Haftarat Parshat Emor: Can Anyone Be a Kohen?

Can someone become a Kohen, even if they were not born one? This week’s Haftarah invites us to think about what it really means to serve the Jewish People – not just in the holy places, but through bringing holiness into everyday life.

On the surface, the connection between Parshat Emor and its Haftarah from Yechezkel seems uncharacteristically straightforward – both outline the laws governing Kohanim, almost mirroring each other. Yechezkel delineates the rules the kohanim must adhere to – no exposure to death (save for first-degree relatives); limitations on whom they may marry; the prohibition on inebriation in the Beit Hamikdash – echoing what was already spelled out in Parshat Emor.

True, Yechezkel seems to diverge on some details from what is stated in the Torah (though Chazal address these seeming inconsistencies; cf. Kiddushin 78b). But on the whole what we see is repetition, which begs the question: If the laws hadn’t changed, why did Yechezkel feel the need to repeat them?

The answer lies in the changing reality between the days of Aharon in the Parsha and the days of Yechezkel. When the Torah was first given, Aharon and his four sons were consecrated as Kohanim, and with Nadav’s and Avihu’s untimely deaths, the Jewish people were left with three inaugural Kohanim. Even with their sons and grandsons, the priestly population was extremely small. Those early Kohanim presumably worked around the clock, managing all aspects of the Mishkan including facilitating the public and private offerings of the Jewish people upon the Mizbeiach.

By the time of Yechezkel, however, there were many Kohanim – with some, as our Haftarah indicates, more righteous than others. Zadok and his family are recognized by Yechezkel as having remained loyal to the Torah, staunch opponents of idol worship and Zadok is the first Kohen Gadol in the Beit haMikdash of Shlomo. Zadok partners with King David in splitting the Kohanim into twenty-four groups (I Chronicles 24), known by Chazal as ‘Mishmarot’ (Taanit 27a).

With so many Kohanim, it was no longer possible or necessary for all to serve at once. Rather, each team of Kohanim would serve for about two weeks a year, with each subgroup, or ‘Beit Av,’ serving for a more limited time, before handing over the reins to the next Mishmeret (Yerushalmi Taanit 4:2).

This arrangement raised a new question: What should a Kohen devote his energy to during the majority of the year, when he is not serving in the Beit Hamikdash? And more broadly, what does it mean to be a spiritual leader outside the confines of the Temple?

As a Kohen myself, I find Yechezkel’s words not just descriptive but deeply instructive, offering an approach already hinted at in this week’s parsha: “They shall declare to My people what is sacred and what is profane, and inform them what is pure and what is impure. In lawsuits, too, it is they who shall act as judges; they shall decide them in accordance with My rules. They shall preserve My teachings and My laws regarding all My fixed occasions; and they shall maintain the sanctity of My sabbaths” (Ezekiel 44:23-24).

The prophet insists that the Kohanim play a crucial role in society, not only by offering korbanot and servicing the Temple, but by teaching Torah, engaging observance of Shabbat and holidays, advocating for the vulnerable, ensuring fairness in court, and promoting justice. The Kohanim are deputized to educate and lead the community on these and all matters of the spiritual and communal dimensions of Jewish life. This wider role of the Kohanim also explains why laws about holidays are included in the middle of the parsha’s description of the law of the Kohanim.

As Rav Soloveitchik would often say, based on Rambam’s statement to this effect (Hilkhot Shmita v’Yovel 13:13), any person who devotes themselves to the Jewish community, raising the bar for our religious, moral, and spiritual standards, carries within them an element of the Kedushat Kohanim, the priests who not only served in the Temple, but who took the sanctity within the Beit Hamikdash and carried outward to the entire Jewish people. So even those who weren’t born a Kohen – can live like one. Compassion, responsibility and service don’t come from birth – they come from commitment.