Shabbat Parashat Emor 5783

Parashat Hashavua: Who Are the Kohanim?

Unquestionably, the kohanim who are discussed in the beginning of Parashat Emor are the descendants of Aharon the Kohen. However, this is not the case for all of the “kohanim” who are mentioned in Tanach. One clear example is the words of Shmuel II:8:18: "The sons of David were kohanim.” It is impossible that the sons of David, the son of Yishai, from the descendants of Peretz, the firstborn son of Yehuda and Tamar, were patrilineal sons of Aharon!

So what does kohanim mean for those who do not descend from Aharon? In the parallel pasuk in Divrei Hayamim (I:18:17), it says that “the sons of David were the first ones, next to the king.” In fact, the Targum Yonatan to Shmuel says that the sons of David “were powerful officers,” and Rashi, Mahari Kara, the Radak, and the Ralbag follow this approach. Interestingly, Rashi and the Rashbam (his grandson) explained the reference to Bnei Yisrael as “a nation of kohanim” (Shemot 19:6) as sarim (officers); they invoke the pasuk in Shmuel as corroboration. The Ralbag adds an educational, ethical lesson. The fact that David made his sons powerful was a contributing factor to Avshalom’s decision to rebel and to the killing of Amnon and Adoniyahu. In general, he claimed that David was not sufficiently successful in his moral supervision of his sons.

The Ri of Trani explains that generally kohanim refers to a governmental position more than a religious one. He brings as support the fact that Yitro was called the kohen of Midian (Shemot 18:1). [Of course, there is a strong current in Chazal that Yitro was a religious figure in Midian  and that contributed to the fact that Moshe’s descendant was a priest for idol worship (see Shoftim 18:30).

The Radak explains that kohanim can refer to Torah scholars, based on the following statement of Chazal. Rava says that a Torah scholar can ask to have his monetary case adjudicated ahead of his position on line in honor of his status (Nedarim 62a). The source that this is reasonable is the pasuk about the sons of David being kohanim, from which they derive that just as a kohen receives the first portion, so too a Torah scholar deserves to be prioritized. (We caution that in our days, such a request is liable to cause a desecration of Hashem’s Name. We strengthen this with a story about our mentor, Rav Shaul Yisraeli, an outstanding Torah scholar by any measure. When assuming the shopping duties when his wife was sick, he would not agree when people offered him to skip their place on line.)

We also suggest that those of David’s sons who were the firstborn of their mothers had leading roles in the service of Hashem in public altars (after the Mishkan was destroyed and before the Beit Hamikdash was built). In that way, they could have been like kohanim in terms of their work. We can also take a step forward and suggest that when David was described as “being fastened with an apron of fabric” (Shmuel II:6:14), when he was bringing the ark to Yerushalayim, it was referring to him acting in preparation for the eventual building of the Mikdash (by his son). Only after the Beit Hamikdash was built, did wearing a kohen-like garment  become problematic in a service-promoting context.

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