No, Torah
does not. In this MLT agrees with the Karaite position and disagree
with Orthodox Jews and most Messianics as the following article
explains.
In Leviticus 19:27-28 we are commanded:
"(27) You shall not round the edge of your head, nor shall you
destroy the edge of your beard. (28) And you shall not make a cutting
for the dead in your flesh, nor shall you make a written tattoo upon
you; I am YHWH."
In these two verses we are forbidden to make four types of "cuttings":
1) Cutting the head or hair
2) Cutting the face or beard
3) Cutting the flesh
4) Inscribing writing on the flesh
What precisely is forbidden by these four commandments? Are we
required to grow long Elvis-style side locks? Or Rabbanite-style
"pe'os"? To understand these four commandments we must consider the
meaning of the words in their immediate context as well as the broader
context of the entire Tanach and the ancient world in which the Torah
was given.
Let us begin with the first commandment in the series, rounding the
side of one's head. To round the side of the head does not mean to cut
the head itself but rather to cut the hair on the head. Specifically we
are forbidden from rounding the "Pe'ah" of the head. Pe'ah is often
translated as corner or side-lock, but it actually has the meaning of
"side" or "edge". This is always the meaning of the word Pe'ah in
hundreds of passages throughout the Tanach such as "and for the second
side of the tabernacle, on the north side (Pe'ah), twenty boards." (Ex
26:20) and again" And the west side (Pe'ah) shall be the Great Sea,
from the border as far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is
the west side (Pe'ah)." (Ezek 47:20).
To "round the edge of your head" means to cut off the hair around
the sides of the head. Many exegetes associate this with the pagan
"bowl-cut". A bowl-cut was an ancient hair-cut with pagan significance
that was created by placing a round bowl on the head and cutting all
the exposed hair.
However, when the prohibition to cut one's hair is repeated in Dt
14:1-2 we read: "...you shall not cut yourselves nor shall you place
baldness between your eyes, for the dead." Since most people do not
have any significant hair "between the eyes" this phrase is usually
understood as meaning the hair on the front of the head above the eyes.
Bearing this in mind, we learn two things from Dt 14. Firstly, we learn
that the prohibition is not necessarily a bowl-cut, but making any
baldness around the edges of the head. Secondly, we see that the
prohibition is specifically in the context of mourning. That is, one is
prohibited to make baldness in the head as an act of mourning "for the
dead". In ancient times, when someone died the surviving relatives were
so distraught that they cut their skin until they bled and shaved bald
spots on their head.
While cutting one's hair may sound like a strange act of mourning to
the modern reader, this was a common practice in the ancient world. In
fact, the Torah even permits non-Israelites to perform this despised
mourning practice in certain contexts. Thus we read regarding the
captive Gentile woman: "and she shall shave her head... and she shall
cry over her mother and her father for a month of days" (Deuteronomy
21:12-14). As an act of mercy, the Torah allows the heathen women to
shave her head while she mourns her recently killed father and mother
(cf. Dt 20:13-14).
That making bald spots on the head was a mourning practice is also
mentioned by the prophets. Thus we read "And I will turn your feasts
into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up
sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make
it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter
day." (Amos 8:10) Similarly, we read: "Make yourself bald, and shear
yourself for the children of thy delight; enlarge your baldness as the
vulture; for they are gone into captivity from thee." (Micah 1:16).
These are only two of many verses that relate to the fact that in
ancient times making bald spots on the head was an act of mourning
along with lamentation, rending of clothes and donning of sackcloth.
Thus when we are forbidden in Lev 19 and Dt 14 to "round the side of
your head" and "place baldness between your eyes... for the dead" the
meaning is that we may not shave our head or any part thereof as an act
of mourning or sadness. There is no implication in the commandment in
Lev 19 that we must grow side locks or pony tails. The only thing
prohibited in Lev 19:27a is to shave the side of the head as an act of
mourning. Were one to shave their head for stylistic reasons their
would be no prohibition whatsoever.
We have seen thus far that the Israelite is forbidden to make cuts
in his flesh and shave parts of his head as acts of mourning "for the
dead". In Lev 21 we read of a similar prohibition that specifically
applies to the Kohanim (descendants of Aaron). In Lev 21 the Kohanim
are forbidden from becoming ritually impure from the dead with the
exception of their immediate relatives. After listing the relatives
that the Kohen may become impure from, we read:
"(4) A man shall not become impurified by his people to defile him.
(5) They shall not make bald a baldness in their head nor shall they
shave the edge of their beard and in their flesh they shall not cut a
cut." (Lev 21:4-5)
The context of the passage is explicitly defiling oneself for the
dead. In this case the Kohanim are forbidden from various mourning
practices. Not only are they forbidden from coming in contact with the
dead bodies of their deceased friends (vv.1ff.) but they are also
forbidden from defiling themselves by making bald spots on their heads,
by shaving their beards, and by cutting their skin. We see here that
three of the prohibitions found in Lev 19 and Dt 14 are repeated in Lev
21. In all three passages both the implicit and explicit contexts are
that of mourning practices. Every ancient person knew that one cut
one's skin or shaved one's head as an act of mourning and it was these
acts of mourning that are being prohibited in Lev 19. While the
mourning connotation of cutting flesh and shaving may not be obvious to
the modern reader, we have seen that the Torah itself as well as the
later prophets take it as a given that cutting one's flesh and shaving
one's head are characteristic acts of mourning along with crying and
wearing sackcloth.
It is worth noting that the Nazir makes a vow not to shave his head
(Nu 6:5). At the end of the period of abstention, the Nazir shaves his
entire head, as we read: "And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated
head at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of his
consecrated head, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice
of peace-offerings." The reason the Nazir is permitted to shave his
entire head is because he is not doing it as an act of mourning.
Similarly, we read in 2Sam 14:26 that Absalom, the son of King David,
used to grow his hair long and then shave his head every year. Again,
this was not an act of mourning and therefore it was permissible to
shave the head.
Given that destroying/ shaving the beard is mentioned in the context
of forbidden mourning rites in both Lev 19 and Lev 21, we must ask
whether shaving the beard was also a forbidden mourning rite? In other
words, is the prohibition to destroy/ shave the beard a general
prohibition for all occasions or is it exclusively prohibited as an
acts of mourning or sadness.
Perhaps the first clue regarding shaving one's beard is the ritual
purification of the Metsora or "leper". We read in Lev 14:9: "And it
shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his
head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave
off; and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in
water, and he shall be clean." We see that in certain contexts a person
is required to shave his beard and this is even an act of purification.
Similarly, we read about the consecration of the Levites: "And thus
shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of
purification upon them, and let them cause a razor to pass over all
their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves."
(Nu 8:7). Again we see that shaving the beard and indeed all the hair
is not only permissible but can be an act of purification. In contrast,
the prohibition of Lev 19 is to shave the head or beard as an act of
mourning!
That shaving the beard was an act of mourning in ancient times is
clear from many biblical passages. For example, in the Book of Jeremiah
we read about a group of pilgrims mourning the destruction of the
Temple: "There came certain men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from
Samaria, eighty men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent,
and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in
their hand to bring them to the house of YHWH." (Jeremiah 41:5). We see
that these pilgrims were mourning and therefore tore their clothes, cut
their skin, and shaved their beards. Clearly then shaving the beard was
also an act of mourning along with tearing the clothes and cutting the
skin.
The fact that shaving was an act of mourning may shed light on a
rather obscure passage that till now has defied explanation. In 2Sam
9:1-4 we read that David sent emissaries to Hanun king of Amon to
comfort him over the death of his father. For some reason Hanun became
convinced that David's emissaries had not come to comfort him but to
spy out the land. In a strange act of retribution he decided to cut off
half their beards and send them humiliated back to Israel. Thus we read:
"(2) ...And David's servants came into the land of the children of
Amon. (3) But the princes of the children of Amon said unto Hanun their
lord: 'Do you think that David does honour your father, that he hath
sent comforters to you? has not David sent his servants to thee to
search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?' (4) So Hanun
took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and
cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent
them away."
Up till now it always seemed strange that Hanun and his advisors
would suspect David's emissaries of being spies without any seeming
justification. Even stranger was his reaction to discovering spies be
that he cut off their beards. Bearing in mind that ancient peoples
shaved off their beards as an act of mourning "for the dead", it
becomes clear why Hanun's advisors doubted that David's comforters had
come to pay condolences. Presumably Hanun and his cronies sat in the
royal court with torn clothes, cut skin, and shaven beards. When
David's men arrived with full beards Hanun's advisors assumed they were
not coming to mourn the dead king but to spy out the land. For were
they really coming to mourn the king they would have shaven their
beards. To teach them respect of the dead and humiliate them at the
same time, Hanun ordered that half their beards be cut off!
In summation, Lev 19:27-28, Lev 21:4-5, Dt 14:1-2 prohibit 4 different acts of mourning. These are:
1) Making a bald spot on the head as an act of mourning
2) Shaving the beard as an act of mourning
3) Cutting the skin as an act of mourning
4) Writing on the skin as an act of mourning
Interestingly, the making of tattoos as an act of mourning is the
most elusive in the list. It is only mentioned once in Lev 19:28 and
then never alluded to again in the Tanach. Reference is made to writing
on the flesh as an act of dedication to YHWH (Isa 44:5), but never as
an act of mourning. Yet the practice of inscribing the name of the dead
loved one in a tattoo still exists to this very day. Recently this
practice has come to the attention of the public when it was reported
that New York firemen and policemen were inscribing tattoos on their
flesh in memory of their deceased comrades.
Courtsey of http://www.karaite-korner.org/shaving.shtml
The Living Bible [says]: "You must not trim off your
hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beard, as the heathen
do." What is here condemned is not the trimming of the beard, but the
shaping of the beard to convey pagan images. It was an ancient custom,
for example, to trim the hair of the head and the beard to create a
circle around the face - the circle being symbolic of the sun. In this
version the mustache was shaved off completely. The wearing of the
beard in this case was a means of nonverbal communication - it said, "I
am a sun worshiper."
Courtesy of http://www.abcog.org/woman.htm
