Haircut during the thirty days of mourning for other relatives
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Question
If someone's brother has passed away and their hair is very long, is it permissible to get a haircut during the thirty days of mourning?
Answer
A mourner is prohibited from cutting their hair, whether the hair on the head or the beard, for the entire 30 days of mourning when one of the seven close relatives, other than a father or mother, has passed away.
Source
Talmud Moed Katan, page 14b: "A mourner is prohibited from getting a haircut, as it is said to Aaron and his sons: 'Do not let your heads go unkempt' — implying that everyone else is prohibited." And on page 19b: "How do we know about thirty days? — We learn from the analogy with a Nazirite: here it says 'Do not let your heads go unkempt', and there it says 'Let the hair of his head grow long', just as there it is thirty — so here it is thirty. And how do we know there? — Rav Matna said: The standard Nazirite period is thirty days. Why? — It is written 'He shall be holy', and 'shall be' in gematria is thirty."
And in Moed Katan, page 24a: "Rav Tahlifa bar Avimi said in the name of Shmuel: A mourner who does not let his hair grow and does not tear his garments is liable to death, as it is said: 'Do not let your heads go unkempt and do not tear your garments, lest you die', implying that another who does not let his hair grow and does not tear is liable to death."
The early commentators are divided on whether the prohibition of haircutting during mourning is from the Torah or rabbinic.
The opinion of the Raavad (brought in Rosh, chapter 3) is that since the law of haircutting is learned from the verses, its prohibition is from the Torah, and there is a debate whether this mourning from the Torah is only seven days or if all thirty are prohibited from haircutting from the Torah. Rashi on the Rif wrote that it is a law given to Moses at Sinai, and the rabbis attached it to the verse in Ezekiel. The opinion of the Rosh is that all mourning is rabbinic, and what is said that one is liable to death is from their words, as it is said: 'Wherever the sages set their eyes, either death or poverty, and death from their words comes from 'He who breaches a fence will be bitten by a snake'.