Avodah Zarah 27a contains a mishnah in which Rabbi Meir forbids Jews from going to a non-Jewish barber who might, a la Sweeney Todd, kill them. In contrast, a plurality of Rabbi Meir’s colleagues think it is reasonable for a Jew to visit a non-Jewish barber who conducts business in a public thoroughfare. Killing one’s customers in public, even the Jewish ones, is presumably bad for business.
On today’s daf, we find a third opinion:
The sages taught in a beraita: A Jew who has his hair cut by a gentile should watch with a mirror.
If we are talking about a haircut given in the public domain, why would one need a mirror? And if the haircut occurs in a private domain, even if the Jew observes the non-Jew with a mirror, what of it?
The beraita suggests that a mirror can be used to preempt attack from the barber. But it is hard to imagine how this helps. As the Gemara subsequently comments, if you are in the public domain, there is little danger, so the mirror is unnecessary. And if your hair is cut in private, chances are slim the mirror will save you when the razor is already at your throat.
In an effort to make sense of the beraita, the Gemara suggests that it is talking about a private setting in which the mirror conveys a sense of status. On this view, the barber will assume that a person who supplies their own mirror is important and will fear negative consequences if they do not return from their haircut.
Halakhah in the Mishnah generally follows the majority. That means that although Rabbi Meir’s stricter view is recorded it is not the most authoritative position. The more standard position is that Jews can safely patronize gentile barbers whose shops are located on busy streets. But the Gemara calls that into question by next relating a harrowing experience of Rav Hana bar Bizna, who patronized to a gentile’s barbershop on a side street of the bustling city of Neharde’a:
The barber said to him: Hana, Hana, your throat is appealing to the razor.
Rav Hana bar Bizna said: I have this coming to me, as I violated the ruling of Rabbi Meir.
As the gentile barber sinisterly contemplates Rav Hana’s exposed throat, the latter muses aloud that he should have followed the teaching of Rabbi Meir and patronized a Jewish barber instead. The Gemara briefly wonders: Didn’t he also violate the teaching of the rest of the rabbis by entering a barber’s shop on a side street? While it is possible to think so, Rav Hana does not. In his view, Neharde’a was such a large city that even the shops on its side streets are considered to be the public domain. He does not muse, however, whether bringing a mirror would have kept him safer.
The halakhah in this matter continues to follow the rabbis. Yet, by telling the tale of Rav Hana, the Gemara, perhaps, is suggesting that when danger abounds, it’s prudent to be extra careful. And we are left to wonder whether Rav Hana bar Bizna survived his ordeal in the barbershop. The story ends here, a talmudic cliffhanger with no resolution.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 29 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 17, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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