Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Payot
Payot (in Yiddish, peyes) are the sidecurls that Orthodox Jewish men wear. Payot are worn in accordance with a section of Leviticus. "You shall not round the corners of your heads, nor mar the edges of your beards." (Leviticus 19:27) The reasoning for payot may have been that the Jewish people are intended to have distinct appearances and some enemies of the Jews shaved the sides of their heads.
Payot are traditionally required to be long enough to be bended back to its root. Some Hasidic men never cut their sidecurls, some cut the sidecurls at a few inches in length and some will only shorten them without scissors by using a lit match.
Payot can be worn to the chest, behind the ear, or underneath a kippah.
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details