Writes Dovid Bashevkin, in "By a Hair/In Tractate Nazir, the Talmud teaches us about beauty, transcendence, and other human frailties" (Tablet).
March 30, 2023
"When I was 16 years old, my hair started turning white.... he insecurity, anxiety, and ruminations about my slowly deteriorating hair lasted for over a decade."
"Every mirror became my own personal Picture of Dorian Gray. ... I was 16 and I was already fully immersed in a midlife crisis. And it was this preoccupation with my hair that made Tractate Nazir such a moving and deeply personal learning experience.
A nazirite vow prohibits one from cutting their hair, drinking wine, and becoming contaminated by contact with the dead. But more so than any of the other prohibitions, the crowning definition of the nazir—a person who has taken this vow—is hair. The very word 'nazir,' explains Rashi, is a crown. And throughout Tractate Nazir, I discovered how to find sanctity in my own hair...."
Writes Dovid Bashevkin, in "By a Hair/In Tractate Nazir, the Talmud teaches us about beauty, transcendence, and other human frailties" (Tablet).
Writes Dovid Bashevkin, in "By a Hair/In Tractate Nazir, the Talmud teaches us about beauty, transcendence, and other human frailties" (Tablet).
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10 comments:
Holden Caulfield says hello...from the bars where he went to drink at that age.
Convert to Sikhism.
Problem solved...
Try being the kid (I knew one in high school and know one now) who had a hairline like Bozo while still in high school.
I started going gray at 15.
Filed that fact in the WHOGAS bin.
Most people would just dye their hair.
When I am sick and pale, will you still care for me?
When I am old and gray, will you still love me?
When I am young and "burdened", will you still love us?
Once, navel-gazing narcissism was mocked.
Today, it’s front-page everywhere, every day.
This ‘current year’ sucks.
Most people would just dye their hair.
Possibly forbidden under the tenets of Orthodox Judaism.
Grey hair at a young age is an asset in the corporate world, and it is arguable, but I think true, for both men and women.
I always enjoy your posts on aesthetics.
At 22, I was sitting next to a young female acquaintance when she told me to not move. She then pulled a gray hair from my head of wavy, thick, brown, early 1980's hair. I later called my mother to ask her if any members of the family had early gray hair. She could not stop laughing, but finally was able to explain that she'd been dying her hair since her mid-20s.
Going gray took decades, ending with the hair at the nape of my neck still dark and the rest now nonwavy, not thick, late 2010's, totally gray hair. Such is life. My kids called me a silverback in their teens, which was nice, I think.
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