friday

Friday, 4 Iyar 5768 – May 9, 2008

Please include Israel's captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam Baumel, Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah Katz, Ron ben Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever, Gilad ben Aviva Shalit, Eldad ben Tova Regev, Ehud ben Malka Goldwasser.

Yesterday, we discussed a perplexing passage in Torat Kohanim regarding the halakha established in Parashat Emor (21:2) allowing a kohen to become tamei in the case of a family member's death. Although it is generally forbidden for a kohen to come in contact with a dead body, he may tend to the burial needs and attend the burial of an immediate family member. Torat Kohanim comments that had the Torah not specified that this halakha applies in the case of a kohen's father's death, we might have assumed that a kohen may not become tamei upon the death of his father. Since a father-son relationship can never be definitively ascertained, we might perhaps not allow a kohen to compromise his status of kehuna by tending to his deceased father, whose identity will always be subject to some slight degree of doubt. The Torah therefore had to specifically state that a kohen may become tamei upon the death of either his father or his mother.

As we saw, many writers noted the flaw in this line of reasoning, namely, that any degree of uncertainty would provide more reason to allow a kohen to become tamei, as this would cast his entire status of kohen into doubt. If his presumed father is not truly his father, then he is not necessarily a kohen, and thus there is no prohibition against his contracting tum'a in the first place.

Today we will present a different answer that has been suggested to explain this otherwise bewildering passage. The Chatam Sofer (responsa, Y.D. 338) and the Sefat Emet, as cited in the compendium Ke-motzei Shalal Rav, proposed a theory linking the prohibition of tum'at kohanim (which forbids a kohen from contracting tum'a) with a kohen's eligibility for the avoda (ritual service in the Temple). The Torah writes in the context of this prohibition, "They shall be sacred to their God and shall not desecrate the Name of their God, because they offer the fire-sacrifices of the Lord, the 'bread' of their God…" (21:6). This verse might suggest that the law of tum'at kohanim relates specifically to the kohen's role as officiator in the Temple; it is this aspect of the kehuna that renders it improper for him to come in contact with tum'a, except in situations of a family member's death.

Accordingly, it is conceivably possible for a kohen to be forbidden to become tamei upon his father's death even if we question the presumed father's identity. Halakha allows a kohen to officiate in the Mikdash based on a chezkat kehuna, his presumed status as a kohen. Once this presumed status is determined, we then apply the prohibition of tum'at kohanim even if we, for whatever reason, question the identity of the kohen's presumed father. Hence, had the Torah not specified that a kohen may become tamei upon his father's passing, we might have indeed concluded otherwise, given the slight degree of uncertainty regarding the father's identity. This uncertainty has no bearing upon the kohen's eligibility for the avoda, and thus he would be under the prohibition of tum'at kohanim even while we question his presumed father's identity.

David Silverberg

Comments are welcome.

7 days of SALT in one file - for this Shabbat's parsha - enjoy!

(c) 2007 Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion.

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