Day 35 -- Leviticus 21-23

In our reading for today we learn more about the special position accorded to priests in the Law of Moses. The priest “is exalted above his fellows” (Exodus 21:10). There is an obvious double standard at work here. But being chosen by God to be different and “exalted” is not an easy position to find yourself in--the life of the whole people of Israel proves that.
According to the Law, every sacrificial offering presented to the LORD must be perfect and without blemish (22:21), and the priests who offered those sacrifices must also be without defect or blemish (21:16-24). You remember that we said earlier—in the Law the standard for ritual cleanness is “normality.” A priest who offered the unblemished sacrifice was not himself to be abnormal or physically handicapped in any way. (This was still the standard for Christian priests and pastors within my memory. Any physical abnormality made one ineligible for ordination.)
When the land of Canaan was divided among the tribes of Israel, priests were not allotted land. So they were dependent entirely for their living upon the portion of the offerings and sacrifices allocated to them. So in chapter 22, verses 1-16 we have a discussion of how sacred offerings were to be divided so that the priests would receive a fair share of them, without abusing their privileges. For better or worse, the lives of the priests were entirely dependent upon the life of the tabernacle. It was their whole world.
They were separated from ordinary concerns by rules governing marriage, divorce, and the rituals of death and mourning (21:13-15).
It is a point made over and over again in the Law--The LORD, the God of Israel was the God of the living and not the dead. Other religions might be transfixed by death—the Egyptians are a good example—but in Israel every contact with death was impure and uncleanness-making. Corpses were particularly defiling, because death is seen as the opposite of life, and the LORD is the God of life.
So priests serving in the tabernacle were absolved of the duty of burying even the closest family members. A priest, says chapter 21, verse 11 “shall not go where there is a dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother” (12:11). A priest shall not observe any of the conventional signs of mourning--he was allowed to mourn only the closest family members, but not publicly. As the representative of the God of the Living he was to have as little as possible to do with death, even at the cost of personal pain.
This will seem harsh to us, but in the world of the Leviticus it makes perfect sense. Yet the God who can command such lack of feeling in his servants, also shows concern for the welfare of the poor and the alien (23:22) and compassion for animals (22:28). All this only goes to show that the LORD is different from all other gods, and because he is holy—read different--he demands that his Chosen People be radically different as well.