JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

It was the first time in the history of Argentina that a Jew had
become a member of the presidential cabinet. Afterwards he
served as ambassador to Mexico. In 1961 he was named chairman
of the Instituto Indigenista Interamericano and head of
the official delegation of Argentina to the conference of the
International Labor Organization. Blejer also published humoristic
essays under the pseudonym Julio Mocoroa.
[Efraim Zadoff (2nd ed.)]
BLEJER, MARIO ISRAEL (1948– ). Israeli economist. Born
in Córdoba, Argentina, to a traditional family, Blejer studied
in the local Jewish day school and in 1967 made aliyah to study
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his
B.A. (1970) in economics and Jewish history and his M.A.
(1972) in economics. He received his Ph. D. in economics
from the University of Chicago in 1975. During his academic
career Blejer held the Walther Rathenau Chair in Economics
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1996–99) and taught
at Boston University, New York University, Johns Hopkins, the
University of Geneva, George Washington University, Universidad
de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, and the Central European
University in Budapest. At the same time (1980–2001)
he served at the International Monetary Fund, where he
reached the level of senior. In 2001 he returned to Argentina
to be appointed deputy governor and in 2002 governor of the
Central Bank. He served in that position for one year, dealing
with the country’s financial crisis. In January 2003, Blejer
moved to London, where he became the director of the Centre
for Central Banking Studies at the Bank of England and a
member of the Financial Stability Board of the Bank. He also
served as an advisor to the governor. He published books and
numerous articles in specialized journals.
[Efraim Zadoff (2nd ed.)]
BLEMISH (Heb. םּומ), a defect in the body of a man or an animal.
Defects of conduct are also metaphorically called blemishes
(Deut. 32:5; Prov. 9:7; Job. 11:15). A blemished priest was
unfit to serve in the priesthood (Lev. 21:16–23) and was precluded
from approaching the altar to offer the fire-offerings.
He was permitted to carry out only Temple functions not
involving actual service at the altar, since he was not standing
before the Lord. The Bible forbade a priest who had been
blemished to approach the veil (Lev. 21:23), and as a result he
was forbidden during the Second Temple period not only to
enter the Temple but even to step between the altar and the
sanctuary (Kelim 1:9). He was permitted, however, to go into
the other parts of the Temple area and to “eat of the food of his
God, of the most holy as well as of the holy” (Lev. 21:22).
Just as the officiating priest had to be unblemished, so
no blemished animal was permitted to be offered on the altar
(Lev. 22:17–25; Deut. 15:21–23; 17:1; cf. Mal. 1:6ff.). An animal
whose blemishes were slight – “with a limb extended or contracted”
(Lev. 22:23; see below) – could only be offered as a
freewill offering, which was less stringent. A blemished priest
blemish
was forbidden to approach the veil and approach the altar because
“he shall not profane these places sacred to Me” (Lev.
21:23). A blemished sacrifice that was offered would not be
acceptable on behalf of the one offering it (Lev. 22:20). Such a
sacrifice is called an “abomination” in Deuteronomy 17:1 (cf.
the strong words in Mal. 1:8ff. against a prevailing laxness in
this regard). The flesh of a blemished animal, however, is permitted
as food (Deut. 15:21–22).
The requirement that priests and sacrifices should be
without blemish was common to all the ancient civilizations,
and there is evidence of this from Egypt, Mesopotamia, H ̆ atti
(the land of the Hittites), Greece, and Rome. Egyptian documents
state that candidates for the priesthood were examined
for blemishes, and that the sacrifices were examined in the
same way, marking animals fit for sacrifice. Documents from
Mesopotamia state that priests and the sacrifices had to be
perfect, without any blemish. The Hittites also regarded the
presence at the ceremonial ritual of those blemished as an affront
to the gods. The requirement that both priests and sacrifices
be without blemish is also known from Greece and
Rome.
The following blemishes are enumerated as making
priests unfit for service in the Temple (Lev. 21:18–20): ivver
(iwwer), a blind man; pisse’aḥ, one injured in the thigh,
from birth or as the result of an accident (cf. II Sam. 4:4), in
contrast to a man who has a broken leg; ḥarum, a man whose
nose is sunk in between his eyes; saruaʿ, apparently one with
hands or feet of unequal length; a man who has a broken leg
or broken arm; gibben and dak (daq), whose meanings depend
on whether the words are connected with the following (Rashi,
Maimonides) or with the previous bone deformities (Ibn Ezra;
according to the first explanation gibben is one whose eyebrows
are long and descend over his eyes and daq is one who
has a kind of skin (pterygium) over the cornea of his eye; according
to the second explanation, gibben is a hunchback and
daq is one whose foot or hand muscles degenerated as a result
of corrosion, and are thinner than usual); tevallul, a sufferer
from cataract; garav and yallefet, skin diseases, not identified
with certainty (garav is probably dermatitis and yallefet
is probably Egyptian herpes, ringworm); mero’aḥ ashekh, one
with a crushed testicle.
Blemishes that render an animal unifit for sacrifice are
(Lev. 22:22, 24) avveret, (awweret) blindness; shavur or ḥaruẓ,
broken or cracked limbs that cause the animal to be lame;
skin diseases (yabbelet, a wen, referring to a swelling discernible
because of its size; garav and yallefet (see above)); defects
of the testicles due to bruising by hand (maʿukh), or cutting
with an implement (katut), tearing with pincers or a cord
(natuq), or even complete severence by castration (karut);
saruʿa and qaluṭ, very slight blemishes, referring to an animal
having one leg longer or shorter than the other (these animals
may be sacrificed as a freewill offering (Lev. 22:23)). According
to some, only saruʿa means “living limbs of unequal length,”
whereas qaluṭ means “club-footed,” i.e., in the case of cattle,
sheep, and goats, with the hoof uncloven.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 749