043b - מומין אלו פרק שביעי בכורות דף מג, ע"ב

What is [the difference] between a blemish and [a kohen who] is not equal to the seed of Aharon?^[1]

מאי איכא - between a kohen disqualified by a full blemish and a kohen disqualified because he is not equal to the seed of Aharon, that is, the kilon, the lifsan and all those.

There is [a difference] regarding profaning the service: a blemish profanes the service, as it is written (Vayikra 21): he has a blemish, and he shall not profane,^[2] [whereas] one who is not equal to the seed of Aharon does not profane the service.

What is [the difference] between one who is not equal to the seed of Aharon and [one disqualified] because of appearance?

משום מראית העין - such as those that [the Tanna] counts in the Mishnah [as unfit] because of appearance, for they are repulsive to look at, such as one whose eyelashes fell out and one whose teeth were removed.

The difference between them is a positive commandment.

עשה - one who is not equal to the seed of Aharon transgresses a positive commandment if he served, for this is the implication: one who is equal to the seed of Aharon is a kohen and may serve; one who is not equal may not serve; and a prohibition that comes by implication of a positive commandment is [treated as] a positive commandment.^[3]

Kilon:^[4] whose head resembles a barrel-lid.

לאכלא - to the lid of a barrel (from above), which is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Its parallel is in Sanhedrin, in the chapter Zeh Borer Lo Echad (28b): like a lid to a barrel.

Lifsan: whose head resembles the head of a turnip.

לגדגלידא דליפתא - to the head of a turnip, whose top is wide and which keeps tapering toward the bottom.

It was taught: And his neck stands in the middle of his head.

באמצע הראש - his head protrudes behind as it does in front.

Makben: whose head resembles an axe-head.

למקבא - to an axe whose back is rounded and short in width.

And one whose head is shakut: in front.

שקוט מלפניו - his head slopes in front at a slant, like a carpenter’s tool that is called בשגו"ג [besaiguë].

And the sekifas: behind, as people say: “a piece taken off.”

מאחוריו - the height of his head is lacking at the back.

שקיל פיסא - he looks like one from whom a piece has been taken.

It was taught: And his neck is shakut and shamut.

Shakut – that it is tucked away; shamut – that it is long and drawn out.

דחביא מיחבא - his head rests between his shoulders, and he looks like one whose head is dislocated, אשלויישו"ד [in Old French].

And those with humps – Rabbi Yehudah etc.^[5]

Where it has a bone, all agree that it disqualifies;

where they disagree is where it has no bone: one master holds that he is surely not equal to the seed of Aharon, and the other master holds that it is merely a lump of flesh.

קרקורא - a piece.

The bald one is unfit.^[6]

Rava said: They taught this only where he has none behind and has in front; but if he has behind, he is fit, and all the more so where he has behind and has none in front.

לא שנו אלא שאין לו - a line of hair going around from ear to ear behind him, and he has [hair] in front. אבל יש לו לאחריו ולפניו כשר וכל שכן שיש לו לאחריו ואין לו לפניו – for it is more handsome when he has [hair] behind and not in front than when he has it all around the head and is bald in the middle.

And some teach it on the latter clause: And if he has, he is fit.

ואיכא דמתני לה אסיפא - that [Rava says]: the Mishnah’s ruling that one who has [a line of hair] is fit was taught only where he has a line going around from ear to ear behind him and not in front; but if he has it in front as well, he is unfit, and all the more so one who has none at all.

Rava said: They taught this only where he has behind and has none in front; but if he has both behind and in front, he is unfit, and all the more so where he has in front and none behind, or has none at all, that he is unfit.

Rabbi Yochanan said: Bald men, dwarfs and zavlaganin are unfit, because they are not equal to the seed of Aharon.

זבלגנין - whose eyes run and drip water.

Bald men – we have already learned it! Dwarfs – we have already learned it!

ננסין תנינא - in the Mishnah: the kipe’ach, the dwarfs and the deaf.

Zavlaganin – he needed to teach us.

זבלגנים איצטריכא ליה - which we did not learn [in a Mishnah].

But [perhaps the others were needed too,] for you might say [they are unfit only] because of appearance?

ומהו דתימא כו' - that is: these others were needed too, for you might have said that the Mishnah disqualifies them because of appearance, and they would not transgress a positive commandment if they served. Therefore Rabbi Yochanan teaches us that it is because he is not equal to the seed of Aharon.

But wherever there is [a disqualification] because of appearance, it is taught; it teaches: and one whose eyelashes fell out is unfit because of appearance!^[7]

ריסי עיניו - the hair at the eye.

You might say: [the Tanna] taught one, and the same applies to all of them?

והוא הדין לכולהו - from “those with humps” onward. For one might have thought that what we derived above about one who is not equal to the seed of Aharon refers only to the kilon, the lifsan, the makben and those of the first section. והא כל היכא דאיכא אחריתי משום מראית העין הדר תני ליה דקתני סיפא ושניטלו שיניו כו' – and from that we know that where the first clause taught “appearance,” it refers only to one whose eyelashes fell out; for if it referred to all of them, why would he need to teach it again? Rather, this is why Rabbi Yochanan came.

But wherever there is [a case] to be taught again, he goes back and teaches it: and one whose teeth were removed is unfit because of appearance!^[8]

Rather, [he comes] to exclude [the view] taught in a beraisa, as it was taught: Bald men, dwarfs and zavlaganin are fit, and they said “unfit” only because of appearance.

לאפוקי מהאי תנא אתא - who disqualifies them only because of appearance; and Rabbi Yochanan teaches us that the halachah follows our Mishnah, which disqualifies them because they are not equal to the seed of Aharon.

Who is this Tanna?

It is Rabbi Yehudah, as it was taught: Rabbi Yehudah says: (Vayikra 1) “The kohanim” – to include bald men.

הכהנים - and the sons of Aharon, the kohanim, shall arrange (Vayikra 1).

לרבות את הקרחנים - that they are fit for the service. I found it on this pasuk in Toras Kohanim.^[9]

MISHNAH

If he has no eyebrows, or has only one eyebrow – this is the gibben stated in the Torah.^[10]

מתני' גבינים - שורציל"ש [sorcils, eyebrows in Old French].

Rabbi Dosa says: [It is one] whose eyebrows lie flat.

שגבינין שוכבין - the hairs of his eyebrows are large and lie on his face.

Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus says: [It is one] who has two backs and two spines.

GEMARA

And does gibben mean one who has none?

They contrasted it [with a beraisa]: Gibben – one who has many eyebrows; [if] he has no eyebrows, or has only one eyebrow, from where [do we know]? The Torah says: “or a gibben”!^[11]

גמ' גבינים הרבה - his two eyebrows join together, and there is no smooth gap between one and the other.

Rava said: This [Mishnah] is the derivation of “or a gibben.”

זהו מדרש או גבן - and this is what it means: this is the “or a gibben” stated in the Torah (ibid. 21); and Rabbi Dosa disagrees with him and does not expound the “or.”

Rabbi Dosa says etc.^[12]

Is that to say that [such a creature] lives?

למימרא דחיי - one who has two backs and two spines, whom Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus disqualifies.

But it was stated: A woman who miscarries a creature that has two backs and two spines – and Rav said: In a woman, it is not a child; in an animal, it is forbidden to be eaten!

אינו וולד - and she is not tamei with the tumah of childbirth.^[13]

אסור באכילה - like a neveilah, for it is a nefel^[14] and is considered dead, and shechitah does not help it.

Rav Shimi bar Chiya already raised this contradiction against Rav,

כבר רמא ניהליה - in Maseches Niddah.

and he said to him: Are you Shimi? Rather, [the Mishnah means] one whose spine is crooked.

שימי את - a great scholar like you does not know how to answer the Mishnah that implies it lives? It is not speaking of actually two backs, but of one whose spine is crooked and looks like many backs and spines; and when I spoke, I meant actually two backs.

MISHNAH

The charum is unfit.^[15]

Who is a charum? One who paints both his eyes at once.

מתני' הכוחל שתי עיניו כאחת - he has no nose at all between his two eyes, and when he paints his eyes with a kohl stick he can draw the stick from eye to eye without the nose stopping it.

[One whose] two eyes are high, [or whose] two eyes are low, [or whose] one eye is high and one eye is low, [or who] sees the room and the upper storey at once;

שתי עיניו למעלה - as is explained in the Gemara.

one who shades [his eyes from] the sun, the zagdan and the tziran;

סכי שמש - who cannot look toward the sun.

זגדן וציירן - explained in the Gemara.

and one whose eyelashes fell out – he is unfit because of appearance.

ריסי עיניו - the hairs at his eyes.

מפני מראית העין - refers to “whose eyelashes fell out.”

GEMARA

The Rabbis taught: Charum – [and] one whose nose is sunken, whose nose is turned up, whose nose is blocked, whose nose hangs down – from where [do we know]? The Torah says: “or charum.”^[16]

גמ' שקוע - high up between his eyes.

סולד - רטיי"ה [in Old French], that it is short in its length.

בולם - its nostrils are blocked.

נוטף - long and hanging down below his lip.

Rabbi Yose says: There is no charum except one who paints both his eyes at once.

They said to him: You have gone [too far]

הפלגתה - you have said too much; even if it is not so sunken, he is a charum.

Tosfos

אמר רבא לא שנו כו' - there is another reading in the books besides the reading of the Kuntres.^[17]

בבהמה אסור באכילה - The Kuntres explained that shechitah does not help it because it is a nefel. This implies that it speaks of one that came out into the air of the world. But this cannot be said, for in the chapter Ha-Mapeles (Niddah 24a) [the Gemara] sets it where it was found inside its mother, that according to Rav it is not permitted through its mother’s shechitah,^[18] while Shmuel disagrees with him there and permits it through its mother’s shechitah; but if it came out into the air, it is forbidden even according to Shmuel. And Rav Shimi raises the difficulty there from our Mishnah, and the Kuntres explained there that he challenges both Rav and Shmuel, for this [ruling of] Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus is taught regarding the blemishes of animals, and he disqualifies it for the Most High, which implies that for an ordinary person it is permitted. Rabbeinu Tam^[19] objected to him that it is taught explicitly here regarding the blemishes of a person. Rather, he challenges only Rav, who said in a woman it is not a child, [implying] that it does not live; and since [Rabbi Chanina] disqualifies him here from the service, it implies that he lives. And so it is implied, that he challenges only Rav.

סכי שמש - The Gemara explains: sani shemesh, as the Kuntres explained: one who hates the sun and cannot look at the place where the sun shines; and sechi is from the expression chasuchei shemesh, that the light of the sun is withheld from him.

ושנשרו ממנו ריסי עיניו - This implies that he calls ris the hairs that tend to fall out from much weeping, as in the [story] of Rabban Gamliel in Chelek (Sanhedrin 104b) about she weeps bitterly; and sometimes he calls ris the skin surrounding the eye, as in [the Mishnah] of our preceding chapter (38a): a ris that was pierced or split, and it explains: the outer rim of his eye.

Notes

1. 1. In the Mishnah (Bechoros 43a) the Tanna lists blemishes that disqualify a kohen, and adds others – the kilon, the lifsan and the like – who are unfit not because of a blemish proper but because they are “not equal to the seed of Aharon.” Some others are unfit only “because of appearance.”
2. 2. A kohen with a true blemish who performed the service has profaned it, and it is invalid (Vayikra 21:23). One who is merely “not equal to the seed of Aharon” does not invalidate the service if he served.
3. 3. A prohibition derived by implication from a positive command (lav haba michlal aseh) has only the force of a positive command; one who transgresses it is not given lashes.
4. 4. Quoted back from the Mishnah (Bechoros 43a): “Besides these: the kilon, the lifsan, the makben, one whose head is shakut, and the sekifas.” The Gemara now defines each by the shape of the head.
5. 5. Quoted back from the Mishnah (Bechoros 43a): “Those with humps – Rabbi Yehudah declares them fit and the Sages declare them unfit.” A chatoteres is a hump that protrudes from the body.
6. 6. Quoted back from the Mishnah (Bechoros 43a): “Who is bald? Anyone who does not have a line of hair going around from ear to ear; if he has, he is fit.” Rava discusses which line of hair the Mishnah means.
7. 7. The Mishnah lower on this amud lists one whose eyelashes fell out as unfit “because of appearance”: it is not a blemish, but he is kept from serving because he is unsightly. So where appearance is the reason, the Tanna says so.
8. 8. Later in this chapter the Mishnah again lists one whose teeth were removed as unfit “because of appearance.” The Tanna states that reason each time it applies, so bald men and dwarfs, listed without it, must be unfit for another reason.
9. 9. Toras Kohanim is the Sifra, the halachic midrash on Vayikra.
10. 10. Among a kohen’s blemishes the Torah lists “or a gibben” (Vayikra 21:20). The Mishnah relates the word to the eyebrows (gevinin), the rows of hair above the eyes.
11. 11. The beraisa’s main case of a gibben is one whose eyebrows are joined; the word “or” adds one who has no eyebrows or only one.
12. 12. The Gemara returns to the Mishnah, but its question concerns the view cited next in it, that of Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus, who disqualifies one with two backs and two spines (Rashi).
13. 13. A woman who gives birth becomes tamei with the tumah of childbirth – seven days for a boy, fourteen for a girl. A creature that is not considered a child does not make her tamei.
14. 14. A nefel is a non-viable newborn. It is regarded as dead, so shechitah cannot permit it.
15. 15. Among a kohen’s blemishes the Torah lists “charum” (Vayikra 21:18). The Mishnah defines it as one with no nose between his eyes, so that he can paint both eyes in one stroke.
16. 16. The main case of charum is the one who paints both eyes at once; the word “or” adds the other deformities of the nose.
17. 17. Tosfos call Rashi’s commentary “the Kuntres.”
18. 18. A fetus found inside an animal that was slaughtered is permitted by its mother’s shechitah and needs no shechitah of its own.
19. 19. Rabbeinu Tam, Rashi’s grandson, one of the leading Baalei Tosfos.