(15) Ah, you are fair, my darling, Ah, you are fair,With your dove-like eyes! (16) And you, my beloved, are handsome,Beautiful indeed!Our couch is in a bower;

(30)ש Grace is deceptive,Beauty is illusory;It is for her fear of GODThat a woman is to be praised.

He who sees beautiful trees or beautiful people says: Praise to Him Who created beautiful creatures in His world. It happened that Rabban Gamliel saw a beautiful Gentile woman and recited a benediction over her.

One recites praise of the bride as she is, emphasizing her good qualities. And Beit Hillel say: One recites: A fair and attractive bride. ...When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he said: This is what they sing before brides in the West, in Eretz Yisrael: No eye shadow, and no rouge, and no braiding of the hair, and yet she is comparable to a graceful ibex.

As it was taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “And of her that is sick in her menstrual status [niddata]” (Leviticus 15:33), the Elders of the early generations said that this verse comes to teach us that the menstruating woman should be distanced from her husband in all senses, like a person ostracized [menudeh] by the Sages. This includes that she may not paint her eyes blue, and she may not rouge [pokeset] her face, and she may not adorn herself with colorful clothing. Until Rabbi Akiva came and taught: If you do so, you are making her unappealing to her husband...

And a woman may engage in all of her usual cosmetic treatments on the intermediate days of a Festival. The Sages taught in a baraita: These are the cosmetic treatments of women that are permitted: She may paint her eyelids, she may remove unwanted hair [pokeset], and she may put rouge on her face.

Kochelet – Places kohl between her eyes, in order that they appear comely.

Pokeset – Parts her hair to this [side] and that.

Applies rouge to her face – an herb, in order that she seem ruddy…

Similarly, the pokeset – There are those who explain: She presses a sort of dough on her face, and when she removes it, it reddens the skin.

...Rav Ḥisda’s wife would adorn herself on the intermediate days of a Festival in the presence of her daughter-in-law, i.e., when she already had a married son. Rav Huna bar Ḥinnana sat before Rav Ḥisda, and he sat and said: They taught only that a woman is permitted to engage in cosmetic treatments on the intermediate days of a Festival only with regard to a young woman, as such treatments bring her joy, but in the case of an old woman, no, the treatments are not permitted, as she does not need them. Rav Ḥisda said to him: By God! Even your mother, and even your mother’s mother, and even a woman so old that she is standing at the edge of her grave are all permitted to adorn themselves...

….They only taught – that which it says that a woman adorns herself [on Chol Ha-mo’ed]

Regarding a girl – a young woman, whose way is thus, and thus she is joyous on the mo’ed [festival].

But not an elderly woman – And how could your wife do this, that she adorns herself, for she is old?

Even a woman standing at the opening to her grave – is permitted to adorn herself.

...and the same is true with regard to one who applies blue eye shadow, and the same is true with regard to one who applies blush, Rabbi Eliezer deems them all liable, as they each performed a labor prohibited by Torah law. And the Rabbis prohibited performing all of these actions due to rabbinic decree.

It was taught in a baraita that...And, so too, Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar would say in the name of Rabbi Eliezer: A woman may not apply rouge to her face on Shabbat because by doing so she is dyeing, which is one of the prohibited labors on Shabbat.

On what account is it liable? Rabbi Avin said Rabbi Yossei son of Rabbi Chanina said:…Kochelet [using kohl] is on account of koteiv [writing]…Our rabbis said before Rabbi Abbahu:…Is the way of writing thus?…Rather Rabbi Abbahu said: To me it was explained by Rabbi Yossei son of Rabbi Chanina: Kochelet is on account of coloring

On account of writing – For she moves the kohl wand around the eye, like a person who moves a pen around a letter.

The one who applies kohl is liable because of writing; the one who puts on make-up is liable because of dyeing.

(12) Writing is one of the categories of [forbidden] labor. Accordingly, it is forbidden to apply eye-paint with a brush and the like on the Sabbath, because this resembles writing.

(23) Dyeing is one of the categories of [forbidden] labor.Accordingly, it is forbidden for a woman to apply rouge to her face, because this resembles dyeing.

It is prohibited for a woman to apply sarak [rouge] to her face on Shabbat, on account of tzovei’a. And for this reason, she is prohibited to apply kohl on Shabbat, and for this reason she is prohibited to spread paste on her face, that reddens the skin when she removes it.

For even when actually performing an act, the one applying kohl is only [violating] a rabbinic prohibition, as we learn in Shabbat 95b “and our sages say on account of a rabbinic prohibition.”

This is the principle: Anyone who performs a prohibited labor and his labor endures on Shabbat is liable.

A person is not liable unless the dye he uses will make a permanent [change in the article's color]. When the application of color will not have a permanent effect - e.g., one who applies red clay or vermilion to iron or brass and colors it is not liable, for it can be removed immediately without dyeing it at all. Whenever a person performs a labor that does not have a permanent effect on the Sabbath, he is not liable.

One who writes [ha-koteiv] is not liable [for a Torah violation] until he writes with something that makes a mark that endures, like [scribe’s] ink and black pigment and red paint and gum ink and calcanthum and the like, and he writes on a thing upon which the writing is mitkayyem, like skin and parchment and paper and wood and the like, but one who writes with something whose mark does not endure, such as drinks and fruit juices, or who wrote with ink and the like on vegetable leaves or on anything that isn’t lasting, is patur [has violated a rabbinic prohibition, but is exempt from Torah-level liability]. And he is not liable [on a Torah level] until he writes with a lasting thing upon a lasting thing…One who writes on his flesh is liable [on a Torah level], for it is skin…

Even applying red paint to a woman’s face is also only rabbinic, for tzovei’a is not on a Torah level on a person’s skin.

That you asked if a woman may apply kohl to her eyes on Shabbat, or if she should treat it as prohibited, is very weak…Sages such as you should be in doubt regarding this clear matter? Is a woman not obligated in Shabbat like a man? Granted regarding adornment, there is a distinction between a man’s adornment and a woman’s adornment, but regarding melacha should one draw a distinction between woman and man? Is it not thus written: “you and your son and your daughter?” And further, is it not an explicit teaching of our sages, that we say “and so one who constructs [her hair] and so one who applies kohl and so one who parts her hair with a comb?”….

It is prohibited for a woman to apply sarak to her face, and this is pasting red herbs onto her face to show herself as a comely woman, since this is akin to tzovei’a, and so ruled the great compiler [Rambam] and in any case, the great decisor [Rif] did not bring it and perhaps he questions it, since in the Talmud it is a single person’s opinion…

It is prohibited to place a cloth on a bleeding wound, since the blood will dye it.

…It seems to me that with a red cloth, it is clear that it is prohibited.

If one softens the [shoe] leather with oil, it is also a matter of ibbud and he is liable [on a Torah level], and therefore, for this reason, one needs to take care not to apply oil to a new shoe [on Shabbat]…and there are those who prohibit also with an old shoe, and especially nowadays when there are many unlearned people and they will come to be lenient also with new ones, one should certainly be stringent in all cases, and how much more so if his intention in applying the oil is so that the shoe be black, it seems that one should prohibit according to everyone out of concern for tzovei’a… [Sha’ar Ha-tziyyun 16: As it is known that this blackens it, and the way of craftsmen is to do thus]…