We’ll continue listing different aveirot (transgressions) for which a person would receive Malkot (lashes) if he violated them. The Mishnah says that somebody makes a bald spot on his head by ripping hair out because he is in such grief over somebody who passed away, which is a prohibition in Torah. Somebody rounds out his head by cutting off his sideburns, cutting off his peyot (sideburns). If somebody shaves his beard, destroying the different edges of his beard—which we’ll elaborate on in the Mishnah—that is also not allowed. If somebody makes a cut in his skin out of grief over somebody who passed away, for all of these different lo ta’aseh (negative commandments) that a person violated, hayav, he’s liable, and he would receive Malkot.
We mentioned that if a person cuts himself out of grief over somebody who passed away, he receives Malkot. So the Mishnah says that if somebody makes a cut in his arm or body because of five different people who died, or makes five cuts in his body over grief for one person who died, he’s liable for Malkot for each of the five. In both cases, he would receive five sets of Malkot. Even though he only did one act, each cut or each person he’s mourning is considered a separate violation of the lo ta’aseh, and therefore he’s punished with its own set of Malkot for each one. Usually, when a person violates a mitzvah (commandment) several times, he’s only given one set of Malkot because he only received one warning. But here, it’s an exception to the rule that the Gemara learns from the Pesukim (verses).
Al harosh (on the head): if he cuts off his peyot, he receives two sets of Malkot, one for cutting off one sideburn and another for cutting off the separate sideburn. They’re both considered two prohibitions, so he would receive two sets of Malkot. We mentioned earlier that there’s a prohibition against destroying the edge of a beard, the pe’at zekano (edge of a beard). So here the Mishnah is going to elaborate on what those edges are. For destroying the edges of a beard, a person could receive five different sets of Malkot because he has five edges to his beard. Shtayim mikan u-shtayim mikan (two from here and two from here). There are two sides of the face, but what are the two on each side? According to this understanding, one is right below the ear, where the cheekbone and the jaw meet. They make sort of an L shape at that point. That corner is considered one point. Secondly, on that same side, a little bit down the jawline, where the chin and the jaw meet, is another point. Before you get to the middle point of the chin, a few inches over from that, it’s on the jawline, a second point where the jaw and the chin meet. So that’s two on one side. You have the same on the other side of the face, making another two. Shtayim mikan ve’achat milematah (two from here and one from below). There’s one more on the bottom of the face, which is the chin itself. If a person destroys all five of these edges, he receives five different sets of Malkot.
Rabbi Eliezer says that if a person destroyed his entire beard all at once, and all five edges—all five points of the beard—were shaved or cut at one time, he only receives one set of Malkot. According to Rabbi Eliezer, it’s all one prohibition. So if a person did one of them and didn’t do the rest, he violated that prohibition. But if he violated all five together, he violated that same prohibition all at once, so he would only receive one set of Malkot. The same machloket (dispute) would also apply to the sideburns. We said here that the Tana Kama (first tanna) said you receive, in terms of the beard, five different prohibitions. So that’s five sets of Malkot, while Rabbi Eliezer disagreed. The sideburns would be the same thing. According to the Tana Kama, as we mentioned, you get two sets of Malkot because there are two different sideburns. He looks at them as two separate prohibitions. What Rabbi Eliezer would say, though, is that if you shave them together in one moment, then it’s the same prohibition and you’d only receive one set of Malkot.
About shaving, the Mishnah will say you’re not liable for destroying the points or edges of the beard unless you cut them with a razor. There are two details that have to be met in order to violate this prohibition. You’re not allowed to shave with a tool that is primarily used for shaving and that also destroys the hair at the root. A razor, which is a straight blade, fulfills that description. It is used for shaving, and it also cuts the hair at the root. Scissors, for example, would not fit that description. They only meet one of the two criteria. They’re used for shaving, but they do not destroy the hair at the root. Tweezers would destroy the hair at the root, but they are not primarily used for shaving.
The ability is that, oh man, even to cut it with a malket (tweezers) or with a razor, you have to. This agrees with Rabbi Eliezer, who says that even if a person removed the hair with tweezers or a plane—a tool used to smooth out wood—he would be liable. What the Hachamim (sages) say is that these tools were not usually used for shaving, so they don’t fit the criteria. But Rabbi Eliezer says, no, they were used for shaving and they do cut down to the root, so they’re not allowed to be used. So that’s, it’s a ... in a way.