Razors to Raise Them

Parshat B'ha'alotkha

The Levites are consecrated, once and for all, in the opening passages of our parsha. Mazal tov!

Hold your horses. Did you read what they have to go through to experience this monumental achievement?

"Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify them. This is how you purify them: sprinkle on them 'sin waters' and pass a razor over their entire bodies (ie. shave their hair), then they'll wash their clothes and they'll thus be purified." (8:6-7)

The Midrash takes the entire procedure and places it into Korach's mouth as one of his arguments against Moshe's sanity and moral leadership. With (arguably) good reason! It sounds like they're going through a delousing formula before entering prison!

Rashi is so disturbed by this depiction that he quotes a "nice idea" that he heard from Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan, the master of Biblical exegesis, to try to explain why the Levites would go through such an ordeal. Such a homiletical interpretation suggests a lesson to be learned, but also an explanation that may not be entirely accurate.

Their body hair seems to be shaved, he explains, "Since they brought about the forgiveness for the firstborns who had worshiped idols (through killing those who worshiped the Golden Calf), and idolatry is considered 'the offerings of the dead,' and a person afflicted with tzara'at is called 'dead,' they were required to have the same kind of haircut as those afflicted with tzara'at."

So, if one is looking to achieve a spiritual connection to God, the last step before bringing a korban or dunking in the mikveh is to take a full-body-shave?

I understand the concept of shaving to achieve "cleanliness." But to compare the journey of the metzora cleansing himself to that of a Levite who carried out capital punishment on idolators is like comparing apples to oranges. Technically they're both fruit – but through two very different processes.

The biggest irony comes from the fact that the only other time the word for razor (ta'ar) appears in the Torah is in the context of a nazir commencing his vow period of not drinking wine or cutting his hair (Bamidbar 6:5). While the metzora does shave all his (or her) hair (Vayikra 14:8-9), there is no mention of the use of a razor.

The Talmud (Nazir 40) addresses the question of how we know the metzora's shaving is done by razor, concluding that the Rabbis interpreted thus from comparing their shaving to the shavings of the Levites and Nazirs which were done with a razor.

More importantly, what does it mean to have the body-hair shaved? And why do the Levites have to go through such a procedure?

Commentaries address how much hair must be removed. Ibn Ezra quotes the "copiers" who said the beard should be shaved, but not the "pe'ah," the area that is Biblically forbidden to cut (Vayikra 19:27). Rabbenu Bachaya says the "pe'ah" is included in what may be cut. The Midrash, however, says the only hair that may not be cut grows in hidden areas.

The Torah Temimah defines these "hidden areas" as armpits and the pubic region, and he learns this from a passage in Kiddushin 25a that says we only count generally seen organs. Organs that are not normally seen need not be shaved in the "full-body" shave.

No matter how much of the body is shaved, the question remains of why the "cleansing process" of shaving is applied to the Levites. One marked distinction between the shavings is that of the Sefer HaChinukh (Mitzvah 377), who says the Levite circumstance was a one-time purification process that only the first group of Levites went through, while nazirs and metzoras would forever have to go through such a process.

The Siftei Cohen (Shakh) puts it best when he describes the symbolism of this one-time act as one which helps the Levites get past a few dark spots in their familial history.

While it says "they will pass a razor on their flesh" the Torah does not go into detail as to what they'll actually shave, because it is the act of the moving of the razor that is symbolic, not the removal of the hair (as it is in the case of the metzora). The Levites had an appetite for the sword, as was originally demonstrated by their ancestor's actions in wiping out the city of Shechem. They took the same sword to punish those who had sinned at the Golden Calf (compare Bereshit 34:25 to Shmot 32:27). The razor needed to be passed over the body as a 'kapparah' for their distasteful act, inspired by the bad angel Sama'el, of using the sword to carry out justice.

Therefore, the razor, and not the actual hair removal is what becomes the focus. Even though capital punishment is sometimes necessary, those who rush to carry it out are still held culpable for their participation in the act, minimally mandated to have a spiritual cleansing.

The one-time act was meant to purge forever Levitical characteristics that would no longer be useful in those designated for Temple service.