Commento su Levitico 21:11

'ועל כל נפשת מת וגו‎‎ means, he shall not go into a tent wherein is a corpse.

A tent [which is over a] dead body. I.e., because it is written “he shall not enter,” and entering is not applicable except into something that has an interior.

ועל כל נפשות מת לא יבא, “he shall not go to make contact with any corpse.” This is a warning to the High Priest not to be in the same covered airspace with any corpse. Seeing that this could have been derived already from the previous verse, it is clear that here the Torah includes ordinary priests in this legislation also. The linkage known as g’zeyrah shava, is established by the word יבא which is used here in connection with the High Priest, followed by the unnecessary

נפשת מת — The word נפשת, which appears redundant, is intended to include a quarter of a log of the blood of a corpse — to intimate that even this, as a corpse itself, makes men and vessels unclean through being in a "tent” in which it happens to be (Sanhedrin 4a).

A quarter of blood. It seems that Rashi infers this from Scripture’s writing “souls” in the plural, and “dead body” in the singular., as iI It should have said either “the soul of a dead body,” or “the souls of dead bodies.” Thus it is saying that one body can impart impurity similar to that of many souls, and this is [through] the quarter [of a לוג] of blood, since each quarter [of a לוג] from a corpse imparts impurity, and one can call it “soul” as the soul rests in a quarter [of a לוג] of a person. And this is easy to understand. (R. Yaakov Taryosh) You might ask: In parshas Chukas (Bamidbar 19:13) it is also written, במת בנפש, “a corpse,” and Rashi writes, “’Of a [human] soul’ refers to a quarter [of a לוג] of blood.” Why do we need two verses [to teach this lesson]? The answer is: Here it is speaking of a case where it caused impurity in a tent, and there it is speaking of a case where it caused impurity though contact.

ולאביו ולאמו לא יטמא “he must not defile himself on the bodies of either his father or his mother.” This was included in the previous part of the verse that was all inclusive, by the words: כל נפשות מת, “any dead bodies.” By repeating it, apparently, the sages learn that if a corpse is abandoned and has no one to arrange for his burial, the High Priest is commanded to defile himself on his account. (Sifra)

לאביו ולאמו לא יטמא NOR SHALL HE DEFILE HIMSELF FOR HIS FATHER OR FOR HIS MOTHER — By these words which appear redundant, since אביו ואמו are included in כל נפשת מת, Scripture has no other intention than to permit him to defile himself for a מת מצוה (cf. v. 1) (Sifra, Emor, Section 2 4; Nazir 47b).

To permit him [to become impure] for a meis mitzvoh. Because Scripture has already written, “Adjacent to any dead body he shall not enter,” which must be teaching that he may not become impure even for his father and mother. Because if it meant for other people, this would be obvious as even a regular kohein is prohibited as it is written (verse 1), “Let him not defile himself with the dead.” Therefore, “Adjacent to any dead body he shall not enter,” must be coming to prohibit a corpse [for whom] a regular kohein is permitted [to defile himself], e.g., his father and mother. But if so, why do we need [the verse], “for his father and mother he shall not become [ritually] impure”? We must certainly need it [for the following]: If the Torah did not write “his father and his mother,” we would think that since the verse “Let him not defile himself, etc.,” prohibits the Kohein Godol doing even that which is permitted to the regular kohein, and earlier the Torah permitted [the regular kohein to become impure for] a meis mitzvah and for his father and mother, whereas here regarding the Kohein Godol the Torah forbids everything, we would then think that even for a meis mitzvah it is forbidden for him to become impure. Therefore the verse repeats and writes, “For his father and his mother he shall not become [ritually] impure,” [to teach us that] for his father and mother he may not become impure, but for a meis mitzvah he may become impure. So I found.