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The intention of the Torah’s simplicity

שו”תCategory: Talmudic studyThe intention of the Torah’s simplicity
asked 5 years ago

Here it is written in the Torah that they shall not shave their heads, and here the simplicity of the meaning is that the priests, the servants of God, will not be found despicable in their appearance and behavior. And here according to this there is no nefkm whether he shaved a dead person or not, in any case he will look despicable, and it is forbidden for him to enter the Temple to work while bald, and if so why was it necessary for the Gemara Reish Parik Momin to forbid a bald priest on the grounds that “he is not equal to the seed of Aaron”, wouldn’t it have been better to teach it in the verses we started with. And even if you say that the GAZASH teaches that flogging is not obligatory only for balding a dead person, then this has nothing to do with the situation in which the priest is in and he is already bald, and what do I care for what reason he went bald,
And here, from one matter to another, I have been satisfied with how many sins the Sages said are not obligatory except in a certain way, such as in the case of the destruction of a beard that is not obligatory except with a razor, and from this there are some that are permitted in numbers to begin with. And why did it not be said that the Torah intended that the children of Israel not “remove” their beards, only in order to receive lashes with a razor, and does it occur to you that it is the will of God, blessed be He, and is convenient for a Jew to remove his beard in a wise manner that does not actually go to the point of requiring lashes? And although the Rambam wrote a reason for this not to be the case because priests did indeed do this in ancient times, why do we do it at all, and even though it is not with a razor. And likewise, in some matters, it is seen that the Sages actually prohibited even in a way that is permitted by the Torah, such as casual Shabbat work, and did not say that it is permitted to begin with.


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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago
It is possible that only after they learned that there is no equivalent in Aaron’s seed did they understand that the original prohibition against shaving a bald head was due to contempt. Otherwise, we would have thought that it was only for the dead. After we learned this, it turns out that the Torah was speaking in the present, and said that they should not shave a dead head because this is the situation in which shaving is done in the Bible. But in fact, it is forbidden in any situation. I didn’t understand the second question. Are you demanding a reason to read? We prohibit what is prohibited in the Torah. The Torah prohibited the act, not the result. If the result is reached in another way, there is no prohibition (at least not a complete one). This is how we see the exemption from Grama and much more. And the reasons that it is against the Awazi, etc., ask the Maimonides. All of these reasons really don’t speak to me, and certainly don’t require the halakha to be based on them.

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