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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.

As a punishment for the Kohanim’s participation in the sin of the golden calf,  they were replaced by the Levites, who had remained staunchly loyal to God. And thus the tribe of Levi was henceforth dedicated to the service of God.-such as the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant, maintenance of the Temple and its sacred vessels.  And it was from the tribe of Levi that Aaron and his descendants were singled out to be the priests and serve in the Temple and the  male descendants of Aaron were granted hereditary privileges and obligations of the priestly office, which included the sacred service including the sacrificial cult, the supervision of hygienic purity and to some extent the teaching and administering the law.  The priests were strictly enjoined to uphold a higher standard of holiness than the rest of the people. 

Accordingly, today, Leviium are believed to be the direct patrilineal descendants of the tribe of Levi, while Kohanim are Leviium who descend  directly through their fathers, from Aaron.  Other Jews are assumed to come from one of the other tribes and are called, simply, Yisraelim.  Now to get back to the Sedra itself . It opens with: And the Lord spoke to Moses saying: speak to Aaron and his sons and say to them:  And what is it that he is to tell them? Herein God states the obligations of the Kohanim, which includes five separate categories pertaining to the Kohanim and to their duties: 

The priests are to be “holy to the Lord.” 

A regular Kohan cannot tend to or come in contact with a dead body, except in the case of certain relatives that are close to him, namely-father, mother, brother, son, daughter and non-married virgin sister.   Notice what relative is missing?  A spouse— Rabbi Dr J. H. Hertz, editor of the Pentateuch and Haftorahs, and former Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, points out in his commentaries that the wife is not mentioned because throughout the Torah man and wife are regarded as one flesh. However, the category of wife was later added by a ruling of the Rabbis in the Talmud   

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. And once again an observant Kohan will not enter a cemetery except when one of the seven above mentioned close relatives is deceased. In my personal experience, I have found back east that some funeral homes have a special add-on small temporary looking building or room behind the room where a funeral service is taking place and some Kohanim will stay in that room during the service. Since death is part of life I have always had a hard time understanding why  Kohanim were prohibited from being a part of that part of life- and I guess others were also troubled by this..

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."