Komentarz do Kapłańska 19:27

לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם YE SHALL NOT ROUND THE CORNERS OF YOUR HEAD — This refers to one who makes his temples exactly like (as hairless as) the back of his ears and his forehead (cf. Rashi on Makkot 20b, ד״ה המשוה צדעיו) by removing the hair on his temples, so that the lower edge of the hair that surrounds his head (i. e. his skull, because we are not concerned with ‎hair at the back of the neck) forms a complete circle, since above the back of his ears the roots of his hair are situated much higher than his temples (and it is thus only the temples which prevent an uninterrupted circular line going round his skull). (Cf. Makkot 20b).

לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם, "Do not round off the corners of your head, etc." In this instance the Torah addresses the Israelites in the plural, whereas when speaking of the beard (in the same verse) it addresses the individual, i.e. in the singular. This teaches that the first admonition in the verse applies even to people who cannot apply the second half of the verse to themselves seeing they do not have a beard. We could easily have made such a mistake as women who do not have beards also are not subject to the prohibition of rounding the corners of their heads compare (Kidushin 38). Should you ask why we have arrived at such an apparently arbitrary distinction, i.e. that the males are included in both prohibitions whereas the women are exempt from both, the answer is that the males become subject to the second prohibiton as soon as they are old enough whereas the women as a rule never become subject to the second prohibition. Nature did not endow them with hair in that area of their faces.

Seeing that it is part of revering the Lord and honouring Him not to desecrate our own bodies which He sanctified to enable us to serve Him, the Torah begins with a list of prohibitions designed to emphasise this point. לא תקיפו, we must not desecrate our heads by removing its hair as is the custom of gentile clergy or fools and drunkards. Neither are we to shave off the beard which represents man’s dignity, הדרת פנים שלו, “Shabbat 152. Neither are we to make incisions on our skin, something that is customary amongst pagans as an expression of their grief for family members who have died. Excessive mourning of this kind could be interpreted as questioning G’d Who allowed the departed to die. The same applies to a well known method of tattooing one’s skin with indelible ink below the skin, a permanent defacing of one’s body, described as כתובת קעקע. The only “improvements” to our G’d given body we are to make is the sign of the covenant, i.e. the removal of the foreskin of our males. Allowing or encouraging one’s unmarried daughter to devote her life to one of harlotry is a major desecration of one’s purpose on earth. Not only does the daughter desecrate the name of G’d by doing so, but she also desecrates the image of her father and all that he stands for. The death penalty by burning is decreed for such conduct under certain conditions in Leviticus 21,9.

לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם, “do not round off the edge of your scalp.” Ibn Ezra understands this as a warning not to trim one’s hair in the manner that the priests of idolatrous cults are in the habit of doing. 1) We should not look like such people but preserve our identities also in the manner in which we appear externally. Furthermore, seeing that hair, especially hair of the head, is considered a mark of beauty, what possible reason would we have to deprive ourselves of this mark of תפארת, ”glory?”

לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם, “do not round off the edge of your scalp, etc.” This is a warning not to shave the temple with a razor whether in conjunction with the hair on the rest of the head or by themselves. If one shaves both temples one is liable for the penalty separately for each temple.

Who makes [the hair of] his temples similar. It is as if it said, “Do not destroy [the hair of] your temples.” The verse calls them “the corners of your heads” because the ends of the head [where hair stops growing] are the end of the hair roots on the forehead, and the end of the hair roots behind the ears, and the end of the hair roots behind the head, as from there downwards it is the hair of the back of the neck which is part of the neck. Thus, all the hair roots are at the ends of the head in a circle except for the temples, which go down on each side and break the circle. And when one destroys the hairs of the temples with a razor and makes them level to behind his ears and his forehead, his whole head is left surrounded in a circle [of hair]. Therefore, when it says “Do not round the corners of your heads,” it is as if it says “Do not destroy your temples.” Re’m.

פאת זקנך [NEITHER SHALT THOU MAR] THE CORNERS OF THY BEARD — i. e. the tip of the beard and its sides, these making together five corners: two on each cheek, above near the head (the temples) — where it (the cheek) is broad and has therefore two corners (thus four on the two sides) and one at the bottom, on the chin, on that spot where is the junction of the two cheeks (Shevuot 3a; cf. also Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 6 3; Makkot 20a and Rashi on Shevuot 3a: ועל הזקן ‎‎‏ (ד"ה

Near the head. I.e., the place where the cheek meets the temple. There are two corners, [one at] the end of the [jaw] bone of the cheek [where it meets the temple], and one at the end of the width of the cheek [above], because the cheek is wide on top, and these are called “the apples of the face.” This “end” is in the middle of the face [looking from the side], and it is at the end of the width of the cheek. And there is one [more corner] at the place where the two cheeks join together at the chin where you have the shiboles [point] of the beard (Re’m). There are other explanations; see Tur Yoreh Dei’ah chapter 181.