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Occasional, incidental “uncleanliness” is simply a part of life. It’s not a sin, and it’s not the end of the world. For a priest, and particularly those destined to become High Priest, avoiding uncleanliness as much as possible was a biblical mandate. When it comes to touching a dead body, any Israelite who touched a dead body would be unclean for a seven days, regardless of rank.
God held priests to a higher standard than the regular Israelite, and the High Priest (or anyone in the line of descent for the high priesthood) was held to the highest standards regarding avoiding uncleanliness. God gave lower ranking priests a disposition to make themselves unclean for certain immediate family members, such as parents, but they could not make themselves unclean for any relatives by marriage or distant relations.
This is not the case for the High Priest. The High Priest cannot permit himself to be defiled for anyone, not even his own parents. He can’t be in the same room as a dead body, cannot go near the graves of the dead. He can’t attend any funeral or officiate any funeral. The High Priest is to be insulated from exposure to death as much as possible.
Regular Israelites can attend and officiate funerals. They can visit cemeteries. They can wear special garments of mourning (such as wearing black from head to toe for a period of time) if they wish.
All of these are verboten for the High Priest. He cannot showing any outward signs of mourning. He can’t tear his garments, change his grooming habits or wear special mourning garments.
The limitations the Torah places on the High Priest will never apply to any of us.
Most of us may have an issue with the idea that the High Priest had to be “perfect.” This parashah gives us a very long list physical ailments that would preclude a man from being a priest such as certain skin diseases, genetic deformities, physical injuries, etc. Even being nearsighted prohibited one from eligibility for the priesthood.
All these rules placed on the High Priest were to be object lessons of the future High Priest, Messiah Yeshua. He was the only High Priest who was truly perfect, without blemish. It is only because Messiah Yeshua puts His perfection on us that we can ever enter God’s presence. He is the bridge, He is the reason we will be able to live with God one day.
The priests were supposed to be without blemish but even the clean animals, which God elevated to that status, and were destined for either sacrifice had to be “perfect.”
“And a calf or a sheep that has a cut on its ear or one with a stunted tail, you shall make a slaughtering of them for yourself, but it will not be accepted for your vow. A gelding and one bruised and one castrated and one whose testicles were torn off—you shall not offer these to the Lord, and you shall not do them in your land. And from an alien’s hand you shall not offer any of these as gifts to your God, since there are corruptions in them; there is a blemish in them; they shall not be acceptable to you.” (Leviticus 22:23–25 NETS)
Israelite shepherds were prohibited from castrating any of their male animals, ever. Not only could they not castrate their male animals, they couldn’t outsource or import castrated animals either.
Seven and eight
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the LORD.” (Leviticus 22:26–27 NASB)
When we see the number seven, it’s symbolic of rest and Shabbat. After childbirth, women and female animals need rest. Childbirth is the process of creating a new living being. Women can duplicate themselves, men can’t. This particular time of rest is for her, not for him. God says to give her the time of rest with her child. God tells the Israelites to give that same rest to their animals.
“But, whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day.” (Leviticus 22:28 NASB)
You can’t slaughter a pregnant animal, period. You also can’t slaughter the new mother or her offspring until the eighth day after birth.
When you notice a strange parenthetical sentence or paragraph in scripture, think of them as ways to break apart different themes or thoughts in the text. Ancient Hebrew did not have punctuation so these parenthetical sentences act as parenthesis.
“The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD’S appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations — My appointed times are these: ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings. ‘These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.” (Leviticus 23:1–4 NASB)
I’m not saying Shabbat is not an appointed time, but it is not tied to a particular date on the calendar. It’s not an annual celebration, but a weekly one.
Themes of the annual appointments
Each of God’s appointments with His people has a theme He assigned to them:
- Passover/Matzot: A lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
- First Fruits/Omer: Counting 50 days. You have to wait 50 days from the first harvest until you can offer some of the bread from that harvest to God at Shavuot.
- Shavuot: Leavened bread. When you grind grain into flour, you have killed the grain. You cannot plant the flour into the ground and produce a new crop of grain. However, when you add water (symbolic of God’s Spirit) to the flour, it ferments and is alive again. This is why leavened bread is offered at Shavuot.
- Yom Terurah: Trumpets, a “loud noise.”
- Yom Kippur: Affliction/fasting and rest. He mentions affliction three times and rest four times.
- Sukkot: 4-6 species of trees, citron fruit, dwelling in tents.
- Shemini Atzeret: Kingdom of God, living with the Creator. There’s no symbol for it, because God is the symbol.
“And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — then He *said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:2–8 NASB)
The lesson we learn from the story of Yeshua healing the paralytics shows us that taking care of urgent needs supersedes the letter of the law. The need of the prayers and the forgiveness extended from them were more important than the Sabbath rest for the priests.
Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31
The Book of Ezekiel almost didn’t make it into the Bible, not by an edict from Christian sources, but by Jewish Rabbis who were perplexed by the fact that it appears to tell priests to break Torah. Why did it almost get thrown out?
“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary….” (Ezekiel 44:15 NASB)
This line of high priests followed God diligently, they were the best of the best. The family of Zadok became the line of the High Priesthood at the time of Solomon.
“It shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house.” (Ezekiel 44:17 NASB)
Torah gives the High Priest the right to wear wool garments over their linen garments but this text appears to contradict or negate the original Torah command regarding the garments of the high priestly heirs.
““And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman but shall take virgins from the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.” (Ezekiel 44:22 NASB)
“They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may defile themselves.” (Ezekiel 44:25 NASB)
In Torah, the high priest could not marry any widow, only a virgin. Yet here, Ezekiel is giving Zadok’s heirs permission to marry Levite widows. Also, in Torah, the High Priest could not allow himself to be defiled for ANY family member, even his own mother or father. Yet here, Zadok’s heirs were given permission to defile themselves for immediate family members.
How could Ezekiel do this? How can he teach this? What was Ezekiel teaching?
Instructions in Ezekiel 44 are for a future event and a future priesthood, not a present instruction. Ezekiel’s priestly guidelines will come to fruition when Messiah Yeshua reigns as the High Priest on earth in the future Messianic Age. Since Yeshua is the High Priest, what role will the descendants of Aaron/Zadok fill?
In the future, those who are biologically descended from Aaron/Zadok will still have a role but not as a high priest.
Ezekiel is showing us that there will be a change in the Temple hierarchy. It won’t be High Priests and Priest but High Priest, Zadok priests and priests. This new level of priesthood, those who are direct descendants of Aaron and Zadok, will be a blend of high priest and regular priestly status in the Messianic age. Rather than Yeshua dismissing Aaron’s descendants, they will still be a vital part of the Temple services during the Messianic Age.
Summary: Tammy.