Emor: The Impurity of Death and the Departure of Divinity

by Rav Moshe Leib HaCohen Halbershtat, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel

This week's Torah portion, Emor, is termed the portion of the Priests, and details some of the laws that apply only to them. It begins with the ban on priests coming in any kind of contact with death and a corpse – including even being in the same room. The Ramban explains that these and related laws are rooted in the fact that the priests "are the servants of our G-d, and are therefore instructed to behave with extra honor and greatness… Since they are worthy of this greatness and honor among the people, they are warned not to desecrate this virtue via the impurity of the dead."

Let us note some of these laws, point out some difficulties therein, and provide an explanation based on what death really means.

1. Priests are not permitted to come in contact with a corpse – but what does this have to do with their purity? On the contrary: Since the priests are to be leaders for all of Israel, why should they not be those who teach by personal example how the mitzvah of dealing respectfully with the dead is accomplished in the best way? And why should they lose out on the chance to fulfill this important mitzvah of "true kindness?
2. There is an exception to this prohibition: A priest is not only permitted to defile himself when one of his close relatives dies, he actually must do so! This includes parents, siblings, children, and wife. Why is this? After all, if defilement is a desecration of his sanctity, why is he permitted and even obligated to defile himself to his relatives?
3. The Torah commands the priests not to shave certain patches of their head, or the edges of their beard, or gouge their skin. Why is this command issued especially to them, given that all of Israel was already commanded similarly? And what is the connection between these forbidden practices and the priests' sanctity?
4. The Torah states that a priest may not marry an "immoral or profaned woman, nor a divorcee, because he is holy to his G-d." We can understand the ban on an immoral woman, because of her sinful behavior. But what problem could there be with a properly divorced woman that could render her forbidden to a priest?
5. Finally: Why is a priest's married or betrothed daughter who committed adultery sentenced to a different death than any other adulteress? Does the fact that she is punished differently help in any way to atone for the sanctity of her father that she defiled with her sin?

The answers to these questions about death are rooted in a proper understanding of life. The Torah tells us, in the story of the Creation of man, that G-d "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (B'reshit 2,7). The Ramban explains that this alludes to the greatness of the human soul, in that G-d Himself – pointedly referred here to by a full Divine name, Hashem Elokim – gave him the breath of life, and "he who breathes into the nostrils of another person gives into him something from his own soul. Similarly, since G-d breathed into man’s nostrils, it follows that the soul in man is of Divine essence… since the soul is from the foundation of binah (understanding)…"

As such, the formation, the birth, of a human is the very embodiment of the dwelling of the Divine Presence in the material world. It then follows – and this is the critical point – that the death of a person, i.e., the separation of the soul from a body, is actually a separation from what the Ramban called the "spirit of the great G-d" - and there can be no greater departure of the Divine Presence than this. This then explains the essence of the impurity of death, and of impurity in general: Impurity is the withdrawal of the Shechina (Divine Presence).

This brings us to the place of the Priests in this story. The essence of their function in the Temple service for G-d is to cause the Shechina to dwell in Israel's presence. This is the essence, too, of the Priestly Blessing: One is not allowed to look at the Priests when they recite this blessing, because, as the Talmud states (Chagiga 16a), "the Divine Presence is upon their hands." This is precisely why the priests may not defile themselves by coming in contact with death: Their role is to bring the Divine Presence into Israel, and to distance themselves from anything that symbolizes the opposite – especially death, which is the departure of G-d's spirit from man!

This also explains why the priests are commanded an extra time not to destroy their beards and pates or gouge their skin. For these prohibitions are specifically for the purpose of distancing ourselves from idol-worshipers and their customs – and idol-worship is something that distances the Divine Presence from our midst! (See Sifrei, Ki Tetze 119.) It is therefore clear why the priests were given a special command to avoid these practices, which precisely negate their special role of causing the Shechina to dwell in Israel.

Why, then, are the priests allowed, and even compelled, to defile themselves to their relatives? Because the Torah's ways are "ways of pleasantness" (Proverbs 3,17), and G-d did not want to cause sorrow to the priests in forbidding them to enter the house in which their deceased relative lies prior to burial and pour out their heart there in tears and prayer (as the Sefer HaChinukh explains). The Torah understood the psychological need of the priests to be defiled in such situations, and therefore excepted these seven from the prohibition – and once it is permitted, it becomes an obligation to do so, under the laws of "giving honor to the dead."

Why may a Cohen not marry a divorcee? We know that marriage symbolizes the Divine Presence within Israel, as R. Akiva taught: "When a man and wife are meritorious, the Shechina is in their midst, and when they are not, they are consumed by fire" (Sotah 17a). What this means is that the letters of G-d's name, yod and heh, are part of the words ish (man) and ishah (woman), respectively. This describes the ideal situation. But when they do not deserve this, these letters are removed, leaving in both ish and ishah only aleph and shin - which spell esh, fire, the very fire that consumes them. Marriage is the epitome of G-d's dwelling in a Jewish home, whereas an immoral woman, and even a divorced woman through no fault of her own, symbolize relationships that did not include the presence of G-d. As such, a priest, whose job it is to bring the Shechina down to Israel, may not marry these women.

And finally: A priest's daughter who committed adultery is put to death specifically by fire – because fire, as we saw, is what symbolizes the desecration of her father's priestly sanctity. We know that the Burning Bush, where G-d first introduced Himself to Moshe Rabbeinu, was not consumed by the fire - because the Divine Presence was there. But when the Divine Presence removes Itself, or is removed, the priests have not been successful, so to speak – and the fire wins out and consumes all that is in its path.

The priests are particularly charged with ensuring that they safeguard their holiness in whatever they do, so that they can be the compass of the Nation of Israel, signaling to them the correct direction and path – in order that the sublime goal always be before their eyes: the dwelling of the Divine Presence in Israel.