Which of these Jewish communities literally signs their "sideburns" as a distinguishing feature?
'Payot' is the Hebrew word for 'sidelocks' or 'sideburns'. 'Payot' are worn by some men and boys in the orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Biblical injunction against shaving the ''sides'' of one's head. Yemenites Jews call their 'sidelocks' simonim, literally, ''signs'', beacause their long-curled 'sideburns' as a distinguishing feature in Yemenite society differentiating them from their non-Jewish neighbors. Yemenite Jews are those who live or once lived, in Yemen, which is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel. Most Yemenite Jews are now live in Israel, only a few handful remain in Yemen. Yemenite Jews have unique religious tradition that distinguishes from other Jewish groups.
Some traditional Yemenite Jews still wear distinctive long and then twisted locks, often reaching to the upper arm. Judaism prohibits shaving with a razor on the basis of 'rabbinic' interpretation of & eviticus 19:27, which states, that one should not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side-growth of your beard. Leviticus 19:27 (Torah) is from the Hebrew Bible.
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