More Discussions for this daf
1. Protecting the Laws of the Torah 2. Kohanim cutting hair 3. Kohanim and Drinking wine nowadays
4. No Hespedim 5. Divrei Torah Ein Tzerichin Chizuk 6. Real Gezeirah Shavah?
7. שמא ישהו קרבנתיהם 8. שמשם יצא הוראה 9. כהן שאינו מכיר משמרתו
10. כהן שאינו מכיר משמרתו - הרמב"ם
DAF DISCUSSIONS - TA'ANIS 17

Yehudah Relis asked:

On 17a the gemarah states Cohenim cant cut their hair the week of their avodah to insure they come into the week with their hair cut. However they are allowed to cut their hair on Thursday l'kovod Shabbos.

If so how come we are not allowed to cut our hair on Thursday of chol hamoed since the reason we are not allowed to cut our hair during chol hamoed is also to insure we enter Yom Tov with our hair cut. While it is true that in most years there will not be 6 days we havent cut our hair why not have the heter when this does occur, just as we are allowed to cut our hair erev Shabbos which is Rosh Chodesh during sephirah even though this is not a frequent occurance. Is it due to Cohenim zarizem haim?

Yehudah Relis

The Kollel replies:

Dear Yehuda,

Hello there and thanks for your excellent question. This issue is raised by the Me'iri in Moed Katan (14a). His first explanation is the possibility you raised. In the case of the Kohanim, Thursday will always be towards the end of their service in the Beis Hamikdash, thus it is a slim possibility that Kohen would refrain from cutting his hair and pushing it off towards the end of the week, unlike the case of Chol Hamoed. (In the case of Sefirah, the issue is the laws of Availus, which do not apply in the case you mentioned.)

The second explanation offered by the Me'iri is that once Chachamim prohibited cutting hair on Chol Hamoed it falls into the category of Melachah (labor) which is forbidden on Chol Hamoed, with no possible distinction of the days. In the case of the Kohanim it remains a Gezeirah which was not applied to Thursday.

All the best.

Y. Landy

Yehudah Relis responded:

Hi Rabbi Landy,

Thanks for the answers. I would like to get a clarification of the second answer, that its a melachah. An Anus (e.g. freed from prison) can cut his hair during chol hamoed. If its a melacha how could he be allowed to cut his hair? It seems that built into the original techanah, where there is an anus and there is an inyan of coved then the melachah does not apply. That being so since coved Shabbos is at least as great as coved chol hamoed why wasnt that exception built in as well? (I think we see that coved Shabbos is greater because we say havdalah between Shabbos and Yomtov or chol hamoed but do not between yomtov and Shabbos -the Rasbam in Pesachim says we dont melavah the minister when the king arrives). Additionally it is more frequent that there will be a full week of not cutting hair than that someone will come out of a bait asurim and not have time to cut his hair before yom tov. So if in this unlikely scenario there is the exception, why not in the much more common one?

Kol Tuv,

Yehudah Relis

The Kollel replies:

The Meiri's second answer is that the prohibition against Kohanim cutting their hair is a total Knas, and has nothing to do with doing forbidden Melachah. On the other hand, once cutting hair on Chol ha'Moed is forbidden due to a Knas, it is forbidden as a Melachah. It appears to me that the Meiri therefore reasons that while any good reason is a reason to push aside a Knas, one would only be able to push aside something categorized as a Melachah if the reason it became a Melachah in the first place is invalid in this case.

Accordingly, Kohanim can cut their hair for Kavod Shabbos. Moreover, the Meiri says here (Moed Katan 14a) that if a Kohen was an Anus he can cut his hair anytime during this week, just as an Anus can during Chol ha'Moed. However, once the prohibition on Chol ha'Moed became a Melachah, we do not simply push aside Melachos, even for very important reasons, if the reason is unrelated to the root of the prohibition. Being that the root of the prohibition is to ensure people come into the Moed shorn, only Anus is a valid reason to uproot the Melachah, not Kavod Shabbos.

All the best,

Yaakov Montrose