Le Lévitique 10:6 Halakha : Sefer HaChinukh, Mishneh Torah, Negative Mitzvot & Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah

That the priests not enter the Temple with grown hair: That the priests not enter the Temple with grown hair, like mourners do — meaning to say that they not grow their hair long, as it is stated (Leviticus 10:6), “you shall not let your head be wild.” And the Targum (Aramaic translation of Onkelos) said, “Do not increase locks.” And Yechezkel the prophet elucidated and said (Ezekiel 44:20), “and they shall not send forth locks.” And so too with the metsora (Leviticus 13:45), “and his head shall be wild” — and they said in Sifra [that it means], “He grows locks.”

And [it] is practiced at the time of the [Temple] by the males of the priesthood. And one who transgresses it and enters the Temple with wild [hair] — meaning after he grows his hair for thirty days — and serves there is liable for death by the hand of the Heavens; as it is stated, (Leviticus 10:6), “you shall not let your head be wild [...] and you shall not die.” And the words of the Torah are [in short] — meaning to say, behold if they let their heads be wild, they will die. Nonetheless their service is not disqualified. And one who entered there but did not serve, is with a warning — meaning to say, he violated a negative commandment and is lashed. But he is only in [the category of] the death penalty if he served — since so did the explanation come. And Ramban, may his memory be blessed, wrote (in Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandments 163) that one with wild [hair] not enter the Temple is an embellishment from [the Rabbis] and is not from Torah writ; and his proofs are in his book. And he said that the verse is only coming to forbid drawing close for service, and it is included in the negative commandment of one with a blemish who served. And he wrote further that even the Sages only forbade the place that is called, “between the chamber and the altar”; but they did not forbid in front of the altar itself — which is thirty-two ells, as we learned (Mishnah Middot 3:1, 6), “The altar was thirty-two ells [...]; between the chamber and the altar was twenty-two.”

That the priests not enter the Temple with torn clothes: That the priests not enter the Temple with torn clothes, as it is stated (Leviticus 10:6), “and you shall not rend your clothes” — the understanding is, do not tear your clothes. And the prevention is repeated with the high priest, as it is stated about him (Leviticus 21:10), “and he shall not rend his clothes.” And repeating the prevention about it is because of the addition of a thing with him: That he is not permitted to tear for a dead when he dies — and even not during the time of the service. And they said in Sifra, Emor, Section 2:3, “‘And he shall not let his hair be wild and he shall not rend his clothes’ — for his dead, as [other] people do for their dead. Behold, how is it? The high-priest rends from the bottom (of his garment), and common [priests], from the top.”