Dear
Friends,
A
Kohen is a member of a family of priests within the tribe of Levi.
The members of this priestly family are the descendants of Aharon,
the brother of Moshe. Aharon was also the first Kohen Gadol – High
Priest – of our people. Hashem gave Aharon’s descendants, the
Kohanim, the responsibility to serve in the Sanctuary, and to also
serve as teachers of Torah to the people.
As
the classical commentator, Rashi, explains, the word “kohen”
means, “one who serves” (commentary to Exodus 29:30). A Kohen is
therefore a person who is to be totally dedicated to serving the
life-giving purpose of Hashem. In fact, each member of our people is
to live in the spirit of the Kohen, as when we arrived at Mount
Sinai, Hashem told Moshe to convey to us the following message: “You
shall be to Me a kingdom of Kohanim” (Exodus 19:6). And as the
following teachings indicate, Kohanim are to bring to the world the
following message regarding the ultimate goal of the human journey:
L’Chayim
–
To Life:
A
Kohen cannot go to a funeral or a burial, unless it is for a member
of his immediate family. With the exceptions of those close
relatives, a Kohen is not allowed to come into contact with a dead
body, and the source for this prohibition is found in this week’s
Torah portion (Leviticus 21:1-3). The “Kohen Gadol” – High
Priest – has a stricter standard, as he can not even come into
contact with the dead of his immediate family (ibid 21:10,11). If,
however, a regular Kohen or a Kohen Gadol encounters a dead body on
the road and there is no one else around who could give the body the
dignity of a burial, then the Kohen, including the Kohen Gadol, has
the responsibility to fulfill this sacred task.
The
above teachings reveal a major difference between the role of the
Kohen and the role of a “priest” in certain religions. In these
religions, a priest is involved with rituals of death. If someone is
dying, a priest is called to the bedside; moreover, the priest is
involved with the funeral and burial. The involvement of priests with
rituals of death was especially strong within those pagan societies
that worshiped gods of death which needed to be appeased by the
priests. The Kohen, however, is to be involved with life, not death.
As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains:
“God,
Who instructs the Kohen regarding his position in Israel, is a God of
life. The most exalted manifestation of God is not in the power of
death, which crushes strength and life. Rather, God reveals himself
in the liberating and vitalizing power of life, which elevates the
human being to free will and eternal life…Judaism teaches us how to
live every moment of earthly life as a moment of eternal life in the
service of God.” (Commentary to Leviticus 21:5)
Rabbi
Hirsch adds: “When death summons the other members of the people to
perform acts of loving-kindness for the physical shell of a soul that
has been called home to Hashem, the Kohanim of Hashem must stand back
and keep away. By standing back, they raise the banner of life
besides the corpse…They reinforce in people’s consciousness the
idea of life, so that it not be overshadowed by the idea of death.”
The
Kohanim therefore proclaim a message of life, and the major harbinger
of this message is the Kohen Gadol, who has no contact at all with
death. The Kohen Gadol is to represent the eternal life that is
gained through serving the Divine purpose.
With
the help of the Living One, I discovered a Midrash which can give us
a deeper understanding of the life-affirming role of the Kohen Gadol
– the High Priest of the Sanctuary. The Midrash teaches that the
Sacred Sanctuary is to serve as a spiritual model of the Universe.
The Midrash therefore describes how the process of making the
Sanctuary and its vessels corresponds to the process of the creation
of the Universe (Numbers Rabbah 12:13). For example, with regard to
the creation of the Universe, the Creator said, “Let there be
luminaries in the firmament of the heaven” (Genesis 1:14). And with
regard to the Sanctuary, the Creator said, “You shall make a
Menorah” (Exodus 25:31). The Menorah is a candelabra. The Midrash
also teaches that just as the Creator made the human being and placed
him in the Garden, so too, the Creator placed Aharon, the Kohen
Gadol, in the Sanctuary.
A
classical commentator on the Midrash, known as the Maharzu, explains
the comparison between the first human being and Aharon in the
following manner: The Torah states that the Creator placed the human
being in the Garden “to serve it and protect it” (Genesis 2:15).
And the Creator told Moshe to bring Aharon into the Sanctuary “to
serve Me” (Exodus 28:1). According to this explanation, the service
of the Kohen Gadol is to correspond to the life-giving service of the
first human being in the Garden of Eden.
Our
tradition teaches that had the human being fulfilled the life-giving
mission in the Garden and not sinned, the human being would have
lived forever. Ramban (Nachmanides) discusses this ancient teaching,
and he explains how the human being has the potential to live
forever. He writes, “For the supernal soul given to him would
provide him with eternal life” (commentary to 2:17).
I
would therefore like to suggest that the Kohen Gadol, who corresponds
to the human being in the Garden, is to serve as a reminder of the
potential within the human being to live forever. The Kohen Gadol is
to therefore avoid any contact with death, for he is to serve as a
symbol of eternal life.
Have
a Chodesh Tov – a Good Month,
And
have a Good and Sweet Shabbos.
Yosef
Ben Shlomo Hakohen (See below)
Related
Teachings and Comments:
1.
The Living One proclaimed, “Keep My statutes and My social laws,
which a human being shall do and live thereby – I am Hashem”
(Leviticus 18:5).
“Live
thereby” – The ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah, Targum
Onkelos, and the classical commentator, Rashi, explain that these
words are referring to eternal life. In addition, the Midrash known
as “Toras Kohanim” points out that the above verse does not
state, “which an Israelite
shall do and live thereby”; instead, it states, “which a human
being shall
do and live thereby.” The emphasis on a “human being” serves as
a reminder that the Torah given to Israel also has a universal moral
code for humankind which leads to eternal life. We studied aspects of
this universal code in previous letters.
2.
The Torah is called a “Tree of Life” (Proverbs 3:18). In this
spirit, our tradition teaches: “The words of Torah are life for all
human beings” (Tana Dvei Eliyahu 18:74).
3.
There
is a special Kaddish
chanted at the burial of the body of the deceased, and this Kaddish
opens
with the following words:
”May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world which will be renewed, and where He will resurrect the dead and raise them up to eternal life.”
This Kaddish is also chanted when a tractate of the Talmud is completed – a reminder that the study and fulfillment of Torah leads to eternal life.
”May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world which will be renewed, and where He will resurrect the dead and raise them up to eternal life.”
This Kaddish is also chanted when a tractate of the Talmud is completed – a reminder that the study and fulfillment of Torah leads to eternal life.
4.
The path of the Torah is to lead to the era when the Living One “will
eliminate death forever” and “erase tears from all faces”
(Isaiah 25:8). Based on this prophecy, the Midrash states the
following teaching in the name of Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi:
There
will be no death in the future that is to come – neither for
Israel, nor for the nations of the world, as it states that Hashem
will erase tears from “all” faces. (Genesis Rabbah 26:2 – the
version cited in Sefer Chassidim 368)
(Excerpted
from “My Search for the Soul of Zion – 222c Part
3”)
