Komentaryo sa Levitico 21:8: Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Ramban & Or HaChaim

וקדשתו THOU SHALT SANCTIFY HIM — even against his will; it means that if he is not willing to divorce the woman whom he had illegally married flog him (מלקות ארבעים) and chastise him (מכות מרדות) until he divorces her (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 1 13; Yevamot 88b).

You must keep him holy In your thoughts and in your speech.

FOR I THE ETERNAL, WHO SANCTIFY YOU, AM HOLY. The sense [of the plural form of you] is that it is addressed to the priests, just as He began, Say unto the priests.²⁵Verse 1. Or it may be that the expression I the Eternal, Who sanctify you means “Who sanctifies all of you — priests and [the rest of the] people,” and the meaning thereof is as follows: “Since the priest offers ‘the bread’ of your G-d, he shall be holy unto thee, for through him I sanctify all of you and make My Shechinah (Divine Glory) dwell in your Sanctuary.” It is possible by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala] that the above phrase refers back to the beginning of [this] verse,²⁶The beginning of the verse reads: Thou shalt sanctify him. The sense of the whole verse is thus: “Sanctify him, and you likewise will become holy, because it is I the Eternal Who sanctifies you, and when he [the priest] performs the rites of the offerings to be acceptable upon Mine altar, he thereby sanctifies you and brings you nearer unto Me” (Ricanti). a matter which has already been explained.²⁷Above, 1:9 (towards the end).

קדש יהיה לך HE SHALL BE HOLY UNTO THEE — holy unto thee: treat him with sanctity (as someone holy) — that he should be the first in all holy matters (e. g., the reading of the law) and that he should have the first right to recite the benedictions at a meal (המוציא and ברכת המזון) (Gittin 59b; cf. Rashi on Nedarim 62b).