Beards and Payos: When Fashion Drifts Away from Halacha

According to Rabbi S.R. Hirsch (commentary to Tehilim 92:14), the detailed structure and operations of the mishkan/mikdash are designed to guide our moral, communal, and personal behavior. So let’s spend a couple of minutes looking for guidance.

Rabbi Shlomo Miller of Toronto has famously noted that a kohen with long payos who entered the mikdash intending to perform temple service would find himself in serious trouble. That’s because of the beraissa in Sanhedrin (22b) that forbids regular kohanim from allowing their hair to grow for more than 30 days. The source is Yechezkel (44:20):

וְרֹאשָׁם לֹא יְגַלֵּחוּ וּפֶרַע לֹא יְשַׁלֵּחוּ כָּסוֹם יִכְסְמוּ אֶת רָאשֵׁיהֶם

Their heads they must not shave, and they should (also) not allow their hair to grow wild. They should properly trim [the hair of] their heads

The Sefer Hachinuch (149) writes that the primary source for this mitzva is Vayikra 10:6, where Aharon and his two surviving sons are instructed - despite the deaths of Nadav and Avihu - to neither allow their hair to grow wild (תפרעו) nor tear their clothes. In other words, whatever mourners would normally do, kohanim (or at least kohanim gedolim) - because of their mikdash responsibilities - are forbidden. The Torah’s comparison suggests that the rules governing these two laws are parallel.

In his explanation for the mitzva’s rationale, the Sefer Hachinuch further associates this mitzva with the rules of mourning, writing how:

it’s appropriate for us not to approach (the mikdash) with long hair which is the way of mourners…

While the basics of this law are clear enough, the practical application has always confused me.

• What does ראש mean? Is there any logic that would restrict it to just hair growing from the scalp, or does it also include the beard? After all, mourners are at least as likely to allow their beards to grow long as the hair on their scalps.

• And what does “30 days” mean? Does the 30-day clock start ticking from a shaven scalp, implying that kohanim are required to regularly shave their payos, too (hard to imagine)? Or perhaps it’s 30 days since your last haircut. But would that mean a kohen who has never cut his hair is nevertheless allowed another 29 days - no matter how long his hair would then be (harder to imagine)?

The Rabbainu Chananel (Taanis 17a) seems to think that the prohibition starts once a kohen’s hair hits the “30 day” length - regardless of how long it’s been since his previous haircut:

אין להם לגדל אלא כשיעור כסוי הראש והוא שלשים יום

They should not grow (their hair) beyond the length (necessary to) cover the head, and that is 30 days

Ok. Those, at least as far as I can tell, are the halachic parameters. But how should all that guide us? Following the approach of the Sefer Hachinuch, perhaps we should say that walking around with hair that’s too long (30 days) is inappropriate for a Torah-observant individual. Shouldn’t our appearance reflect cheerful optimism rather than the dark anxiety of mourners? Instead, perhaps our hair should be “well trimmed” as Yechezkel would have it.

We’re obviously not talking about halachic restrictions here. But in this context, payos and untrimmed beards feel just a bit…out of place.

By the way, I’m aware of no references to growing long payos and beards in any mainstream (i.e., non-kabbalistic) Torah sources. Have I missed any?

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