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Q&A: The Intended Plain Meaning of the Torah

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

The Intended Plain Meaning of the Torah

Question

It is written in the Torah, “They shall not make a bald spot on their heads.” Now the plain meaning would seem to be that the priests, the servants of God, should not be found looking degraded in their appearance and behavior. If so, then it makes no practical difference whether he made the bald spot for the dead or not; in any case he would appear degraded. All the more so, he should not enter to serve in the Temple while bald. If so, why did the Talmud at the beginning of the chapter “These Blemishes” need to prohibit a bald priest on the basis that “he is not equal among the descendants of Aaron”? Would it not have been better to derive it simply from the verse with which we began? And even if you say that they derive through a verbal analogy that one is liable to lashes only for making a bald spot for the dead, that is not connected to the condition in which the priest is found, namely that he is already bald. What difference does it make for what reason he became bald?

And while on the subject, I have been in doubt regarding several prohibitions about which the Sages said that one is liable only in a certain specific manner. For example, in destroying the beard one is liable only with a razor, and on that basis some permit using scissors from the outset. Why should we not say that the Torah’s intent is that Israelites should not “remove” their beard, except that to incur lashes it must be done with a razor? Would it enter your mind that this is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and pleasing to Him that a Jew should remove his beard in a clever way that does not quite rise to the level of liability for lashes? Even though Maimonides wrote that the reason for this prohibition is that this was the practice of idolatrous priests in ancient times, still, why should we do this at all, even if it is not with a razor? And in several matters we indeed see that the Sages prohibited even forms that are permitted by Torah law, such as performing labor on the Sabbath in an unusual manner, and they did not say that it is permitted from the outset.

Answer

It is possible that only after they learned from “not equal among the descendants of Aaron” did they understand that the original prohibition of “they shall not make a bald spot” is because of the degradation involved. Without that, we would have thought it applies only in the case of mourning for the dead. After we learn this, it becomes clear that the Torah spoke in terms of the usual case, and said not to make a bald spot for the dead because that is the standard circumstance in which people make bald spots. But in principle it is forbidden in every situation.
I did not understand the second question. Are you asking for the reason behind the verse? We prohibit what the Torah prohibited. The Torah prohibited the act, not the result. And if one reaches the same result in another way, there is no prohibition in that (or at least not a full prohibition). That is what we see with exempt indirect causation and many other cases.
As for the reasons—that it is against idolatry and so on—ask Maimonides. To me, all those reasons do not speak at all, and certainly we do not derive the Jewish law from them.

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