Authoritative Responses to Common Misconceptions:

In the 1890s, when the trend to shave the beard was gaining popularity in the Litvish regions of Lithuania and Russia and beyond (due to various secular influences), the Chofetz Chaim zt’l published Kuntres Tiferes Odom. In this volume, the Chofetz Chaim systematically and vigorously refuted all the various justifications being advanced to defend removal of the beard and asserted (in his introductory remarks) that “it is a great mitzvah for the entire Jewish people to reinforce this observance and refrain from trimming the beard even with scissors.” [In contradistinction to common presumption that the accepted Litvish practice is to be beardless, the Chofetz Chaim attests in the first chapter of this work that, until that time, only “one in a thousand” shaved their beards].Recently, much discussion has appeared in various widely-publicized forums on the topic of maintaining a beard. Is maintaining a beard a halachic imperative or a Kabbalistic/Chassidic stringency? Many individuals ha