Thursday, May 01, 2008

Nazir 42a - Combing hair

The mishna says that according to R' shimon who is matir a davar sh'eino miskavein, a nazir is allowed to rub his hair but not allowed to comb it. Their seems to be different girsaos in the gemara as to why combing hair would be assur. Tosafos and mefaresh have the girsa of our gemara and explain that although it may not pull out hair, he intends to pull out loose hairs so it is a davar hamiskavein. But the Rosh and Rashi in shabbos 50b and 81b say that although it is not miskavein, it is a p'sik reisha that it will pull out hairs. It seems that according to the girsa that it is a davar hamiskavein, it is only a safeik whether it will pull out hair and therefore assur m'din safei d'oraysa (?), but according to the opinion that it is p'sik reisha it will be a vadai d'oraysa.
R' Akiva Eiger (gilyon hashas in shavuos 2b) asks a very interesting question. According to the opinion in shulchan aruch (tosafos) who says that we don't compare the peios harosh to peios hazakan, and therefore peios harosh are even assur to cut with a scissors, it should even be assur to pluck with a tweezers (because if not for a gezeiras hakasuv by peios hazakan requiring davka a ta'ar we also would have assured with tweezers). Based on this it should be assur to comb peios harosh out of concern that it will pull out hair (either because it is a p'sik reisha or because it is a davar hamiskavein)?

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