Parshat Emor includes many disturbing passages—texts whose implications still reverberate today. When I used to teach English, I would explain to my students that the word “exclusive,” though often positive in Hebrew (suggesting something special), is built on a more troubling premise: what makes something “special” is precisely that it excludes. It leaves others out. It is not shared. That idea, unfortunately, lies at the heart of the priesthood described in this parsha. God instructs Moses:

Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, except for the relatives that are closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not become someone’s [wife], for her he may defile himself. But he shall not defile himself as a kinsman by marriage, and so profane himself (Leviticus 21: 1-4).

In practice, this means that a Cohen today may attend only the funerals of immediate relatives—but not that of a married sister, because she is no longer considered part of his primary kin—also perhaps, because she is not a virgin. This concern with boundaries and exclusions intensifies as the chapter continues.

Non-Virgins Forbidden to Priests

The Torah limits whom a priest may marry:

They shall not take [into their household as their wife] a woman defiled by harlotry (אשה זנה וחללה), nor shall they take one divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God (Leviticus 21:7).

Here, the text introduces two terms—zonah and ḥalalah. Are they synonymous? Or do they distinguish between a willing participant and a woman violated against her will? The ambiguity is striking—and troubling. In traditional communities, these distinctions still carry weight. A Cohen who takes his lineage seriously will not marry a divorcee. But the text goes even further. It asks: what happens when the “transgression” is within the priest’s own household?

When the daughter of a priest defiles herself through harlotry, it is her father whom she defiles; she shall be put to the fire (Leviticus 21:9).

Since it is her father (who owns her) he is the one defiled and she is burnt alive. And it gets worse when it comes to the High Priest, for the only person he can marry is a virgin:

He may take [into his household as his wife] only a woman who is a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)