[Avodah] Haircuts when Lag Baomer is on Sunday

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

Rama 493:2 writes: "When [Lag Baomer] falls on Sunday, the practice is
[nohagin] to get haircuts on Friday l'kavod Shabbos."

What makes this Friday different from all other Fridays of sefira? If
Kavod Shabbos is ample justification to get a haircut on Omer 31
(which is in the aveilus days by all reckonings), then it ought to
justify a haircut on Omer 24 (the previous Friday) also, shouldn't it?

But I have never heard of anyone allowing a haircut on Omer 24 simply
because it is Erev Shabbos, so there must be an additional factor at
work. For many years, I presumed the logic to be as follows: If a
person would need a haircut on Friday Omer 31, or on Friday Omer 24,
and fail to get that haircut, then he has failed to do Kavod Shabbos,
but he did it by inaction. He did it in a "shev v'al taaseh" manner,
and it is quite common for halacha to suspend an Aseh with a Shev V'Al
Taaseh. (Compare skipping this haircut to skipping Shofar on Shabbos.)

HOWEVER - If a person would go out of his way ("kum v'aseh") and
actually get a haircut on Sunday, that is intolerable. To have been
disheveled on Shabbos (even if justifiably), and then suddenly be all
fancied up the very next day, that is an insult to Shabbos, and we
cannot allow Shabbos to be insulted in that manner. So when the Rama
writes that we allow the haircuts "for kavod Shabbos", what he
actually means is that we allow the haircuts "to avoid insulting
Shabbos."

And this is what makes this weekend of Sefiras Haomer different from
all the others: On the other Sundays of Sefira, no one is getting a
haircut anyway, so the whole question doesn't exist. But in this year,
on this particular weekend, we do have this problem. The Rabbis
*could* have chosen to protect the kavod of Shabbos by forbidding us
to get haircuts when Lag Baomer is on Sunday, but instead they chose
to protect the kavod of Shabbos by allowing us to get haircuts when
Omer 31 is on Friday.

Or so I thought for many years. But I have questions on this logic.

According to what I have written, getting a haircut on Sunday is a bad
idea - no matter what time of year it is. Yet I don't recall ever
hearing anyone advise against it. In particular, when this situation
of a Sunday Lag Baomer occurs, I have often hear people cite this Rama
as granting permission to get their haircut on Friday. But in
actuality, shouldn't it be less of a permission, and more of a
*recommendation*? When a person asks the question, shouldn't the
answer be, "Yes, you can get the haircut on Friday, and that's even
better than waiting for Sunday." But I have not heard anyone suggest
this.

That's about as far as I was going to write, but then I went to the
seforim to make sure I understood the Rama correctly. Indeed, his
phrasing, "nohagin to get haircuts on Friday l'kavod Shabbos", could
easily be understood to mean DAVKA on Friday rather than Sunday. But
although it *could* be understood that way, I don't remember anyone
actually doing do.

And then I came across Kaf Hachayim 493:33, who writes that the Levush
held differently than the Rama in this situation:

> The Levush writes that if the 33rd is on a Sunday when the
> non-Jews are not barbering because of their holiday, *that's*
> when you can get a haircut on Friday. Meaning that in a place
> where you *can* get a haircut on Sunday, then you should *not*
> get the haircut on Friday. But from the words of the Rama, who
> writes "l'kavod Shabbos", he means to allow it in any case.
> And Elya Raba #9 writes the same thing about this Levush, that
> the Rama allows it l'kavod Shabbos in either case.

To rephrase: If one has a choice between getting his haircut on Friday
or Sunday, then the Levush gives precedence to the minhagim of aveilus
during Sefira, and requires us to wait until Sunday for the haircut,
and *not* get the haircut on Friday Omer 31. The idea of suddenly
showing up with a haircut on Sunday does not (seem to) bother the
Levush, and this is totally consistent with the lack of anyone ever
being told to avoid Sunday haircuts the rest of the year.

But the Kaf Hachayim (with support from Elya Raba) rejects the
approach of the Levush. He seems to accept the word of the Rama, plain
and simple, that we can get haircuts on Friday Omer 31 because it is
l'kavod Shabbos.

And, according to Rama, this applies whether the barbershops are open
on Sunday or not. Even if one has the option of waiting until Lag
Baomer, he can "violate" the aveilus of Sefira on Omer 31, because the
haircut is l'kavod Shabbos.

This leaves me stuck with my original question: If Kavod Shabbos is
ample justification to get a haircut on Omer 31, then it ought to
justify a haircut on Omer 24 also, shouldn't it? Obviously no, but
why?

with many thanks in advance for your thoughts,

Akiva Miller

PS: The Levush is not totally machmir; he does allow leniency, but
only in the case of where Lag Baomer is on Sunday, AND the barbers are
closed on that day. Only in such a case does he allow a haircut on
Omer 31. I have to wonder why he would allow that exception, rather
than disallowing it entirely. Here's my guess: The Levush was aware of
poskim who allowed haircuts on Friday Omer 31, but he felt this to be
an improper violation of the aveilus, and paskened that people should
wait for Sunday Lag Baomer. But if the barbers would be closed, that
means people would have to wait another two weeks for their haircuts,
in which case he allowed the leniency.