed to be more knowledgeable and wiser.  "Zekenim" is virtually a  
synonym for "the wise and learned."  "Zaken = zeh shekanah chachma."
 
2.  Since there is an issur of shaving with a razor, not shaving at  all is 
a sort of hiddur mitzva.  There is also an issur of not cutting off  the 
corners of your beard, i.e., the payos, and once again, leaving the whole  
face unshaved is a sort of hiddur mitzva.
 
3.  Shaving off the beard is considered a denial and denigration of  one's 
masculinity -- it is a sort of "feminizing" thing to do, making one's face  
look more womanly and less manly, so that's one reason it's frowned upon in  
certain frum circles.  The beard is /both/ a sign that one is adult  and no 
longer a child, and /also/ that one is male and not female.   Obviously in 
Litvishe circles where all the bachurim go beardless, they are not  
concerned that being beardless is "effeminate."  But even in those circles,  men are 
strongly encouraged to grow their beards after marriage, when they need  to 
appear more adult and less juvenile.  (And maybe they also need to be  more 
masculine in their role as husband and father?  Just  speculating.)
 
4.  Why  do men care if their beard grows in spotty, fuzzy or  sparse? -- 
that is because, as members of the human race, they are subject to  the trait 
of vanity.  Men want to be handsome!  For a similar reason  -- because they 
care how they look, even at age 80 -- women mind very much if  they find 
themselves growing a beard, even if it is only peach fuzz, and they  will go 
to great lengths to eliminate facial hair.  This now brings us back  to the 
"effeminate" side of eliminating one's beard, showing that the removal of  
facial hair is a feminine thing to do.
 
5.  One of the most charming typos I have seen in a long  time is your 
reference, above, to the "eclectic razor" -- which  is quite different from 
Occam's razor.  Occam's razor would be the  simplest, most straightforward 
answer to your original question.  The  eclectic razor would be, I guess, shiv'im 
panim laTorah.   It would  give 70 different answers without, however, 
shaving the truth.
 
 

--Toby  Katz
==========

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