Rabbi Chananya Jacobson
כִּי ׇכל ִאיׁש ֲאׁשֶר בֹּו מוּם לֹא ִיְקָרב ִאיׁש ִעוֵּר אֹו ִפסֵַּח אֹו ָחֻרם אֹו ָׂשרוַּע.
For whatever man has a blemish, he shall not draw near: a blind man, or a lame one, or he who is charum, or is saru’a, or a man who has a broken foot, or a broken hand, or a giben, or a dak, or one who has a tavlul in his eye, or gerev, or yalefes, or mro’ach ashech. (21:18-20)
Many of the terms for the various blemishes are unfamiliar, and appear only in this Parsha. A few notes on their meanings: םֻ רָח – Rashi, based on Chazal, explains this to mean a person with a sunken nose. The ibn Ezra and Ramban relate it to cherem, in the sense of destroyed; a person whose face is “destroyed.” ַ עּ ורָ ׂש – Rashi explains that this is a person whose limbs or facial features are disproportionate. The grammarians relate this to the verse, (Yeshaya 28:20) רַצָק יִּכַהּמַצָּע ֵמִהְ ׂשּתֵָרַע, For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself.
(v. 20) ןֵ ּבִג – Menachem understands this to be the opposite of a קד – someone who is so obese that they cannot properly perform the Avodah. Ibn Ezra and others understand it to be a blemish in the בג, back, and relate it to ָהִרים גְַּבֻנִּנים, mountain of peaks. Someone with a back like that is a hunchback. According to these opinions a קד is simply someone who is too slight to do the Avodah, perhaps due to stunted growth. ְּתַבלֻּלֹ וניֵעְ ּב – according to ibn Ezra this is a damaged eye (from ל בת, a term of destruction) or a confused one (from הל ו לב, a term for mixing). Rashi follows this second explanation, noting that the Targum, ִחלִּיז, is a word for worm, and this particular blemish is a worm-like line running from the white of the eye to the iris and pupil, mixing up the parts of the eye. As the Ramban points out, Rashi explains ןבג and קד are also related to the eye, ןבג being eyebrows (ע תובגיניםי) that grow to cover the eyes, and קד referring to a thin membrane covering the eye. בָרָג, ַילֶֶּפת – Rashi, quoting Bechoros (41a), writes that these are two types of boils, dry and full of pus. The ibn Ezra relates ליתפ to ַויִּןֹ וׁשְמִ ׁש תֹּפְל, and Shimshon took hold, describing a sticky boil. Others relate it to the other instance of this root in Tanach (Rus 3:8) ַויִּלָּתֵפ, which seems to mean twisted. If so, this is not a skin condition, but refers to twisted limbs. ְמרֹוַח ָאׁשֶך – Rashi cites the Targum סיִ רְמ ןיִ ּדְחַ ּפ, one “whose fears are crushed”, י דחפן being a term used elsewhere (Iyov 40:17) to refer to testicles. This is the accepted translation, although some understand the first word of the phrase not to mean crushed, but inflated or hollow. It is interesting to note that Menachem explains the phrase “according to its matter: חופנ דחפ, inflated with fear." It is unclear if he understood the Targum more literally, for elsewhere he connects the Targum to the verse in Iyov.
