@Adám We still have to finish our old conversation, but I wanted to point out what, as far as I can tell, is a glaring inaccuracy in Wikipedia which I'll let someone more qualified than I correct:

> Hasidic Jewish men will often shave all of their head except for their payot (sidelocks).

In: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_shaving#Religious

I'm wondering if they misunderstood payos as being a requirement to shave everything else, rather than a requirement to not shave the corners? Or am I the one that's gravely misunderstood something...

@AviFS (Disclaimer: I'm neither Adám nor am I Hassidic.) The issue with making broad "All Hasidic Jews do X"-type statements is that there are a lot of different types of Hassidic Jews out there. (Note that Wikipedia doesn't actually cite that statement!) In some Hassidic groups that statement, that they shave everything but their sidelocks, is correct, but it's very inaccurate to propose that all Hassidic Jews do that.

As for the ones who do, my understanding was always not that it's a requirement to shave everything else, but rather by shaving everything else they emphasize the importance they ascribe to the sides in their leaving them.

@DonielF Interesting, I'd never heard this and in reading Wiki's Shaving in Judaism there was no mention of it

@DonielF It goes without saying that there are all sorts of Hasidic Jews, and I didn't expect there to necessarily be an all/none answer. However, I do think the article is misguided in saying most

If it said some, it'd be far harder to argue with. But I'm still under the impression that most is wrong, no?

@DonielF Interesting! Do they then wear a wig, or is that considered feminine? Do they try and hide it with a large kippah/hat? I know you said it's to emphasize and normally when one makes a statement one displays loud and proud. However I also have difficulty imagining Hassidic men bald in public...

Finally, do they also shave their beards?

And does someone want to add this to Shaving in Judaism? It's a reasonably thorough-ish article, but only in the realm of beards. Never touches heads, even with respect to women

Hi @IsaacMoses! I spent many hours this morning looking over the differences between Codidact & TopAnswers and between Codidact's Judaism and V'dibarta Bam. So just a few hours ago I found out you're the founder here, and are temporarily a moderator on Codidact. Anyway, not sure how that's relevant...

Also @DonielF, is your name written to emulate the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Daniel?

Is it actually spelled that way on people's certificates? Rabbi's are popping up when I google it, so I suppose it exists elsewhere, though searching 'etymology' yields nothing. (AKA it yields ety. of Daniel)

@AviFS Here in Israel it's not uncommon to see people with heads and beards shaved besides their peiyot

@AviFS Erev Shabbat Shalom! Here's my statement on these simultaneous roles.

@Mithical Really?! Hasidic though? I thought those were Modern Orthodox who thought they were stylish bald & clean-shaven...

FWIW, "V'dibarta Bam" is just the name of this chat room. The Q&A community and main website are called "Mi Yodeya"

@IsaacMoses Erev Shabbat Shalom to you, too! Haha, that's exactly the statement I read :)

@AviFS The big black suits and hat give it away. :)

@IsaacMoses Ah yes, of course! MY! Silly mix-up due to lazily looking up at the corner...

@Mithical True :) In that case I've not seen those

Changed from:

> Hasidic Jewish men will often shave all of their head except for their payot (sidelocks)

→

> Hasidic Jewish men will occasionally shave all of their head except for the sides to emphasize their payot (sidelocks)

Please feel free to change again if inaccurate/could be improved!

And to anyone who wants to undertake it, the Shaving in Judaism is just waiting for someone to add a section on shaving of the head (for both men & women) to its beard and no-razor/maybe-scissors/yes-powder stuff, as mentioned earlier!

@AviFS As someone who's seen many and varied hasidim, including — depending on how you define hasidim — every time I look in the mirror, I can attest that IME most hasidic men do not shave their heads but it's definitely not unusual to see.

If you're a potential-Hasid yourself, does that mean you're in a community, perhaps?

@AviFS Legally my name is actually spelled with an a and pronounced the way you normally would in English. Since I started going by the Hebrew pronunciation when I went to Yeshiva, I’ve started spelling it with an o among my peers to emphasize that I use the Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. But among the secular world and especially in legal documents it’s still Daniel.

@DonielF Super neat and super interesting! I was unaware that anyone ever changed spellings of names from the trad. Hebrew transliteration to the Yiddish transliteration, but it makes perfect sense. It especially makes sense given things like Shabbat vs. Shabbos. I'd just never stopped to think about it!

(Although @Adám, we discussed transliteration vs. transcription and I'm not sure where this fits, given that in Heb/Yid they're spelled the same, but when you transliterate, you get different English letters to represent the different phonemes used to pronounce the same script (subtle diffs. IK).)

Anyone know why @Adám's tags aren't 'working' though? Do they disable after a given time of inactivity in a room from a user?

@AviFS Yes, but you can still ping him by replying to an old message of his

@IsaacMoses Ah, I see! Thanks :)

I pinged him in the APL Orchard instead, just to let him know his pinging abilities have timed out!

Sefaria's running a contest for applications or demos that use their API or data. There are cash prizes and opportunities for exposure. Entries are due by the end of August.

@AviFS I've seen plenty of people who transliterate it as Daniel and still pronounce it as duh-NEE-yehl; I only opted to adjust the spelling since I'd grown up using the English pronunciation DAN-yuhl. Of course there's other transliterations also; I've seen Duniel, Doneal, and Duniyel. And then you get into the pronunciation of it: Technically the name is duh-nee-YAIL. duh-NEE-yehl reflects only the handful of instances where the word falls on an esnachta.

And this is why we should be allowed to use Hebrew lettering on legal documents. If I could just write my name as דניאל I wouldn't have this issue. :)

@AviFS Much of transliteration is up to the transliterator, like I mentioned before. Of course my name's not the only one with this: Just seeing Biblical names written as Corakh, Yitshahr, Laivee, or Khuhm makes my skin crawl, but those are all phonemically correct ways to write the names more commonly written as Korah, Itzhar, Levi, and Ham. And then throw in all the different customs on how to pronounce letters or vowels!