Page 180 - Tzurba M'Rabanan Volume1

178 · Hilchot Pe’ot Harosh Tzurba M’Rabanan

Summary of Hilchot Pe’ot Harosh

Reason for the Prohibition

1. Rambam, Smag – In order to separate ourselves from idol worshipers.
2. Tur – We should not look for reasons behind the mitzvot.
3. Rabbeinu Bechaye – In order not to remove the sign that G-d gave to distinguish
between men and women.

The Source of the Prohibition

1. Beraita – The prohibition of removing the pe’ot of the head is to make the area by
the temple level with the area behind one’s ears and his forehead.
2. Is it permitted to cut one’s hair with a scissor that is very short like a blade?
a. Rambam – Yes.
b. Rosh – No.
c. Shulchan Aruch – Is stringent like the Rosh.

The Exact Dimensions of the Pe’ot that are Forbidden to Cut

1. If one shaves the pe’ot of the head, one transgresses two prohibitions, one for
each side.
2. The upper edge
a. Yad Ketana – The hair that grows parallel to the top of the ear until the
forehead.
b. Beit Lechem Yehuda – The Arizal would leave all the hair found slightly above
the ear until a third of the forehead.
3. The lower edge
a. Rashi, Meiri and others – Until the edge of the bone that is adjacent to the
middle of the ear.
b. Rivan, Shulchan Aruch – Until where the jaw separates from the ear.
c. Imrei Yosher, Aseh Lecha Rav – The Shulchan Aruch was stringent only by
rabbinic law and meant that it is forbidden only until the earlobe.
4. Length of the hairs
a. Biur Halacha – One needs to leave at least “a little of a little,” i.e., more than
stubble.

This volume is not to be distributed. Copies are for the personal use of purchaser only.