Pulling out hairs from the beard during Shiva
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Question
Is it permissible during Shiva to play with the beard and pull out hairs as usual?
Answer
It is permitted due to the prohibition of haircuts, but it is forbidden to pull out hairs because of mourning for the deceased.
Source
The Tosafot in Tractate Moed Katan, page 19b, in the commentary "There are those who say it is forbidden for a mourner to comb his head after seven days because we say (Nazir, page 42) a nazir can wash and untangle but not comb, and we learn from the nazir. But this does not seem correct at all, because for a nazir it is certainly forbidden even to pull out hair, but regarding mourning, which is for beautification, it is not. And at the time of the act, I asked my teacher RIBA, and he permitted me."
And since the Shulchan Aruch ruled in Siman 390, paragraph 6, that it is permitted to comb, it is also permitted to pull out hairs from the beard as usual when not intended for beautification.
Nevertheless, one should not pull out hairs due to mourning for the deceased, as it is written in the Torah, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 14, verse 1: "You are the children of the Lord your God; do not cut yourselves or make a bald spot between your eyes for the dead."
And the Shulchan Aruch writes in Siman 180, paragraph 9: "A bald spot is when one pulls out hair from his head for the dead anywhere on the head, whether by hand or with a substance, and the measure is that it appears as a gris without hair, and some say two hairs. And there is an opinion that the prohibition exists even for one hair."