[Ariadna: That the IDF should obligate its soldiers to shave their beards is shocking. Only the Nazis made the religious Jews part with their beards. What next? Obligatory showers using s-p?! Many of these brave soldiers must have heard horror tales told by someone who knew someone who was a Survivor of the death camps, where the Nazis forced the Jews into the showers (before gassing them, which came post-shower but before the oven) and made them scrub themselevs with s-p, and how the victims could lose a lot of weight, as much as a pound per shower, after such a torture. That is how the notion that the dreaded s-p was made of Jewish fat came into being. But remember: just because it did not happen does not mean it is not true.
The JP article says shaving with a razor is utterly prohibited by religious law, but using an electric shaver is OK. Maybe one can get away with that because the buzzing distracts Yahweh. Anyway, compulsive cleaning is a Nazi thing.]
Controversy over beard permit beards seen as another blow to the authority of the IDF Rabbinate
Large numbers of religious IDF soldiers have had requests to have a beard while serving denied in recent weeks, ahead of a new directive from the IDF Manpower directorate which will make it more difficult to obtain permission to grow a beard.
Large numbers of religious IDF soldiers have had requests to have a beard while serving denied in recent weeks, ahead of a new directive from the IDF Manpower directorate which will make it more difficult to obtain permission to grow a beard.
The development led to Bayit Yehudi MKs Moti Yogev and Betzalel Smotrich to call for the new directive to be scrapped.
In general, it is prohibited to have a beard while serving as an IDF soldier or officer but until now exemptions could be granted by the IDF Rabbinate.
Jewish law prohibits shaving with a razor blade, although shaving with an electric shaver is permitted. Many religious people are stringent not to shave at all however.
In December, a new directive was issued by the IDF Manpower Directorate which will require not only approval from the IDF Rabbinate but also from the soldier’s unit commander and from the IDF Adjutant Corps, a branch of the Manpower directorate.
The new requirements are set to go into effect on Tuesday and requires anyone who has had a beard until now to re-apply for the exemption.
The prominent national-religious figure Rabbi Shlomo Aviner compared the new IDF beard rules to the Nazis who humiliated Jews often publicly by cutting off their beards.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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