כי אם לשארו הקרוב אליו. היה נראה לנו כי פירושו כמו איש איש אל כל שאר בשרו שם כלל ואחר כן פרט לאמו ולאביו: EXCEPT FOR HIS KIN. It had appeared to us that the meaning of she’ero (His kin) is similar to she’er (near of kin) in None of you…to any that is near of kin to him (Lev. 18:6). In other words, she’ero is a general term,¹⁰Meaning a close relative. with the details for his mother, and for his father following.

וטעם בעל בעמיו. שלא יטמא הבעל באשתו וכאשר ראינו שהעתיקו רבותינו כי יטמא לאשתו ושמו לשארו כדרך אסמכתא כאשר פירשתי במלת לעם נכרי ואמרו כי פירוש בעל גדול שהעם ברשותו כמו בעליו אין עמו בטל הפירוש הראשון. וטעם להזכיר אמו קודם האב כי הזכר חי יותר מהנקבה ברוב: The meaning of ba’al be-amav (a chief man among his people) (v. 4) is that a husband¹¹Who is a kohen. shall not defile himself for his wife. However, since we saw that our teachers transmitted to us the law that a kohen is permitted to defile himself for his wife,¹²Yevamot 22b. the first interpretation falls away. They employed the word she’er as a support,¹³She’ero (his kin) literally means his flesh. According to the rabbis the reference is to a wife. The sages render ki im le-she’ero (except for his kin), except for his wife. According to I.E. the plain meaning of she’ero is not his wife. He believes that the rabbis used this verse as a support for a law which they knew by tradition. as I explained in my comments on the phrase unto a foreign people (Ex. 21:8).¹⁴According to the rabbis unto a foreign people means to any stranger. According to I.E. this is not the literal meaning of this phrase. The rabbis merely used this verse as a support. See I.E. on Ex. 21:8 (Vol. 2, pp. 458,459). The rabbis said that the meaning of ba’al is, a chief who rules over the people, as in the owner thereof (be-alav) not being with it (Ex. 22:13).¹⁵According to the rabbis the meaning of lo yittamma ba’al be-amav (He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people) is: “Seeing that he is fit to become the highest and most honored one among his people [i.e., a high priest], it (Scripture) warns him not to profane his distinction with the impurity of the dead” (Nachmanides, Chavel translation). The reason Scripture mentions the mother of the kohen before the father is that in most cases the male lives longer than the female.¹⁶In most cases the kohen will mourn for his mother before he does so for his father. Hence she is mentioned first.