Beard and Hair in Men, Specially in the Rabbi.

Now let’s look briefly a little more about what the beard represents in traditional Judaism. Many Jewish males, not all, have their faces populated by beards almost untouched, or unsettled. Many rabbis, not all, also follow this trend and it is considered that this is a tradition that accentuates their status as priests. All these men follow a Biblical principle “that prohibits cut with a razor’s head hair.”

The Creator of the Universe in His Torah says:

Vayikra (Lev) 19:27-28 “Do not cut in a circular way the ends of your hair, nor damage the edges of your beard.” You will not do scars in your body for a dead man, nor do you tattoos; “I am YHWH.“

Vayikra (Lev) 21:1-6 “YHWH said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them,” None be contaminated with a dead person among his people … “” They will not be tonsur in the head, nor shave the edges of the beard, nor will they be scars in their flesh. They shall be holy to their Elohim and will not profane the name of their Elohim, because they shall present the offerings lit to YHWH, the food of their elohim; “Wherefore, they shall be holy.“

These prohibitions are given for priests to be kept holy before Elohim and to avoid doing what other cultures who loved the “sun god” did. See:

Yeshayahu (Isa) 15:1-2 “The burden of Moab: Because in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste; it is cut off; because in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste; it is cut off. One goes up to the house, even to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab shall howl over Nebo and over Medeba; all its heads shall be bald, every beard shorn“

YHWH is very clear that He does not want us to copy anyone`s habits:

Devarim (Deu) 12:29-30 “When YHWH your Elohim shall cut off the nations from before you, where you are going in to possess them, and you shall possess them, and shall live in their land, take heed to yourself that you not be snared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their Elohim?“

Devarim (Deu) 12:3-4 “And you shall break down their altars, and shatter their standing pillars. And you shall burn their Asherahs with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and shall destroy their names out of that place. You shall not do so to YAHWEH your Elohim“

Certainly in the traditions of the Jewish people (Talmud) says:

The gemarah in Shabbat 152a, says that “the splendor of a man’s face is his beard“

The esoteric tradition of Israel teaches us that the beard is synonymous with the male of “Beauty and Grace”, as the hair is in the woman. And it adds that the hairs can function as an antenna to receive cognition from the eternal. The book “Haderet Panim” a book of more than 400 pages on the beard cites Halakha, Gemarrah, Minhag, Ktuvim and some sources in Zohar saying “the hairs of the head are Tzinaros of Tumah while the beard hair are tzinaros of Kedusha. Tzinaros being “vehicles“.

These traditions we respect and directly do not contradict the Torah.

It was important for our parents (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as Moses, Aaron and other prophets) and for us today, to differentiate ourselves from the representatives of paganism, that following their religious practices used to always be perfectly shaved, or sometimes even totally shaved and waxed, and they strived in the care and particular arrangement of their beards (see the figures of priests in the Egyptian murals or the priests and Kings of Babylon).

Aaron, Elohim’s high priest, wore his beard as a sign of honor and respect. That is, he maintained a behavior according to the Torah and the Mitzvot.

Wearing a beard did not makes us neither better nor worse, neither spiritual nor worldly, no religious practitioners or rabbis. Each one follows the commandment of Elohim, not imitating the pagans, but in harmony with the mitzvot of Elohim and His Holiness before him.

Messianic Rabbi Yosef Ben Marques 2017