Rashi seems to suggest that since the upper eyelid is described as representing the skies, which are stretched out like a canvas, working backwards the word דֹּק could mean the eyelid. The white of the eye represents the ocean that encircles the world, and the dark part which is circular represents the orbit of the sun. The upper eyelid represent the rakia (the vault over the sky that contains the stars) and the lower lid represents the earth. We read about this in homiletic stories: The eye is a mini representation of the world. Rashi then gives an alternative meaning for the word: a blemish on the eyelids. Rashi’s second explanation and a map of the world To better understand the etymology of the word, Rashi draws our attention to the verse in Isaiah (40:22 ) הַנּוֹטֶה כַדֹּק שָׁמַיִם וַיִּמְתָּחֵם כָּאֹהֶל לָשָׁבֶת “Who spread out the skies like a film, stretched them out like a tent to dwell in.” He notes that in the French of his day the the word for דֹּק is “teile” or toile, (טייל׳א or טולא) meaning a canvas or fabric. So the Talmud is describing a film over the eye, and this is certainly a reasonable way to describe a cataract, which is a cloudiness of the lens in the eye. The word duk (דק), which in modern Hebrew means thin, is translated as either a cataract (Soncino and Schottenstein) or “a veiled or withered spot” ( Jastrow). One of these is a film over the cornea or, according to some, over the eyelid. An animal brought to the Temple in Jerusalem as a sacrifice must be free of physical deformities or blemishes.
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