The Amazing Precision in the Pasuk

Torah Thoughts on Parshas Emor by Aryeh Zev Kutner

"וְהַכֹּהֵן הַגָדוֹל מֵאֶחָיו אֲשֶׁר יוּצַק עַל רֹאשׁוֹ שֶׁמֶן הַמִשְׁחָה וּמִלֵא אֶת יָדוֹ לִלְבֹּשׁ אֶת הַבְּגָדִים אֶת רֹאשׁוֹ לֹא יִפְרָע וּבְגָדָיו לֹא יִפְרֹם וְעַל כָּל נַפְשֹׁת מֵת לֹא יָבֹא לְאָבִיו וּלְאִמוֹ לֹא יִטַמָּא"  וַיִקְרָא כ''א:י'-י''א

“And the Kohen who is exalted above his brethren – upon whose head the anointment oil has been poured or who has been inaugurated to don the vestments – he shall not leave his head unshorn and shall not rend his garments; He shall not come to any souls of the dead; he shall not make himself impure for his father or his mother.”  Vayikra 21:10-11

Regarding the regular Kohanim, when the Torah rules that he may attend the funeral of a close relative (21:1-2), the verse lists the mother first and then the father: “He shall not become impure among his people, except for his relative who is closest to him, to his mother and to his father, to his son, to his daughter, and to his brother.” Reb Yehoshua Leib Diskin, however, asks why it is that in reference to the Kohen Gadol, when the Torah, in our pasuk, relates that he should not attend any funeral, not even that of a close relative, the father is listed first and then the mother. 

The laws of tumah and how they apply to Kohanim were given to the Jewish people on the day the Mishkan was first dedicated, which was Rosh Chodesh Nisan. At that time, it only applied to three people, Aharon, the Kohen Gadol, and his two surviving sons, Elazar and Isamar. Amram and Yocheved, Aharon’s parents, were already deceased.

Accordingly, the only ones who had to be concerned about tumah of a parent were Elazar and Isamar, whose parents were still living. When Elazar’s mother died, Aharon was still alive. Therefore, as a Kohen Hedyot, Elazar (and Isamar) first experienced the issue of tumah for a parent with the death of a mother, and they were permitted to attend to her funeral. This is why, when referring to this law, a mother’s death is mentioned before that of a father, because for both brothers, the law of a Kohen Hedyot was experienced first with the death of their mother.

When Aharon later died at the end of the forty years in the desert, Elazar now became the Kohen Gadol, and he experienced the law of the death of a parent with his father’s passing. As Kohen Gadol, the law was that a Kohen Gadol may not become tamei even for a parent. This now explains why in reference to a Kohen Gadol, the death of a father is mentioned first, as this was the first time in history that a Kohen Gadol experienced the death of a parent.

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Aryeh Zev Kutner graduated from FYHS in 1999. He then went to learn in Beis Midrash in Yeshiva Derech Chaim in Brooklyn, NY. He went on to learn in Kollel at Derech Chaim. For the past 15 years he has been working at KosherVitamins.com in Brooklyn, NY. He lives with his family in Woodmere, NY.