For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 13
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On our daf
Reish Lakish said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: I should read here the verse:
א בָּנִים אַתֶּם, לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶםגֹּדְדוּ, וְלֹא-תָשִׂימוּ קָרְחָה בֵּין עֵינֵיכֶם--לָמֵת.
1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
Deut 14:1
“You shall not cut yourselves [titgodedu]” which is interpreted as meaning: Do not become numerous factions [agudot]. In other words, the Jewish people should be united, rather than divided into disparate groups that act in different ways. Before analyzing this issue, the Gemara asks: This verse: “You shall not cut yourselves,” is required for the matter itself, as the Merciful One is saying: Do not cut yourselves over the dead. How is the halakha concerning factions derived from this apparently straightforward verse?
The Gemara answers: If so, that the verse comes to teach only about the practices of mourning, let the verse state only: You shall not cut.
What is the meaning of: “You shall not cut yourselves”? Learn from this that it comes for this purpose as well, to teach the prohibition against splitting into factions.
This argument goes to the very heart of biblical interpretation: Can a verse hold more than one meaning? Must it always make reference to its context first and foremost?
Don't we learn that Jews are not supposed to cut ourselves off from each other; we should act as one? Or, perhaps we are truly referring to "cutting oneself", which is strictly prohibited. It seems that cutting as a form of mourning was an understood practice.
We cite the Netziv’s unique interpretation then go on to explore what self multilation means in mourning and in young people today (cutting) as well as recent archaeological discoveries in Ashkelon.