Q&A: Makeup on the Intermediate Days of a Festival
Makeup on the Intermediate Days of a Festival
Question
My wife is a beginner makeup artist. Someone contacted her בעקבות an ad she posted and asked whether she could do her makeup on 1.10.23. My wife agreed, since that seemed far enough away, but when she checked the calendar to see the Hebrew date, she discovered that it falls on the intermediate days of Sukkot.
Since it is forbidden to get married on the intermediate days of a festival, here are the questions:
1) Is it permitted to do someone’s makeup for her wedding on the intermediate days of a festival? (Seemingly this is a case of preventing a loss, but it is preventing a loss involving something forbidden.)
2) Is it permitted to do makeup for women in preparation for a wedding that is invalid from the standpoint of Jewish law? (A Jewish woman with a non-Jew, or a Jewish woman with another Jewish woman [or a non-Jewish woman, lol])
Thank you, and sorry.
Answer
I think there is no prohibition. She would just be doing the woman’s makeup, and that woman will decide for what purpose it is being done. Moreover, I assume that kiddushin performed on the intermediate days of a festival would not be conducted in accordance with the law of Moses and Israel. There is no prohibition against conducting a non-valid wedding ceremony on the intermediate days of a festival.
Likewise, there is no halakhic prohibition against conducting a non-valid wedding ceremony between two women or between a Jewish woman and a non-Jew. What is forbidden is living together.