Makkot

If [on the other hand] there had been uttered but one admonition, is he liable [on four or five counts]? Do we not learn [in the Mishnah]:1 A nazirite2 who has been drinking wine all day is liable only on one count;3 if they said to him, ‘Drink not [wine]!’ ‘Drink not [wine]!’ — and he drinks [each time], he is liable on each and every [instance]? — The ruling has application where [say] he dipped his five fingers in a [depilatory] salve and applied them simultaneously [on five places], in which case the one admonition refers to each [finger separately]. And how much constitutes a baldness? — R. Huna says: Enough to show the [bare] scalp; R. Johanan says, in the name of R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon:4 It is about the size of a bean. [These statements correspond] to different Tanna-statements: ‘How much constitutes a baldness? About the size of a bean; others5 say, enough to show the [bare] scalp.’ Rab Judah b. Habiba observed that three Tannaim differed on that point: one saying the size of a bean, another saying, large enough to show the [bare] scalp, and yet another saying, the removal of two hairs [at least]; some delete ‘two hairs’ and substitute ‘about the size of a lentil’. As a mnemonic use the following [Mishnaic] phrase: ‘If a [leprous] bright-spot6 is of the size of a halved [Cilician]7 bean and quick-flesh8 of the size of a lentil [encircles it etc.].’9 A Tanna taught: ‘One who removes [on the Sabbath] a scissors-nip [of hair] is liable for [a sin-offering]’;10 and how much is a scissors-nip? — Said Rab Judah: Two hairs. But was it not taught11 that two hairs are [the minimum] for a baldness? — Then take it as meaning, ‘And the same [minimum] obtains in the case of a baldness.’ It is likewise taught in [another] Baraitha: One who removes [on the Sabbath] a scissors-nip [of hair] is liable [to a sin-offering]. And how much is a scissors-nip? Two hairs; R. Eliezer says [even] one hair. Yet the Sages concede to R. Eliezer where one picks out white hair from the black that he is liable even for one, and this thing is forbidden even on week-days,12 because it [comes under what] is said, And a man shall not put on a woman's garment.13 OR ROUNDS THE CORNER OF HIS HEAD. Our Rabbis taught: ‘The corner of his head’, is the extreme end on one's head: and what is [rounding] the extreme end on his head? If he levels his temple-growth from the back of his ears to the forehead. A tanna recited in the presence of R. Hisda: The one who rounds [the corners], and the one who has them rounded are equally liable [to a flogging]. Said R. Hisda to him: ‘Does a fellow who eats dates from a sieve get a flogging?’14 Should anyone ask whose view that is, [tell him] it is R. Judah's view who says: [The contravention of] a prohibition [involving] no [tangible] action entails a flogging.15 Raba suggested [that the dictum may refer] to one who crops himself [rounding off the corners of his head],16 and that would harmonize with either view.17 R. Ashi suggested [it might refer] to one who assists18 the hairdresser, and this [too] harmonizes with either view. OR MARS THE CORNER OF HIS BEARD. Our Rabbis taught: ‘The corner of his beard’ means the ‘end’ of his beard; and what is the ‘end’ of his beard? The ‘tuft’ 19 of his beard. OR MAKES ONE CUTTING [IN THE FLESH] FOR THE DEAD. Our Rabbis taught: [It is written,] Ye shall not make a cutting in your flesh.20 One might presume that [he is liable] even for cutting himself on the collapse of his house, or on the foundering of his ship at sea; we are therefore told ‘for a soul’20 — [that is to say,] he is liable only on [cutting himself] for the dead alone. And whence is it shown that one who makes five cuttings [in his flesh] for one dead is liable on each and every cutting? We learn it from the words, ‘a cutting’,20 that is, to make one liable for every cutting. R. Jose21 Says: Whence can it be shown that one who makes one cutting for five dead is liable on each [of the five] dead? From the instructive text ‘for a soul’,20 which indicates that one is liable for every soul — But, have you not already made use of this text for excluding [from this category] one ‘who cut himself on the collapse of his house, or on the foundering of his ship at sea’? impurity in skin-eruptions described in Lev. XIII, 1ff. Cf. Kel., XVII, 12; Neg. VI, 1, where it is defined as nine lentils, 3 X 3 = 36 hairbreadths, a lentil being 4 hairbreadths. Rashi. Shab. 94b.)] thief who was caught picking them from the tree? Ritba explains it thus: If someone had gathered some fruit on the Festival day and another came and took some out of the basket and ate them, would the second be as guilty as the first who desecrated the Festival? uphe, tk is in the plural, i.e., more than one acting, and the meaning of the verb in this form — Hif'il — ‘do not make the corner rounded’ (yourself) or ‘do not have someone rounding it’ (for you). V. Malbim on Lev. XIX, 27.