Q&A: The Holiness of Priests Today and the Laws That Follow from It
The Holiness of Priests Today and the Laws That Follow from It
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the upcoming Torah portion of Emor, I once again came across the laws concerning priests, which raised a question for me about the status of priests today.
It seems that the purpose of the various restrictions and prohibitions commanded for priests is to preserve the holiness of the priest as a representative of the people before God, and conversely in his role as God’s representative before the people. Nowadays priests do not perform this role because there is no Temple, so what is the reason to continue being strict about these restrictions? The same is true regarding tithes and priestly gifts, where the commandment leads to a considerable waste of food every year..
In addition, is there room to take into account the fact that nowadays even someone recognized as a priest is not certainly really a descendant of Aaron the priest, because of the great corruption during the Second Temple period and the long exile that came afterward? In other words, when making a halakhic ruling, can one argue that a priest is a doubtful priest, with the leniencies that follow from that in a case where there is an additional doubt joined to it?
Thank you,
Matan
Full disclosure – the questioner is a priest himself 🙂
Answer
I don’t think questions require full disclosure. For answers, or in some article, it is appropriate to give full disclosure.
Halakhic decisors today do indeed tend to add this doubt about priests’ lineage as a supporting factor for leniency.
As for your main question, this is an instance of interpreting the reason for the verse, and the rule is that we do not derive law from the reason for the verse.