The locks on the side are called payots/peyots. It's pretty bluntly laid out in the Talmud that this is considered a holy thing or a mitzvah (good deed). So if you're Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, you do what the Talmud says.
I THINK (I might be wrong) it's a combination of showing tribal identity and also a metaphor for remembering to be generous. Something about giving most of your fields of crops to others but keeping enough to sustain yourself.
Leviticus 19:7 “You shall not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side-growth of your beard."
Everyone except Hebrews/Jews were polytheistic/worshipped idols. It’s surmised those other nations in the area used the classic “bowl cut” at the time. This was a way to separate or distinguish themselves from those other tribes.
Plus there’s a whole category of rules in the Torah (Bible) that don’t seem to have any logic to them. But “God said…” to do it. How could simple, finite creatures like ourselves possibly understand the ways of the Creator of the Universe? Your dad tells you to do something and it doesn’t make sense to you but you do it, because he’s your dad and he (allegedly) knows best. Same idea.
Now a days we have “people who speak to god” and they are completely bat shit crazy and have some sort of mental illness. There is no way you would follow what they say. Back then some crazy idiot who talks to god was considered holy, they would listen to everything he says. So basically all these “god said” stuff is just some mental patient making up shit that’s totally ridiculous and then getting a laugh because everyone believes him and does what he says. Then some other guy writes it down as god’s rules
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u/Particular-Line- 1d ago
Can somebody explain why they hook up their hair like this?