[b-hebrew] high-priests ..... left-hand
Yigal Levin
leviny1 at mail.biu.ac.il
Sat Jun 17 17:25:55 EDT 2006
Dear Anna,
Yes, priests who had any deformity, permanent of temporary, were not allowed
to perform sacrifices. Obviously, a priest who cannot perform sacrifices is
also disqualified from the office of High Priest. In fact, Josephus recounts
that one of the later Hasmoneans, I think Aristobolus III, chopped off his
uncle's ear, thus disqualifying him for the High Priesthood, so that he
could have the job. If I remember correctly, he was later drowned by King
Herod in a swimming pool. In any case, a list of these disqualifying
deformities is written in Lev. 21:17-23. "Left-handedness" (Hebrew "Itter")
is not among them. But I would not be surprised if later halakhah (Jewish
law, such as the Talmud and Rambam) included left-handedness in the list.
Just a generation ago, left-handed people were considered handicapped. My
father is left-handed. I remember him telling me that when he was in school,
his teachers forced him to write with his right hand.
Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: <C60605 at aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: <C60605 at aol.com>
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 5:34 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] high-priests ..... left-hand
> '
> '
> j anna. ..do we agree with this site
> _http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5764/bereshit64/mikdash.htm_
> (http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5764/bereshit64/mikdash.htm) that appears to
> be saying that left-handed men could
> NOT serve as temple high-priests ?
> -
> -
> j anna
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