Vayikra Chapter 22 – Transcript

Vayikra Chapter 22: Laws of Kedusha for Kohanim

Introduction and Context

Today we are reading Vayikra chapter 22. This chapter comes at the end, more or less, of the series of mitzvot which started in Parshat Kedoshim, which are framed around the concept of Kedusha, and the opposite of Kedusha, which is Chilul Hashem. So Kedusha is “Kedoshim Tihiyu Ki Ani Hashem,” and Chilul is “Lo Techalelu et Shem Kodshi.”

As we’ve seen in previous chapters, there are different levels of Kedusha, and each person has to act within his level. So the first parsha, most of Parshat Kedoshim, was about Yisrael. All the Jewish people have a certain Kedusha, and therefore must act as is proper to their Kedusha. And the same way the Kohanim, which was more or less the beginning of Parshat Emor, started about the Kohanim—they have their own level of Kedusha, a specific Kedusha.

We discussed in the beginning of Parshat Emor what this specific Kedusha consists of. It consists mostly of their job—the Kohanim’s job is to be makdish, to be makdish something called Kodshim, the holy bread, the Korbanot, which are considered the bread of Hashem. They are Kodshim to be makdish, and therefore they have to act as is proper to their station, in a different level of Kedusha in their actions. And therefore there’s also a Chilul if they don’t act as is proper to their Kedusha—they’re considered to be mechalel, which is proper to them. And we have discussed different ways in which that is possible in the previous chapters.

The Structure of This Chapter

This chapter leads us all the way to, I think, almost the completion of this series of laws, which are all framed around Kedusha. Possibly the next chapter after that is also a continuation, another one after that. We’ll get to them as we get to them this week.

But we have to read, firstly, what this chapter—in some sense, I’m saying that this is getting to the end, because it seems like there’s some miscellaneous subjects in this chapter. Sometimes, as we see often, we’ve seen this in Parshat Kedoshim also, and in many other parshiyot, that as the parshiyot reach their end, there’s like a subject which just gets slowly exhausted, and then you get a bunch of short little things which sort of don’t have their place, they don’t belong anywhere else, and this is where they get put in. So this is sort of how I understand this chapter—as you’ll see it gets to an ending, like a final very elaborate ending, talking about how important it is to keep the sanctity, the Kedusha of Hashem, of the Kohanim, of the people in these specific ways, and warning from the Chilul Hashem.

The Opening Warning to the Kohanim

So the first parsha in this chapter starts with a long warning, a whole passage which is just a warning, just a framing of the subject. It says, telling Moshe—and this is another thing, how I see that this is a beginning of a new part in this series, because the previous chapter finished with Moshe, you can see here, with Moshe speaking to Aharon and his children and all the people, and telling them apparently everything until then, or maybe everything in that specific chapter which started “Daber el Aharon,” but maybe all the way back to—not sure how far back we can go, because it talks about Bnei Yisrael, what did he tell them?

We might want to go back all the way to the beginning of Parshat Kedoshim, because I think that since then there isn’t a report of Moshe speaking everything to the Bnei Yisrael. And as we’ve discussed already in the beginning of Vayikra, although all of this is law, there’s still a story, a narrative of Moshe teaching the laws to the people, and how it was received by him, and how he gives it over to them. So it’s possible that that’s all—it goes back all the way to then. I’m not sure entirely, and for sure until where it goes down, but for sure there’s a new beginning.

So until now it was laws that are relevant to all the people, now we’re talking about laws of Kedusha specifically which are relevant only to Aharon and his children. And therefore there’s this specific framing just like “Kedoshim Tihiyu” started with “Kedoshim Tihiyu Ki Ani Hashem,” there’s a beginning.

It says “Daber el Aharon v’el banav v’yinazru mikodshei Bnei Yisrael v’lo yechalelu et shem kodshi asher heim makdishim li, Ani Hashem.” What this is trying to say is that the Kohanim should be careful with the Kodshim, the things, the Korbanot that the people are being makdish to Hashem, and not to be mechalel of them.

I think that the pasuk was arranged in a specific way so it should finish “Ani Hashem,” although really “asher heim makdishim li” belongs to “mikodshei Bnei Yisrael,” but it didn’t want to finish “mikodshei Bnei Yisrael,” but it wanted to finish “Ani Hashem” in a similar way to “Kedoshim Tihiyu Ki Ani Hashem.”

Defining the Prohibition

And now what is “v’yinazru mikodshei Bnei Yisrael”? Specifically, specifically what do we mean? Now is the second pasuk which is again, again, a full pasuk, like it begins and ends, starts with “emor aleihem” and finishes with “Ani Hashem.” And this is the style of many of the pesukim, the way they give in each sentence the full story. And each time it gets more elaborate, each time it gives you more details what I mean to say.

What I mean to say is that “l’dorotechem,” one of your children, any of your generations, which will go close, which will touch—and as we’ve said, touching means eating, but in any case, the touching is the problem. They’re getting close to the Kodshim when he is impure, when he is Tamei, he will receive the Onesh of Karet.

We’ve seen many times the Onesh of Karet is specifically the punishment that you get for mixing boundaries, for not obeying the correct Kedusha of things.

The Details of Tumah and Purification

And now we still don’t know what this means, we still don’t know what is Tumah and what kind of Tumah and how do you get pure from which Tumah—all of that we don’t yet know. Some of it we’ll find out now, some of it we’ve already found out, some of it we still will not find out until Parshat Chukat where it talks about Tumat Meit, how you get pure from it and other things.

But we get some details of how to, what this “asher yikrav el hakodshim” means, right? How is “asher yikrav el hakodshim”? And the sentence starts again. And this is the last time in this series where it starts. It says, “ish ish,” any person, any individual from the descendants of Aharon who will be either Tzarua or Zav—we’ve discussed earlier—he cannot eat from the Kodshim.

And here we also know what “ad asher yithar” means, right? It says explicitly “ad asher yithar,” until he is purified. Now the purification of Tzarua and Zav, obviously we already discussed in Parshat Tazria Metzora, it said how to become not anymore a Tzarua or a Zav.

And now there’s some more kinds of Tumah which we did not learn then, how to become pure from them, and we’re learning now. And there’s a list of four things:

Someone who touches “b’chol tamei nefesh,” so he touches someone else that was Tamei. Or, if a Shichvat Zera went out of him. Or if he touched a Sheretz, which is metamei. Or if he touched a person who is metamei. Maybe that’s the same thing as “nogei’a b’chol tamei nefesh,” but “tamei nefesh” probably means Tamei l’Meit, and “adam asher yitma lo” means someone who touched a different Tumah.

Now, if you did any of these things, then here’s the law. What happens is you are Tamei until the evening, so therefore you can’t eat from the Kodshim until the evening. But the evening is not enough, so it seems like there’s two stages. We call this a Tevilah, and we usually read it as if first he has to tovel, but the Tevilah doesn’t help until at night. Here it seems like it’s really the opposite—first he has to wait until at night and also he has to wash himself. So it’s his Tumah for one day, that’s like the zman for the Tumah, but besides for that he needs to wash himself, which we should interpret as using a Mikvah, but in any case he has to wash himself. And then in the evening when the sun sets, then he can eat from the Kodshim.

The Reasoning for This Leniency

And the Torah adds a reasoning we can understand as saying this is why there’s this leniency. So really his Tumah—and how does he get pure back so quickly, like just today, just being tovel? The answer is this is really his food, as we’ve discussed. We’ve seen I think already “lechem Elokav hu makriv,” and besides for “lechem Elokav hu makriv,” it’s also the—and we’ll see in the next part about Terumah more clearly—the Kohen’s food is the lechem, he doesn’t have any other food. This is what he eats. So if he will not be allowed to eat at all, he will sort of go hungry.

So and it somehow seems like the logic of Tvil Yom is that the Kohen should have something to eat at least every night. So maybe during the day, if you go for a day without having a lot of food, that’s not too bad. But at least at night he’ll be able to eat. So even if he became impure in the morning, Shichvat Zera, as usually the night before, and so on, during the day he got impure, so right before the Shekiah he goes to the Mikveh, and therefore he can eat his supper at night when he comes home, and that is his food. So that’s the literal, the halacha that says here.

Nevelah and Treifah

Now there’s one more kind of Tumah which it talks about. Of course there’s a problem to explain what is going on here and it says that “Nevelah u’Treifah” they should not eat either and they will become Tamei. Of course we know from earlier that a Yid is also not allowed to eat Nevelah u’Treifah, but we understand that this is relating to the Tumah. So again there’s—it seems like there’s a Tumah also on the same Tzorech, we will assume would go on the Nevelah u’Treifah, and therefore that’s also part, but it’s not part of the previous category so it’s here separately, but we still need to—there’s still a problem with this pasuk.

Conclusion of This Section

And here we have an ending for this whole part. “V’shamru et mishmarti,” they should keep my watch, my watch, right? Watch my watch again, because the—we’ve seen this sometimes. The Kohanim’s job is to keep the watch of the Kodesh, of the holy things, and specifically the ones that are Kodshim, and part of that is not touching them or not eating them while they are impure.

“V’lo yis’u alav cheit,” they should not carry their sin, which is like their shlichut from the Yidden, to not to take care of the Kodshim correctly. “U’meitu bo ki yechaluhu,” and if they will, they will have Mitah. So earlier we had Karet, then we have Mitah. And it signs off with “Ani Hashem mekadsham,” I am Hashem, I am mekadsham.

Who May Eat Kodshim

Now, another part of this chapter, another parsha, and it starts us off to another subject. What’s this new subject? We have discussed that even a Kohen when he is impure is not allowed to eat Kodshim. But additionally, someone who is not a Kohen, for sure cannot eat Kodshim.

And here we have a parsha—we can see is framed by this statement, “v’chol zar lo yochal kodesh,” meaning someone who is not a Kohen cannot eat Kodesh. That’s step one.

But now things are slightly more complicated. As we’ve learned, the food of the Kohen is Kodesh. Now if the food of the Kohen is Kodesh, that means also the food of his household is Kodesh. So because that’s his—that’s his food. Like the Kohen doesn’t have his…

Laws of Who May Eat Kodesh

Slaves in the Kohen’s Household

We see this many times in the laws of slaves. Slaves in ancient times were considered part of the household, but there are two levels of slaves. There’s a slave that you bought, and there’s a slave that was born in your house, which is even more part of your household. They might have literally been born out of the master, as we’ve learned in Parashat Mishpatim, or he might have been given a slave woman to marry, which was again considered as part of his household—almost like his daughter-in-law. But in any case, every other Kohen can eat.

The Bat Kohen (Daughter of a Kohen)

Now there’s another kind of person who is not entirely a Kohen himself. The son of a Kohen is a Kohen himself—not a problem. What about the daughter of a Kohen? The daughter of a Kohen is not a Kohen herself, because she’s not doing the Avodah, right? A Kohen is someone who is lechem, alechem, makrev. Daughters don’t do any Avodah; they’re not really Kohanim.

But also, we assume—the pasuk assumes already that we understand that she can eat—and then discusses some specific cases of this Bat Kohen. The Kohen’s daughter, sometimes she marries a Zar, she marries someone who’s not a Kohen. So now she loses her Kehuna, so to speak. It’s not really that she loses it; she only ate the Kodashim because she belonged to her father’s household. Now when she leaves to her husband’s household, she can’t eat anymore the Kodashim.

There’s one exception to this rule, sort of. In other words, there’s one way for her to get back, which is really the way of how to get back to her parents’ household. If she gets married and then even if her husband dies or she gets divorced, but she has children, so she’s still part of her husband’s household, right? We learn that in different places—we see how a woman in some sense can remain part of her husband’s household even though he died or divorced her. Then she doesn’t get back to her father’s house.

But if she is an Almanah or Gerusha—her husband died or divorced her—and she has no children, so there’s nothing tying her to her husband’s household, then she can return to her father’s house and then she eats from her father’s food. So that’s the halacha of a Zar and the specific kind of Zarim who belong to the Kohen’s household that they can eat also Kodashim or Terumah.

When a Zar Eats Kodesh B’Shogeg

Now we have the halacha of someone who is not a Kohen and ate Kodesh. What is it? I’m not sure we’ve already said, but B’Shogeg—maybe it says here B’Shogeg—there’s a specific law that if you eat Kodesh B’Shogeg you will have to repay it plus one-fifth, plus 20%.

And here we have another pasuk which is just a summary and a nice ending, saying that they should not be Mechalel. And if they will—which seems to mean that the Kohanim are responsible for making sure that no Zar eats Kodesh, and the Kohanim are responsible for keeping this in the Kedusha and so on.

So those are the laws, and I think this ends—this sort of ends this part. Maybe we should have one level of ending at this part. This ends this part of the Shmira of the Kedusha of Kodashim, right? The Kedusha of Kodashim is that a Kohen cannot eat when it’s tamei, and a Zar cannot eat it, and specific laws of a Zar and what happens if a Zar does eat it. So that ends that subject.

Laws of Mumim (Blemishes) in Korbanot

Now we have another series of laws. I should maybe add a new header like this here, which is really not addressed to the Kohanim specifically, but specifically addressed back to the Bnei Yisrael. And this is a question where this little part belongs. It starts, “Daber el Aharon v’el Banav v’el kol Bnei Yisrael.” As opposed to before, which was “Daber el Aharon v’el Banav.” So this was, it’s “Daber el Aharon v’el Banav,” because as we see, the Kohanim, their job is to take care of all these things. But it’s also to all the Bnei Yisrael.

The Requirement for Tamim Korbanot

And here there’s a new halacha, which is that a Korban should not have a mum, and there’s a list of mumin. So we already know many times, since the beginning of Vayikra, the word Tamim is one of the words that appears the most times—I didn’t count, but the most popular word is Tamim. It says in every Korban specifically that it should be Tamim, which means not having a mum.

But this is the Parsha which gives us what the mumin are. That’s probably the point of this Parsha. It’s analogous to the Parsha that we had earlier which talks about the mumin of the Kohanim, which is probably why it’s what it’s doing here. A little earlier we had in Parashat—right in the previous chapter, Perek Alef—we discussed the mumin of the Kohanim, and there’s a list of what Kohen is ba’al mum. And now we have the list of the mumin of the Korbanot.

Who Must Bring Tamim Korbanot

So first we have a list of all kinds of Korbanot. Well, first all kinds of people. This is very detailed kind of law. “Ish ish mi’Beit Yisrael u’min ha’ger b’Yisrael”—no matter if he’s a Jew or not, or a ger. He has to do it. “Asher yakriv korbano”—no matter what kind of Korban. “L’chol Nidrehem u’l’chol Nidvotam”—whether it’s a Neder or Nedava. “Asher yakrivu l’Hashem l’Olah”—it cannot have a mum. It’s not that Hashem will not be happy with it, so to speak.

And the same thing with “Shor v’Kesev v’Ez,” which is, as we’ve discussed many times, there’s an Olah, which is one kind of Korban, and a Shelamim, which is another kind of Korban. These include all the rest of the Korbanot. Again, it’s the same kind of ending here and here.

The Lists of Mumin

And what we got here is the list of mumin. And I’m not going to go through the list because I don’t know particularly each one what it is, but there’s a long list: one, two, three, four, five, six—one list and then another list, maybe specifically for a Shor or a Seh, sort of. And it says “Sarua v’Kalut,” which has to be explained—what does it mean?

There’s then another list also which cannot be a Korban. And in this list there’s something particular. So apparently:

First list seems to be a general list of mumin, of problems with the body of the Korban.

Second list seems to be something that’s slightly less of a mum. It says, “U’Nedava ta’aseh oto u’l’Neder lo yeratzeh.” We interpret “al keidah”—it means literally that you can make it Nedava, if it’s voluntary, but not if it’s obligatory, if it’s a Neder. But in any case, there’s something less of a mum. We can understand that that’s less of a mum. It’s some kind of abnormality, but not like something broken.

Third category: And now there’s something which is a different kind of category. They’re obviously a mum, but they’re actually something that people do on purpose. So these are all mumin in the reproductive organs of the animal. And these are things that are sometimes specifically done, and therefore we have a law here—it should not be done.

The Prohibition Against Castration

So besides for Hashem, for a Korban, doesn’t like a Korban ba’al mum—we understand the logic in that—there’s also some kind of logic, and this has to be understood, because obviously there’s a practical reason why people do that to their animals. They’re not just trying to destroy their livestock, right? They want—there’s a good reason for this. But in any case, and nowadays when people have this reality, there’s always like you sell it to a goy or something. It seems like we have to explain why there’s this issue, but you should not do it. So sometimes people do it, and this is a practice—it’s outlawed. The Torah does not want people to make even their animals not being able—this is very anti-birth control, right, halacha. Okay, at least for animals.

Ben Nechar Bringing Korbanot

And then there’s another halacha we discussed again. It seems like, again, maybe this is specifically for this halacha, and that’s why we have this. Like we discussed, maybe the Ben Nechar does do these practices, and there’s not a problem. This is a specific problem for Ba’al Tzachem.

In any case, even if a Ben Nechar comes and brings a Korban, we should not accept it if it has one of these mumin. And this also teaches us that Ben Nechar sometimes come and bring a Korban. A ger is not a Ben Nechar, right? A ger is someone who is already living with you. Whether we understand that he’s a ger tzedek, a ger, and he’s wearing a kind of mitzvah, because then it’s the same thing, or if he’s a ger toshav, or whoever you understand a Ben Nechar—someone who’s not a ger toshav, someone who’s going from somewhere else, comes—still we enforce this halachot of ba’al mum, because that’s a question of honor for the Mizbeach. We cannot give a Mizbeach that is ba’al mum.

So that’s the end of the halachot of a mum.

Three Final Halachot of Korbanot

Now we have the last part of this chapter and also the last part of this entire long series before we get into the very long and specific Parsha of the Yamim Tovim. It’s three halachot of Korbanot—three interesting halachot. And some of—one at least two of them belong to Korbanot. The third one—the middle one—is also about a Korban, but also not only about Korbanot, but it probably belongs here because it’s relevant when you do Korbanot.

First Halacha: The Eighth Day

The first halacha is that we only allow to bring a Korban from the eighth day. “Shor o Chesev o Ez ki yivaled, v’haya shiv’at yamim tachat imo, u’mi’yom ha’shemini va’hal’ah yeratzeh l’Korban isheh l’Hashem.”

And this is probably also because a baby when he’s born is really ugly and messy, and we waited for it to be a real thing.

Second Halacha: Oto V’et Beno

Second halacha is not to shecht “oto v’et beno.” “Shor v’Seh, oto v’et beno lo tishchatu b’yom echad.” Shor v’Seh—specifically Seh, Shor v’Seh before Seh, Shor, Eches v’Yeh. This one is only Shor v’Seh.

Cannot be—not slaughtered, him and his son. And it’s interpreted in halacha as specifically not being him and his son, but her and her daughter, and her son. But in any case, we can understand this as a question of—like, not being nice.

The second halacha is not to shecht oto v’et beno, shor v’seh. Specifically sheh, shor v’seh. Before it says shor o ches v’yeh, this one is only shor o ches v’yeh. Cannot be – not slaughter him and his son, and it’s interpreted in halacha as specifically not being him as a son, but her and her daughter and her son.

But in any case, oto v’et beno, l’esich tu hem echad. We can understand this as a question of tzaar ba’alei chaim – like not being nice to do a genocide in the animal. Like one animal is one thing, but to kill like the whole sheyresh vanatz, as Ramban says, like the mother and the child, that’s very bad.

But maybe also it belongs, has to do with the previous chapter. Like there seems to be – we need, we don’t want to, for some reason we can understand that it’s connected to the question of – like we want to have an individuated animal to give to Hashem. We don’t want like, oh it’s a baby, so let’s just bring it along with his mother. Maybe that’s connected with the – like we want it to be, have some level of being an animal in itself.

Third Halacha: Zevach Todah

And now the third halacha is that a zevach todah, and we already had this once, I think, so maybe there’s a question why it’s here again, that a zevach todah shouldn’t be ate in that day. We had already, explicitly in Parshat Tzav, a difference in this kind of shelamim, in a regular shelamim in a todah. In any case, can eat in that day and not be left over to the morning.

As we discussed, we should have a big party for the korban todah, shouldn’t be left over. And when it’s left over, it gets ruined, as it says in a different place, pigul.

So this also might be connected here to the concept of, how do you call it, of the beauty, like the niceness, the aesthetics of the korbanot. Maybe that’s why it’s doing here.

There’s also a proposal that this is all preparatory for the next chapter which is about the – which is when you bring korbanot, and maybe then people will be tempted to do one of these three things, so it’s repeated here. We’ll maybe know that if we read it in that context.

And that’s the end of this series, and we have these three pesukim which are just a recap, or a recap of the idea. Right, this seems to be very important for the Torah here, which is why I’m talking about it – not only to list the rules but also to understand sort of the meaning or the message in which they’re in case, in which they’re framed.

Smart and it’s voice level is kachi and the Hashem and who is this