A Kohen (priest) who is bald is not allowed to do the Avodah (service) in the Beit HaMikdash (temple). Being bald is not usual, and it makes a Kohen stick out; therefore, it would make him unfit to serve in the temple. What’s considered to be a bald person? Anybody who doesn’t have hair that goes around the back of his head from one ear to the other. In other words, if he still has hair on the back of his head, that’s considered to be someone who’s not bald. If he has one row of hair that goes around the back of his head, then this Kohen is fit to serve.
Another machloket (dispute) about one of the blemishes recorded in the Torah. If somebody has no eyebrows, or if he only has one eyebrow, this is the blemish called giben that’s mentioned in the Torah. The Torah tells us that a Kohen who is a giben is disqualified from serving in the Beit HaMikdash. So a giben, according to this opinion, is a Kohen who has no eyebrows, or a Kohen who has a unibrow. There’s no space between his eyebrows. They look like one long eyebrow. That’s what the Torah is telling us with the blemish of a giben.
Rabbi Dosa says, “This is a different definition.” He says it’s really talking about anybody whose eyebrows are so long they hang down over his eyes. Rabbi Hanina ben Antigonos says, “He has two of each.” Rabbi Hanina ben Antigonos says giben is talking about somebody who has two backs and two spines. According to Rabbi Hanina ben Antigonos, we’re not talking about eyebrows here, but the word giben comes from the word gav, which is back. The back is so crooked that it looks like he has two spines. Obviously, he doesn’t have two spines. That type of person wouldn’t survive. So we’re talking about an individual who looks like he has two spines. That is what a giben is.
All three of these things that we mentioned here—a person who has two spines, who has either no eyebrows or one unibrow, somebody who has long eyebrows, and somebody who has a crooked spine—all of these individuals would be considered to have blemishes. The only machloket we’re talking about here is what the Torah is referring to with the word giben.