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Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 2 (Negative) -- Prohibition: 71 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 2 - The 365 Prohibitions of the Tora

71 - A PRIEST WITH A TEMPORARY BLEMISH MINISTERING IN THE SANCTUARY


Leviticus 21:18 -- “For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long.”

In the “Mishneh Torah”, Maimonides enumerates one hundred and forty blemishes by which a priest could be disqualified from performing the service.*

* Mishneh Torah, Aboda, Hilchoth Biath ha-Mikdash VIII, 16

According to the Mishnah, one of the functions of the Great Sanhedrin was to pass judgment on the descent, qualifications, and physical fitness of the priests who were to minister in the sanctuary. “A priest in whom a disqualification was found would clothe himself in black and wrap himself in black, and depart; and one in whom no disqualification was found would clothe himself in white and wrap himself in white, and go in and minister with his brother priests. They used to make a feast because no blemish had been found in the seed of Aaron the Priest, and thus they used to say: ‘Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, because no blemish has been found in the seed of Aaron. Blessed is He who chose Aaron and his sons to stand to minister before the Lord in the Holy of Holies.’”*

* Mid. V, 4

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