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Leviticus 21, 22
(Delivered by Daniel Rotto to the Whittier Havurah, Sunday, October 3, 2004)
Today we will look into Leviticus chapters
21 & 22 which Parsha begins with various laws and obligations that pertain
to the Kohanim who serve as the Priests in the Temple, and continues with laws
regarding sacrifices brought there..
However before we look into the Priesthood, I thought it may
be of interest to discuss a little history on the origination of the Kohanim
In the time of the Patriarchs, Jacob the grandson of Abraham, had 12 sons, Asher, Benjamin, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon and Zebulon, each of whom became the father of one of the 12 tribes of Israel and each of whom settled in a different region of Canaan, on either side of the Jordan River.
During a later period a monarchy was established, but with the death of King Solomon, in the 10th Century B.C.E the state was divided in two. The tribes split, with Judah and Benjamin in the south loyal to the Davidic house. The rest of the tribes formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel which were ruled by a succession of monarchies. The southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah constitute the historical forbears of most of the Jewish People as it is known today. In 721 B.C.E., the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V, captured Samaria, and the ten tribes of the north were exiled to upper Mesopotamia and Medes, which today, is modern Syria and Iraq, and apparently assimilated and lost their individual identities and thus disappeared, and have never been seen since- and to this day are referred to as the Ten Lost Tribes. It should also be noted that in the time of the patriarchs, there was no official priesthood, and acts of public worship were performed by the head of the family-which privilege was inherited by the first born son. According to tradition, the first-born served as the priesthood-- until the time of the completion of the Tabernacle, Israel’s first house of worship.A Kohan could not enter a cemetery or be
under the same roof as a corpse. To this day, Jews who are observant Kohanim
do not enter the house where a dead body may be.
If they wish to pay their respect to the deceased by attending the
funeral, they must remain outside the house and stand at the same distance when
the coffin is carried out.
Rabbi Joshua
Hoffman of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue points out that the idea here as
explained in the Talmud is that the Kohan serves “before God," which implies being in a joyous state, a
state of simcha, and confronting death would seem to negate such a state.
Because according to Jewish law a
Kohan must distance himself a
minimum of 6 feet from a Jewish corpse, a deceased Kohan must be buried next to
a walkway that is at least 12 feet wide, or he may be buried at the edge of the
cemetery, making it possible for relatives who are also Kohanim to visit the
grave without violating the law.
It is also interesting to note
that Alfred Kolatch in his Jewish Book of Why which is not a book of
halacha or Jewish Law, but is designed only to explain the reasoning behind the
practices that are followed, points out that “so that a Kohan may visit
patients in the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where Jewish corpses usually are
to be found, double doors were installed to seal off certain area so that the
whole hospital is no longer a unit, thus enabling Kohanim to visit the sick in
the hospital without violating the law of Ohel- which refers to an enclosure
that could contain a corpse. Further, Kolatch also points out
that segments of the Orthodox community disagree over whether a Kohan should be
permitted to study medicine.
Since in today’s world Kohanim are only “presumed” to be Priests
because their pedigree cannot necessarily be proven, some authorities within the
Orthodox community do not consider it a violation of biblical law or Talmudic
law if a Kohan wishes to study medicine, even though
it requires that he be in contact with corpses in the course of his
studies. They feel that inasmuch doctors save lives, and since in Jewish law
there is no greater good deed one can perform than that of saving a life-as you
know one may even violate the Sabbath to do so-Kohanim should be permitted to
study medicine. On the other hand
there are Orthodox authorities who vehemently reject this position
Of course non-orthodox authorities take the position that all Kohanim
today are Priests only by presumption, and they see no reason for prohibiting
them from studying medicine.” As an aside – they have recently
been able to trace by DNA the descendants of Aaron, the first priest,-so it will
be interesting to note if in the future any change will be made in the so-called
“presumption” of being a
descendant of Aaron.
Another prohibition was that the
Kohanim were not to shave smooth any part of their heads, or cut the corners of
their beards-which heretofore was apparently a pagan practice. It should also be
noted that the law was originally only for priests, however, as the concept of
the holy people developed, all Israelites adopted the practice.
Furthermore, Kohanim were forbidden to marry a divorcee, a prostitute, a proselyte, or the
offspring of such an illegal priestly marriage. The High Priest had even more
stringent regulations-he was not
permitted to marry a widow, nor was he permitted to come into contact with a
corpse even of one of the seven immediate relatives, just noted.
In this Parsha they tell us that
the appearance of the priest who stood before the congregation had to be a
fitting one; a Kohan with any affliction of any kind or blemish
was not allowed to approach the altar. And it goes on to enumerate the various
defects, namely blindness, or if one is lame or one who has a limb too short
or too long-a broken leg or arm or one who is a hunchback or a dwarf or one who
has a growth in his eye, or has a
boil-scar or scurvy or crushed testes. This particular law also bothered
me-why ? Is a man not a man just because he has certain physical defects?.
Rabbi Joshua Hoffman in his
dissertation, “The Eyes of the Beholder” calls to our attention a commentary
by Rabbi Eliyah Mier Bloch an
outstanding scholar and the Rav and Rosh Yeshivah of Telse, Lithuania and later
of Cleveland Ohio. Rav Bloch in his.commentary.
Peninei Da’as, explains that it is not befitting that a blemished person be
the one to perform God’s service has to do not with God’s not accepting the
blemished person’s services, but had to do with the attitude of the people who
the Kohan represents.The Kohan
acts as the representative of the people in performing the Temple service. While
so far as God is concerned, a blemished Kohan is a perfectly acceptable
candidate to perform this service, but he may not be so in the eyes of those he
represents. They may feel that it is not fitting for them to have a person with
bodily imperfections approach God’s holy abode and offer their sacrifices to
Him. Although the attitude may be
wrong he goes on to say, it is a natural reaction, and the Torah, while not
condoning such a reaction, takes cognizance of it. Since subjectively, the
people will feel that they are not properly fulfilling their duty by having a
blemished Kohan represent them, he is disqualified from service.
It was the priests’
responsibility to keep a very specific distance between themselves and any
object that could defile them. Similarly
they were to make a distinction between that which was clean and that which was
unclean. Also they were to keep
anything that was to be used in the service of the Temple away from any
defilement.
Just as there were specific
laws that applied to the Kohanim, in their official duties, so also the same
laws of purification applied to sacrifices as they were offered on the
altar.-the animal sacrifice was not to have any blemish or any defect. Then there follows a series of
detailed laws that applied to sacrifices. With reference
to the sacrifice of animals we have here probably the origination of humaneness
to animals. Rabbi Gunther
Plaut in his commentary on Deuteronomy in the Torah published by the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations makes the point.that the Torah in many places shows it concern for the
feelings and needs of animals. Though it takes for granted that certain animals
may be sacrificed and used for food-a recognition of the universal law of
survival-it also makes clear that God’s mercy extends to all of His creation..
And it is here in Leviticus that we see it manifested, as in this sedra
we find the following : There was the
requirement that an animal should not be taken away from its mother until at
least 7 days after it is born before bringing it as a sacrifice. It further
states that an animal and its offspring shall not be killed on the same day. To
which Rabbi Hertz’s commentary is that it is prohibited to kill an animal with
its young on the same day in order that people shall be restrained and prevented
from killing the two together in such a manner that the young is slain in the
sight of the mother; for the pain of the animals under such circumstances is
very great."
Being dedicated to the service of
God, the priests and the whole tribe of Levi were not granted an inheritance in
the land of Israel as were the other tribes. In return for their service, however, they were granted gifts and
privileges which ensured their livelihood. In return for their services in
the Temple, the priests enjoyed 24 privileges , which included the meat of
various sacrifices and offerings, of the first of the ripe fruits and the
firstlings of a pure animal, five shekels from the redemption of a first-born
son of the father, a lamb from the redemption of the firstling of an ass, a share of the crops, flour and oil from the Meal Offerings, Challah, the
first wool from the sheep shearing, and other offerings from the people.
Once again as an aside -with
reference to Challah it is interesting to note that the children of Israel were
commanded to set aside, from the bread they bake, a small portion of dough for
the sustenance of the Priests. After
the destruction of the Second Temple, challah continued to be "taken” as
the expression goes by those who
baked bread. But since Priests no
longer carried out their former Temple activities, the piece of dough was thrown
into the fire and burned up. And
today if you will look at the next box of matzos you purchase you will see a
notation on the side of the box saying “The laws of challah are fulfilled”
or “Challah Taken” or some such similar phrase.
With the destruction of the Second
Temple in 70 C.E, the priesthood lost its meaning and the foundation of its
existence. Thus its memory was kept alive by the practice of calling up a Kohan
for the first aliyah when reading from the Torah .The Second Aliyah goes to a Levi and the third to a
Yisra’el. This practice is still today practiced by the Orthodox and
Conservative movements. Kaplan considered this division irrelevant to Jews who
no longer dream of a restored Temple and was bothered by the undemocratic
concept of granting religious privileges based on ancestry and accordingly in
Reconstructionist synagogues the honor of an aliyah, is given to whomever we feel deserves the honor on the basis of his or
her participation in their Havurah or congregation life.
The Kohanim today
still perform the ceremony of the redeeming of the first-born at a ceremony called Pinyad Haben,.which frees a firstborn male Israelite from the obligation of dedicating
his life to the service of God, by the father of the child offering 5
shekels-today usually 5 silver dollars to the Kohan to release his son of the
obligation of dedicating his life to the service of God. Not
only Orthodox and Conservative Jews follow this tradition but also many Reform
and Reconstructionist Jews still hold on to this tradition.
The laws concerning the forbidden
marriages are still considered valid by Orthodox Jews as is the law against
defilement by contact with a corpse.
In addition among the more
pleasant obligations placed on the Kohanim we find that the priests were
obligated to bless the people with a special blessing-in Hebrew referred to the
Birchat Kohanim. In Israel this is part of the
daily morning service, whereas here in the United States those congregations
that follow this practice do so only on certain holidays-.Rosh Hashanah,
Yom Kippur, Passover, Sukkoth, and Shavuot.Sephardic congregations on the
other hand , generally follow a tradition of having the Kohanim bless the
congregation by performing what is called a duchaning service at every Sabbath
service. This ancient blessing has remained a.part of the synagogue liturgy to this day- and the service of
Duchening, wherein all the Kohanim
in the congregation ascend to the bema, in their stocking feet –first face the
Ark and then the congregation -and with their fingers stretched so that the
thumb and first finger and the middle and ring fingers are so separated as to
form little spaces-so it is said that the rays of the Shekinah can stream
through upon the assembled worshipers. The Kohanim with hands held outstretched
at shoulder height and head and arms covered with their tallit –they recite
the ancient benediction in unison-namely: "May the Lord Bless thee and keep
thee May the Lord cause his countenance
to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.May the Lord lift his countenance
toward thee and grant thee peace."