As a preacher, I’ve had to handle more than my share of funerals.
(Honestly, one is enough, but it comes with the job).
They’re never fun. Sure, they can be celebrations of life and remembrances of good times, but at the end of the day, someone has left this world. That always leaves a hole in someone’s heart.
It’s hard to imagine a world where doing funerals is not a part of my job, but that seems to be exactly what happened with the Jewish priests in Leviticus 21.
At this point, the attention turns away from the people at large to that of the priests, and God tells them specifically to avoid touching any dead body—unless that body is a “close family relative.” Which family relatives they are allowed to interact with is specified in the surrounding verses. And, even though it’s not specified, wives are thought to be included in that mix.
The only exception to this is the High Priest. According to Leviticus 21:10-12, he can’t touch any dead body ever—not even his own parents.
This admonition does two things. First, it defines the intimacy of family. When someone passes away, especially in an Israelite household, the responsibility lies with the family to handle it. If they won’t, then who will? Genealogy is a huge part of Jewish life, and this verse underscores that.
Secondly, it cements the nature of the priests. Their role is to bring life to humanity by interceding between the people and God. Ironically, that happens by the death (i.e. sacrifices) of animals.
But it’s not just touching a dead body that is the problem—according to tradition, many Jewish priests refused to even be in the same room as a dead boy, or walk over the grave. This is most likely highlighted by Jesus’ statement about “whitewashed tombs” in Matthew 23.
On the surface, this seems cold-hearted, just as it did in Leviticus 10 when Aaron wasn’t allowed to mourn for his own sons Nadab and Abihu after their untimely death.
Legally speaking though, the principle at stake here is exactly the same as the one between clean and unclean animals. There needs to be a delineation here between what is pure and impure, and according to Numbers 19:11-16, touching a dead body is impure for all Israelites.
But even though that passage makes the person only unclean for seven days, a priest can’t afford to be unclean. The spiritual welfare of an entire nation rests on his shoulders; he can’t afford to be out of duty for a week to handle situations that happen fairly frequently.
So, if priests didn’t handle funerals, who did?
Traditionally, the body of a deceased person happened on the same day as the death itself. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 addresses capital punishment, and says that the person who is executed should be buried the same day. Leaving him exposed all night “defiles the land.”
Even though not everyone who dies is executed, the principle applies the same. No body should be left exposed all night for fear of defaming the body by scavengers getting to it and defiling the land by allowing a corpse to decompose above ground.
As is implied through Deuteronomy 21, the family was responsible for these funerals. If there was no family, then the community themselves took care of it (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). In truly rare cases where no one was around to handle a dead body and a priest came across one, then—and only then—was a priest allowed to touch a dead body. It was called met mitzvah—an “obligated corpse.”
But the general rule still held. Priests don’t spend time around dead bodies, if for the simple reason than death is the opposite of everything they stand for.
Life.
