KOSHER HAIRCUTS {Sefiras HaOmer}

Okay, good morning everyone. Today we have a very very important topic. Maybe the most important topic that we'll ever speak about. Recently somebody told me that their grandfather who was in Raden was aim when the yeshiva was running away during the war they went they were in Siberia. So th thisa was the barber in Raden. The barber of Raden, not the barber of Seville, the barber in Raden. And when they were in Siberia, actually when I was coming back now from uh Raden, I was in JFK, I saw a guy. He's like, you know, bless you. Bless you. You know, I figure he's a evangelical guy. He says he prays for us. I said, yeah, you know, where do you live? He lives in he lives in Siberia, opposite Alaska. I said, "Oh, that's nice. Uh uh it gets cold over there." He said, "Yeah, it gets to like -60°." So anyway, these Jews who were in Siberia, he had a choice. They they asked him, you know, the the Kamadan asked him, "What do you do? What do you know how to do?" So he figured if he told them that he's a barber, he'll be able to work indoors, maybe save his life. But he made a he could either be a barber and he'll have to do barbering on chabas or he'll have to chop wood on chabas. If he chops wood on chabas, okay, every log will be another lav. But with a haircut, every hair is another lav on chabas, right? So if he's cut giving a haircut, that's like I don't know how many hairs on the head. Probably millions of hairs. So what depends, you know, whether the guy's ashkanazic or not. But um when even even someone with hair loss probably has millions of hair on the side and uh he was moer nephesh to to uh chop wood in the freezing tundra rather than be a barber indoors. Okay. So the reason I'm speaking about this is uh yesterday I mentioned that you have to be very careful in a in a particular area that the machines are not used to to make it even because there there might be a prohibition of so someone came over to me and he said um he wasn't aware of it if I could help him do chuva. So I thought that was really uh godless you know so uh you know human nature is you hear something that you didn't know you get very defensive about it no it's not true there must be another opinion this is a strict opinion but want to know how to rectify it that's ashy uh ash you know fortunate somebody who takes responsibility and improves it okay so the first thing I want to speak about is the love of everybody have the diagram everyone have the picture now very important the Torah says you're now to encircle the pis of your head which means you can't make it where you just have hair on top and the hair on the side of the temples is is removed and therefore the top is circular and now there when it comes to it doesn't say not to use a razor. It almost implies any manner of removal of hair in this area is a problem. Razor or or scissors. And then it says by the beard, you know how to destroy the hair, the corners of your beard. So it seems like by the beard you can't use a razor. By the encircled area you can't use anything, you can't remove it in any way. And that is the opinion You can't remove anyway. However, the ram holds that we make a hkish. They're they're hookah. The same way by the beard, it's only a problem if you use a razor on the sides of the head. It's only a problem if you use a razor. Now, so according to the Rambam, a haircut is uh is a cinch because obviously no barber would dare take a razor and put it not only anywhere in this area, but anywhere near your face cuz we're not exactly sure where the various corners are. You can't. That's one thing. You can't use a razor anywhere near your face. Can't use a razor anywhere. There's no area that we could say, "Yeah, you could you could use a razor there." So, according to the Ram, the same way the beard is only uh prohibited with a razor, so to the sides of the head are only prohibited with a razor. However, the rush disagrees. The rash says, "No, the razor is only for because it says you can't destroy, but you can't use scissors." According to the rush, you cannot use scissors in this area to make your hair too short. How do we pasan like the rush? We're m like the rush that in this area you cannot make the hair too short. Nothing. Not not only with a razor, even with scissors. You cannot make the hair too short short with scissors. So it behooves us to identify what this area is because even with scissors, you can't make it too short. Now, usually with scissors, they're not going to make it too short because it's hard to get to cut it at the root. The problem is they're using the machine. Okay? The machine is going to cut the hair too short in this area. You know, very often people want to have like a a very trimmed haircut over here and you cannot use the machine for the most part because it's going to be a problem of now we need to identify what this area is. So, two things. This is the most important thing. Nowadays, the coolest haircut is you have guys, I don't know, maybe it's a Jewish thing, and um by the time they're 17 years old, there's no more hair on the top. That's they're done, you know, and I don't know what it is. It's the chant. It's the It's the water. I can't I don't know. But once once there's hair loss on the top, then it's not cool anymore to have no hair on the top. and have a lot of hair on the side that's like so 80s, you know, that's like or the or 70s. So what they do is the buzz cut where they want they want to have the bald look. So they get a really close haircut on the pace area. Now you still see little bristles, but it's like, you know, it's like uh NBA style, you know. Are you allowed to do that? No. It's is dissa. It's potentially an issa that haircut. And you see from people they wear talis they wearin they keep shabas but their haircut is so now the question is what about I don't have that kind of haircut where do I need to be careful to make sure the barber doesn't use a machine so that he doesn't cut any of the hairs too close okay what exactly are so take a look at the diagram okay another thing is when you take a haircut on on Arab Shabas, you need to have a few kavanas. Cavana number one is you're taking the haircut. How many Cavanos should you have when you take the haircut? Seven. Exactly. Sevenas. Number one, you're doing it. You're taking the haircut. Then you could add all the other cabanas. Every time you do a mitzvah, you do a chuva. You do it. I shouldn't put you on the spot with a with to be to bring and then every time you take your haircut you need to be not to violate the love of we'll see we'll see there might be a setting we'll get it we'll talk about the sh and pay a worker on Oh yeah, right. And pay the worker on time. Thank you. Okay. So, let's identify what exactly are. Basically, it's going to be created with three corners. Corner number one, and this I took from Rabbi Azenfeld's pocket halak series, the halas of haircuts. Okay, I'm not an expert on this topic, but because uh it's it's haircut season, just so you should have some level of awareness. This guy who gave permission to allow his face to be used, I can't tell you his name. His name is Abraham. Ai. Okay. Anyway, corner number one is here. Okay. You see this corner? You know what this corner is? Corner number one is there are two areas of hair. There's hair in the front where the hair starts going down down toward the eyes. And there's hair on the side where the hair starts growing down to the ears. Those are two distinct growing patterns. Hair that grows down to the eyes, hair that goes down to the ears. In that that that's corner number one where where the hair that goes down to the eyes is perpendicular to the hair that starts growing toward the ear. Okay, that's corner number one over here. Corner number two is not so clear. It seems like it's the apex, the highest point of the hairline over the ear. Okay, the highest point. I think the says it's a bit above it just as but it's the apex of the hairline over the ear. That's corner number two. Corner number three is the bottom of the jawbone of the of the bone on the side of the head. What? Cheekbone. Someone got it. Cheekbone. The bottom of the cheekbone. Okay. Now, many people think the place to put the pis is, "Oh, let me feel where the bone is, and it should be below that." No. Sorry. Somebody conned you into thinking that. That bone is not relevant to this discussion. I don't care how many people in kindergarten told you that or in pre-1A or in first grade or you heard it from your moa or your mother or your aunt or your aunt's goldfish's friend told you that it has to be by the bone. That has nothing to do with anything. That's not a relevant point over here. There are going to be three opinions and it's not connected to that. It's very hard to identify where that is. And here we we go. You ready? We're going to identify the three points. Point number one, you see turn over the sheet. Sheet number one, sheet number one is somehold that the pasm needs to go down to the middle of the canal of the ear. The middle of the canal of the ear. You see that? That's number one. Where you have the ear canal, you see this hole? the that hole is where all sound waves go into that hole. I can't explain to you how sound works. Maybe Dr. Manakam will explain the the mechanism over here. But the middle of the canal of the ear is shittita number one. Sometimes you see people with very short pis we hope it goes long enough that it goes down to the middle of the canal of the ear. Whose opinion is this? It's brought in the shaub. The second opinion, it's the bottom of the air canal. The bottom of the air canal. You see where the bottom of the air canal is? The hole. The bottom of the hole. It should go to the bottom of the hole. Whose opinion is that? It seems that this is what the the means when it says below the ear until the end of the canal of the ear. This is the opinion of the Imra also in the safer. He says this is the minog. Okay. So if your pays are, you know, you feel I'm a I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, I'm a car mechanic, I'm an electrician, and I'm only going to get business if my payest go all the way up to here. No, pal. First, let me give you some fashion advice. You look better if it goes down to the bottom of the air canal. You look better. That's I'm telling you my personal opinion, not not as a rabbi. This is not hahik advice. This is not I'm telling you aesthetically your face looks better if it's framed up to the bottom of the air canal. But besides that now that is the majority opinion and you need to do that. You need to do that unless you can unless with conviction you feel that this is going to affect your livelihood. But even so it's very doubtful. It I'm telling you it's not going to affect your livelihood. It needs to be to the bottom of the air canal. There is a third opinion and it seems like Rabbi Yashv holds this way that it needs to go down to the bottom of the earlobe. Now I'm not so sure about that. I think you could legitimately say that it means to where the earlobe connects to the face. Okay, you hear what I'm saying? The ear because the earlobe goes below the earlobes go below. So this is you know this is the opinion um this is the the Elvis uh sideburns you know where it goes what boots the boots yeah is is there basis for this yes yes there is says that's where it should be is it the is it the is it the miniv for the most part the benyra are mak on number two on number two but you but number Number two is is you need to do that you need to do number two. Okay. Now so this is the area where we identified so goes from this point this corner by the where where the hair starts to go down to the face as opposed to the the hair going down to the ear. That's corner one. Corner number two is the apex above the ear. Corner number three is the end of the ear canal. Okay. The added that it's best to encircle from point A to point B. You see what I mean? Encircle. In other words, don't make a straight line from here to here, but rather it should be encircled in this area. You cannot cut the hair too short. What does too short mean? Not only with a razor, but even with a scissor, you cannot cut any of the hair too short. So, how long does it have to be? So now when we say a razor it means a razor blade, a shaver, a scissor, cream. You can't cut it too short in that area. What is too short? So let me tell you the shirim that are given over here. Okay, it means between 3 and 5 mm. Less than that, you've cut it too short and you're between 3 and 5 mm. Okay, which means to use that machine, you know, the the the machine without any of the guard on the machine, the machine, you know, the machine that he uses to cut the hair on the back. To use that machine in this area is a problem. which means he can't start like trimming to make it look very neat in this area. He can't use the machine here. So, he's going to use the machine and what he's going to say is he's not touching your face. He's using it like a scissor. And he is because most from barbers, they know they can't cut it too short. But the thing is, even though they claim they're using like a scissors, maybe the hair a little bit higher will cut like scissors. But they hear mamish by the face, they're going to be cutting too short. So you tell them raid, you know, in this area you can only use scissors. You can only use you have to tell the barber in this area from here until here only scissors. Over here from the back of the ear, he could use the machine. The back of the neck he could use the machine. In this area, he cannot use the machine. And you're going to tell him and two minutes later he's going to be using the machine and he's you're going to ask, "What do you do?" Oh, I forgot. He's going to forget. He's going to keep on forgetting. You have to remind him again and again and again not to use the machine in this area. And you're going to look good. You're going to come home. Your wife said, "Wow, you look dashing." What? Where did you go? No, I used I used uh scissors today. Wow. Right. It's you're going to get a lot of compliments. Okay. Some barbers are inspired and they say they say the Rambam. Yeah. Because Right. That's also a good point because according to the Rambam you could you you could cut it too short here but the is like the rush also they say I go according to my rabbi I said yeah but you're not my it's not you're not my rabbi that comes also problematic tell right you have to tell him that he has to get his act act together um okay y point out also now let's say the barber uses the machine here and he gives you a nice pencil cut, you know, um, pis, you know, the guy walk comes home and his pay are like this thin. They don't grow naturally this thin. They're they're wide. So, what? So, who's the barber or the barbaret? You know, the barber or the guy who got the haircut? How do you say the guy who the mak or the nikf? Who's over the could a woman cut a two shirt her? Yes. There's no Iser of for a woman who's a nikf but say okay I have a good idea. I'll go to a woman barber. So besides other problems a woman cannot make encircle the hair of a man. So she could get the haircut. She can't give the haircut. So bottom line is But I see razors in the back. So people use razor over here. I don't I I'm not even comfortable commenting on but I I I I think you're allowed to. I don't do it, but I think you're allowed to. It's definitely not or is it is there a I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know. Close to the jaw. Yeah. Is it? I don't know. I don't If they use a a straight razor, you're really close to the jaw. You mean they might they might sl I don't know. I'm not sure. You believe you're this area? I don't think so. I'm not sure. That's a different issue of of that's like a woman's type of activity. You know what is called a fac of hair removal is more like uh you know um okay one second. So in terms of the the shortness it it's too short meaning it has to be minimum three to five millimeters. Now where does this come from? Basically there are two shittita number one is the sha the shak says as long as there's a little bit of hair it's okay which would be a little bit of a meus on the buzz cut in this area. However the opinion of the brought in Alf also the benesai and others is it has to be what is called to bend over to bend over here and it goes back to the root. It has to be long enough that you could bend it over it goes back to root. How long is that? At least 5 mm. Rebavid Feinstein says it should be six millimeters. Okay. So, Lama, if you're going, it's best to use only scissors in that area. If you're going to use a machine, a two guard is good. A two guard is good. Yeah, a one guard is a problem. A one guard cuts it an eighth of an inch, which is 3.175 mm, which is too short. It needs to be a quarter of an inch. Okay? So, if you want to use the machine, you have to tell the barber to use a two guard in this area. A one guard is not good enough. The machine itself is not good enough. And if you do that, imagine you have a guy, what do you do the whole day? Maybe he learned a few minutes in the morning and then he learned a little Mishnaba after that and then I don't know how many mitzvah could he do already. But then he goes to the barber and he's And if he does it right, he comes out of the barber, he just got a million mitzvah. Some people I know they go to the barber more than they go five times a day cuz every time you go to the bar No, I'm joking. But what? That's expensive. Yeah, especially now with the new prices. Yeah. But in any event, it's the barber place could be mamish. You could get more mitzvah in the barber shop than anywhere else. I mean it rivals the B mish base medish you get 200 mitzvah a minute. Then the barber shop you could get a million mitzvah a minute. They said they were sending around the barber shops in Lakewood. The guy one guy was getting a haircut and the 20 guys sitting around they're all learning right? But really the guy in the seat who wasn't learning was getting more mitzvah than the guy sitting around learning because the guy in the seat he was using scissors in that area. Okay, that's all. So um look most most uh most know you can't cut this area too short where just you have to remember is that it it does make it neater with the machine in this area. You just tell them to use a scissor and then you're good to go. Combing, you know. So, no combing. You're allowed to comb. There's no problem with combing. I'm saying I'm saying you have Yeah, you're allowed to. It's dash mascara. You're allowed to comb. Yeah. How if you don't comb, how do you get perfectly permed curled pis? You think it naturally grows like that? They have to comb it. Yeah. You can't that just like that is not going to do it. You need Yeah. Okay. Rabbi, have a great day. There's