RABBENU BACHYEI
Five Points of the Beard
“and do not destroy the edge of your beard.”
According to the plain meaning of the text the reason is that the visible sign which G’d has given man to distinguish him from the females of the species should not be destroyed. By destroying one’s beard one commits an act of rebellion against what G’d had intended. Violating this commandment is in a similar class to violating the commandment not to mate different species. During the report of the creation the Torah stresses again and again that G’d created all the species each according to their respective species, i.e. there is to be no cross-breeding.
Had the Torah written את זקנך, I would have thought that one is not liable for the penalty of 39 lashes unless one had destroyed one’s entire beard; seeing that the Torah writes את פאת זקנך, “the edge of your beard,” it is clear that even partial destruction of one’s beard makes one liable to the penalty.
The beard has five edges which are subject to this prohibition. two are on the right side of the face, two on the left side of the face, and one below the mouth. The beard is considered as starting immediately below the ear. If someone shaved off all the five corners, he would be liable to five times the penalty of 39 lashes. This is the reason the Torah wrote the word פאת, “an edge of,” to indicate that each edge is forbidden individually.
A logical approach: all of man’s activities are related to the five senses with which he perceives things, and it is not appropriate for him to eliminate (totally fail to use) even one of these senses completely as this might prove fatal for him; therefore, he should make judicious use of each of these senses, i.e. seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. He must, however, be careful to employ these senses only for matters permitted for him to enjoy. The prohibition to destroy 5 edges of the beard are a symbolic reminder that one cannot do completely without even a single one of these five senses. Otherwise the result would be destruction of one’s body.
It is permitted to perform beard-trimming with scissors or instruments other than a razor as some of the hair above the skin remains and the beard is not destroyed completely. (compare M a k k o t 2 1)
A kabbalistic approach: the reason that destruction of this hair is prohibited is that the letters of the Holy Name, tetragram, are concealed within the structure of the body; the respective letters י-ה-ו are featured as part of the מילה, the organ which is circumcised, the mouth, and the tongue. This is why (according to the view of Rabbi Yochanan in Na zi r 59) anyone who shaves his pubic hair with a razor is guilty of the same transgression as someone who shaves the hair of the “upper” beard, i.e. the facial beard. According to our author there are textbooks on anthropology which claim that the supreme intelligence with which our body has been constructed by Divine design is manifest in the way the areas where hair sprouts freely (face and pubic area) are interrelated. It is interesting that people who are unable to beget children, are sterile, do not have pubic hair and do not grow a beard. There are tendons which originate in either area of the body where such hair grows. Women and eunuchs do not grow hair in these areas of the body as both do not possess the facility of generating male sperm. Neither of them have tendons, which originate in those areas and which link these two areas of the body to each other. They are (for people who possess them) a symbol of unity, i.e. an allusion to G’d. Hence it is proper for men engaging in marital relations to sanctify themselves beforehand. This whole commandment is a warning that through improper use of these organs one is not to become guilty of “erasing” the letters of the Holy Name which are part of one’s body (compare S h ev u o t 1 8).
