Payot
From Haircentric.com
Payot (peyoth or peiyot or pei'ot is the Hebrew word פאות) variously translated as "corners", "sides", or "edges" (of the head and face) denoting "sidelocks", and also the male sideburns and beard according to the teachings of the Book of Leviticus as understood and practiced within Orthodox Judaism. In the Yiddish language it is pronounced payos or peyos.
Commonly, the term refers to the often extended and curled hair growing from the temple of the head that are either never cut from birth or kept at a constant significant length and are usually worn by Hasidic Jews.
Origin
As part of the 613 commandments, an injunction in Template:Bibleverse, commands Jews "You shall not round off the corner of your head, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard" or simply "Do not cut off the hair on the sides of your head. Do not shave off the edges of your beard." Kaplan translation
In the Hebrew of the Hebrew Bible: לֹא תַקִּפוּ, פְּאַת רֹאשְׁכֶם; וְלֹא תַשְׁחִית, אֵת פְּאַת זְקָנֶךָ
Rashi comments:
- You shall not round off the corner of your head This refers to someone who [cuts his hair in such a way that he] makes [the hair on] his temples even with that behind his ear and on his forehead [i.e., the front hairline], thereby causing [the hairline] surrounding his head to become a circle, since the main hairline behind the ears is at a much higher level than [the hair on] his temples. — [Mak. 20b]
- the edge of your beard [meaning:] The end of the beard and its borders. And these are five: two on each cheek at the top [edge of the cheek] near the head, where [the cheek] is broad and has two “corners” [i.e., extremities, one near the temple and the other at the end of the cheek bone towards the center of the face]-and one below, on the chin, at the point where the two cheeks join together. - [Torath Kohanim 19: 74; Mak. 20b]
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan comments on this verse that:
- "Cut off": Some [rabbinical authorities] say that it is forbidden even to cut it off very close with a scissors (Tur, Yoreh Deah 181), while others maintain that the prohibition is primarily against shaving it off with a razor (Yad, Avodath Kokhavim 12:6). On the basis of this commandment, it is a Chassidic and Yemenite custom to let the side hair grow as long peyoth. This is based on Kabbalistic teachings (Shaar HaMitzvoth; Beth Lechem Yehudah on Yoreh Deah 181). [1]
- "[Do not] Shave off..." with a razor (Makkoth 20a). However, some say that one should not even remove the beard with scissors or a depilatory, and from this is derived the prevalent custom of allowing the beard to grow. [2]
This was elaborated in the Talmud, which defined the payot as hair from around and above the ears to the level of the nose. This law was interpreted to apply only to males. The reasoning for it may have been to maintain distinctiveness within the Jewish community.
Use
The original law only requires the payot not to be removed, though they can be cut or trimmed but not with a razor, or blade sliding along the skin. Similarly, shaving facial hair was also prohibited. Since the advent of the electric razor, those models that function on the principle of a scissor would make shaving easy for many Modern Orthodox men.
Within Haredi Judaism and particularly within Hasidic Judaism most men tend not to shave and quite a few grow payot that they wear either rolled up behind their ears, shortened and tucked behind the ear, or fully grown and twirled to wrap up its length. Hasidic communities regard the prohibition more strictly and traditionally require the hair to grow uncut. Many Hasidim also have very long curled payot (locks) in order to emphasize their observance of the prohibition and their identity as Hasidic Jews.