jhustead opened this issue on Apr 25, 2006 · 31 posts
dphoadley posted Wed, 26 April 2006 at 4:45 AM
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_peot.htm
"The Torah says, "You shall not round off the peyos (corners) of your head" (Leviticus 19:27). The word peyos refers to sideburns -- i.e. the hair in front of the ears that extends to underneath the cheekbone which is level with the nose (Talmud - Makkot 20a). The Talmud explains that this law only applies to men, not to women."
It is a centuries old practice among Orthodox Jewish men, and one that ranged geographically from the Jewish communities of Norther Europe to Yemen on the Southern Arabian Pennisula. Therefore, if there really was a historical Jesus ben Joseph, he would have been familiar with the practice. He couldn't have lived, and grown up in Judea without knowing it. These are NOT customs and practices that were invented on the spur of the moment, but ones that have been passed sdown from generation to generation, from father to son to grandson. Some can be traced from the Patriarch Abaraham himself.