[Avodah] Interesting discussion about the history of curly Peyos

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 12:25:45AM +1100, RSBA wrote to Areivim:
: http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2010/02/yekke-with-curly-peyos.html

For those who don't use other parts of the internet... It's a picture of
R' Aron Wolfssohn Halle (R' Aharon ben Wolf, from Halle), who lived
1756-1832, was the rav of Hildesheim, thus the "Yekke with Curly Peyos"
in the URL RSBA shared.

Also, there is a link in that comment by "S" to
http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/hamagid/html/hamagid.htm ,
about the newspaper HaMagid leYisrael published in Berlin,
1856-1902. There is a photo of the editor, R Eliezer Lipman Zilberman. He
two had curly peyos.

I think there is some SERIOUS antiquity to the notion. It's either that,
or I would have to accept parallel evolution of banana-curl peiyos in
both the Hungary-Galicia area and Teiman. See Gitin 58a (also mentioned
in the comments on that page), where R' Yehoshua ben Chanania sees a
beautiful boy, with curly peyos, in prison.

RYbC cried out, citing Yeshaiah 42:24, "Mi noasan limshissah Yaaqov,
veyisrale' levozezim, halo Hashem?" The [future R'] Yishmael ben Elisha
completed the pasuq from his cell, "Zu, chatanu lo.... vayishpokh alava
cheimah apo..."

We see from this gemera that curly peyos was considered part of a young
Jewish boy's beauty as far back as the days of the tannaim. (RYbC died
right before R' Aqiva joined bar Kochva, 131 CE.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If you won't be better tomorrow
micha at aishdas.org        than you were today,
http://www.aishdas.org   then what do need do you have for tomorrow?
Fax: (270) 514-1507              - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov