Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

That one with a blemish not enter the entire sanctuary: That one with a blemish not enter the sanctuary in its entirety — meaning to say the altar, between the chamber and the altar and all the rest of the places in the sanctuary, as it is stated (Leviticus 21:23), “But to the curtain he shall not come and to the altar he shall not come.” And it is elucidated in Sifra, Emor, Chapter 3:10 that these two negative commandments of the curtain and the altar do not suffice, one without the [other]. And each of them comes to complete the law as one matter — and it is to distance the place that is forbidden for them to enter in [from them].

It is from the roots of the commandment to aggrandize the glory of the [Temple] and its beauty. Therefore it is not fitting for someone with a blemish to go there — since it is the place of perfection, it is not appropriate for someone with any lack to stand there. And I have already written above many times (e.g. Sefer HaChinukh 95) the benefit that is found for us in our aggrandizing the loftiness of the holy [Temple] and its glory.

I mentioned the laws of the commandment — meaning what are the blemishes for which a priest refrains from entering — with hints (in outline form), above close by in the law of the one with a permanent blemish (Sefer HaChinukh 275). And there I made known their place in the Gemara and all of the content, as is my custom. And Ramban, may his memory be blessed, wrote (on Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandments 69) that we should not count this negative commandment as one of the tally of the negative commandments; that the prohibition for one with a blemish to enter into the Sanctuary — and also one with wild [hair], torn clothes or drunk with wine — is an embellishment from the words of [the Rabbis]. And this verse is only coming to forbid drawing close for service and it is included in the negative commandment that one with a blemish not serve. And he wrote further that even they only forbade the place that is called, “between the chamber and the altar,” which is twenty-two ells; but in front of the altar itself, which is thirty-two ells, they did not forbid. And [it is] as I wrote above in the Order of Vayehi Bayom Hashmini (Sefer HaChinukh 149) in the warning of the one with wild [hair] in the name of the teacher, may his memory be blessed. (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Admission into the Sanctuary 6.)