Mourning of High Priests

Sources

MISHNA: A High Priest rends his garments from below when he is in mourning, and an ordinary priest rends his garments from above like a non-priest. A High Priest sacrifices offerings as an acute mourner, i.e., on the day of the death of one of his close relatives, but he may not eat from those offerings. And an ordinary priest who is an acute mourner neither sacrifices offerings nor eats from those offerings. GEMARA: Rav says: From below, written with regard to the High Priest, means actually from below, from the bottom of the garment, and from above means actually from above, from the top of the garment. And Shmuel said: From below means from below the neckline, and from above means from above the neckline, i.e., from the neckline itself, and both this High Priest and that ordinary priest rend their garments at the neck of their garment…

Horayot 12b:14-15

If a relative of the High Priest dies, he does not follow the bier carrying the corpse, since it is prohibited for the High Priest to become ritually impure even for immediate relatives (see Leviticus 21:11). Rather, once the members of the funeral procession are concealed from sight by turning onto another street, he is revealed on the street they departed, and when they are revealed, then he is concealed, and in this way, he goes out with them until the entrance of the gate of the city, from where they would take out the corpse…

Sanhedrin 18a:6-8

Rebbi Eleazar in the name of Cahana: On top, high starting with the seam, below, low starting with the seam. Rebbi Joḥanan said, really low. Rebbi Joḥanan was going up the mountain to visit Rebbi Ḥanina; on the road he heard that he had died. He sent, brought his good Sabbath garment, and tore it. Rebbi Joḥanan disagrees with Rebbi Jehudah in two things, but Rebbi Eleazar in the name of Cahana follows Rebbi Jehudah. If following Rebbi Jehudah, he should not tear at all! This refers only to his father or mother, following Rebbi Meïr…

Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:1:4-5

If one [of the relatives for whom he must mourn] dies, he does not go out to the funeral procession, nor does he depart from the entrance of his home or the Temple. All of the nation come to his home to comfort him. He stands for the line of comforters with the segen at his right and the head of the clan to his left. [The people tell him]: "We are atonement for you" and he tells them: "May you be blessed from heaven."

Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those Who Serve Therein 5:5

The High Priest is obligated to observe all the mourning practices, except that he is forbidden to rend the upper portion of his garments, to let his hair grow long, or to follow the bier in the funeral procession.
The entire Jewish people come to his house to comfort him. When they bring him the meal of comfort, all of the people must sit on the ground; he, by contrast, sits on a bench. When they comfort him, they tell him: "We are atonement for you." And he tells them: "May you be blessed from heaven."
If he desires to comfort others, the deputee has him positioned among the people…

Mishneh Torah, Mourning 7:6

What is the source that teaches that the service of one in an acute state of mourning is invalid? [It is derived from] an inference from a less severe situation to a more severe one. A priest disqualified because of a physical deformity may partake of sacrificial foods. Nevertheless, if he performs service, he profanes it. How much more so should one who is in acute mourning and thus forbidden to partake of sacrificial foods - as [Deuteronomy 26:14] states: "I did not eat from it in a state of acute morning" - profane his service [if he performs it]…

Mishneh Torah, Admission into the Sanctuary 2:7-8

NEITHER SHALL HE GO OUT OF THE SANCTUARY. “He does not follow the bier [of a near relative]. Our Rabbis have further derived from this verse [the principle] that the High Priest may perform [the Divine Service] when he is an onen (a mourner), the meaning of the verse thus being as follows: Even if his father or his mother died, he need not leave the Sanctuary but he may perform the Service. Nor shall he profane the Sanctuary of his G-d, means that [the High Priest] does not profane thereby the Service by ministering when he is an onen…

Ramban on Leviticus 21:12:1

What I wrote above in Mitzvah 266 in this Order (Sefer HaChinukh 263) is from the roots of the commandment — that it is fitting to distance the priests, who are the holy ones who do the service of God, from the matter of impurity. And [regarding] the high priest who is distinguished to be Holy of Holies; though he has a body, his soul always dwells among the elevated servants. Therefore, the Torah is not concerned to ever permit him impurity — even for the relatives which the Torah is concerned about for the ordinary priests, which I wrote about above (Sefer HaChinukh 263)…

Sefer HaChinukh 270:2-3

That the high priest not become impure with any impurity: That the high priest not become impure — even with a dead body from among his relatives, and all the more so with all the other dead bodies in the world — with a type from the types of impurity, whether through touching or whether through carrying, as it is stated (Leviticus 21:11), “for his mother or for his father, he shall not become impure.” [This is] meaning to say, even for these which are his relatives. And even though it forbade him from becoming impure for all souls at the beginning of the verse…

Sefer HaChinukh 271:1

The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bare his head or rend his vestments.

Leviticus 21:10

However the man that is a nazirite to God is holy to God all the days of his nazirite vows and — as the verse attests to him (Numbers 6:7) — “as the crown of his God is upon him,” he will not become impurified with worldly desires, and he will not be found at parties and the banquets of his companions. As his separation from wine shows about him that he has given his heart to prepare himself and to afflict himself before God, to improve the ways of his soul and to leave the pleasures of the benighted body…

Sefer HaChinukh 376:2

Relatedראו גם

Ritual Impurity

Laws of Temple Workers

Sheetsדפי מקורות

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