Komentarz do Kapłańska 19:28

‎ ‎‎‎‎ושרט לנפש‏‎ ‎[YE SHALL NOT MAKE] ANY CUTTINGS [IN YOUR FLESH] FOR THE DEAD — This was the practice of the Amorites (a general term for heathens) to make cuttings in their flesh when someone belonging to them died.

ושרם לנפש לא תתנו בבשרכם, "And you shall not make an incision on your flesh in mourning of someone who died." The reason the Torah emphasises the word נפש is to make plain that though the incision is an injury to one's body, the reason for it is the departure of someone's נפש, someone's soul. The Torah is careful to describe this as לא תתנו בבשרכם, "do not give it on your flesh," to explain that the incision will not leave an injury on one's soul but only on one's flesh. The reason that the incision does not leave permanent damage on one's soul is that the body is considered the sheath of the soul, and man is very excited and hasty when he loses a dear relative to death (Shabbat 43). The Torah therefore continues with a different kind of bodily defacement which leaves a deeper and more permanent mark, i.e. וכתובת קעקע לא תתנו בכם, "and do not tatoo yourselves;" you will note that in this instance the Torah did not use the restrictive word בבשרכם, to show you that tatoos are considered as injuring not only the body but also the soul. The reason tatooing leaves an injury also on one's soul is that it is something which requires great care, is not performed hastily like the incision called שרט. It is only natural then that it leaves a far deeper impression on one's personality than the hastily performed incision. We are told in Baba Batra 16 that a person is not "seized" i.e. held totally responsible, for things he does at the time when he experiences deep mental anguish.

וכתבת קעקע, “nor a tatoo.” Rashi understands this to mean something engraved on one’s flesh (skin) in an indelible manner. The word would be related to תקוע, “firmly in place.” The procedure is that one “writes” with a needle beneath the skin. The area remains black forever. Our sages in Sifra Kedoshim 6,9 remark that seeing one might have thought that the mere writing on the skin would have been culpable, the Torah adds the word קעקע, to tell us that unless this writing is of such a permanent nature no penalty is incurred. At the same time, had the Torah written only the word קעקע I would have thought that the fact that an indelible mark had been made this would already have been a culpable offense, therefore the Torah had to write the words כתבת קעקע, “an indelible inscription performed with a needle-like instrument.” According to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, as long as the writing did not include the tetragrammaton one is not liable to the penalty for violating this commandment. He derives this rule from the ending of our verse, אני ה', meaning that unless the name of G’d was part of the inscription there is no penalty. The whole verse could be translated as: “do not inscribe My name on your flesh in an indelible manner.”

Such is the custom of the Amorites. Because if not so, what is its relevance here to “You shall not act on the basis of omens nor act on the basis of auspicious times,” which are practices of the Amorites.

ושרט, “and an incision in your skin or flesh as a sign of mourning,” the word שרט is written in the singular mode although these incisions are usually multiple incisions, in order to warn us that we would be guilty for a separate sin for each such incision, even if they had all been made at the same time.

וכתבת קעקע [NOR SHALL YE IMPRESS] ANY WRITING BY ETCHING [UPON YOU] — i. e. a writing engraved (more lit., dug into) and sunk into the flesh and which can never be erased because it is pricked in with a needle and remains black forever.

Because he tattoos it with a needle. With this, Rashi is telling us that he is not liable unless he wrote and he is not liable unless he engraved, and so it says in Makkos (21a).

The Torah concludes the verse with the words אני השם. The reason for this is explained by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Zohar volume 3, page 247. The word אני refers to G'd's throne which we are in the habit of referring to as His שכינה, His Presence. The tetragram i.e. the name י־ה־ו־ה on the other hand, is a reference to He who sits on that throne. With the expression אני השם G'd indicates that He is punctilious regarding the honour due to Him as well as the honour due to His throne. The relationship between man's body and his soul is similar to the relationship between G'd's throne and His essence. Seeing man has been created in the image of G'd, He does not want us to injure either our bodies or our souls.

לנפש, “on account of a dead;” if you were to do this on account of some other misfortune suffered, such as a house collapsing in an earthquake, or the loss of your cargo by the boat carrying it having sunk, this would not be punishable. (Sifra)

קעקע (root יקע) is an expression connected in sense with והוקע in (Numbers 25:4) “and hang them (והוקע אותם)" and with (II Samuel 21:6) "and we will hang them (הוקענום)". They drove poles into the ground and hanged them upon these — consequently they themselves, as the poles, were, so to speak, dug in and inserted in the ground; pourpoint in O. F.

And stuck into the ground. I.e., the person hung on it looks as if he is stuck into the ground, and הוקע is an expression of “sticking.”