Q&A: May a priest who intentionally caused a death still recite the priestly blessing?
May a priest who intentionally caused a death still recite the priestly blessing?
Question
Everyone in the neighborhood knows that the priest got sick with coronavirus.
He treated it lightly because he thinks he is smarter than the scientists and doctors, and he went out into the public domain.
Someone rebuked him: how are you not ashamed? He deliberately pressed up close to him and coughed on him; the man got coronavirus and died.
Can he still recite the priestly blessing as if nothing happened?
And if not — if he is forbidden to recite the priestly blessing, yet he mocks this and keeps doing it — should one leave the synagogue?
Answer
In my view, it is doubtful whether he is fit to recite the priestly blessing. Although this is not actual murder, since it is only a matter of doubt. But when the authorized authorities warned against it and he blatantly violated that, there is room to disqualify him. On the other hand, not everyone who drives over the speed limit is barred from reciting the priestly blessing. So this requires discussion. In any case, I do not think you need to leave the synagogue.