Perfection. Of all the powerful aspirations and driving capabilities within human potential, the attainment of perfection is not one of them. As hard as we might try to reach it, we can always count on human frailty and imperfection to bring us back down to earth. And yet it appears that one category of the people of Israel are expected to rise above this standard of the human condition.
Throughout the book of Leviticus, we are told of the distinctions between these animals and those animals, these bodily functions and those bodily functions, the people here and the people there, pure and impure, clean and unclean. In chapter 21 of Leviticus, the text tells about specific norms that members of the priestly family need to meet in order to qualify as serving as priests, maintaining the dignity of the family, or marrying into the group. Furthermore, the High Priest is given even stricter rules to marry a virgin of the family and is prohibited from mourning for even his closest relatives. These rules apply different, more stringent expectations to this group than to other members of the Israelite community.
The text makes perfectly clear why the priest must maintain such scrupulous standards: “For they are holy to their God and you must treat them as holy…they shall be holy to you, for I God who sanctifies you am holy,” (21:7-8). The work of the priests is so sacred and carries so much power and weight for the whole community that they have to hold to these different standards. There is no margin for error, nothing short of perfection will do. And yet no other people among the Israelites are expected to be perfect.
Whereas every other human being within the people of Israel can fall short of these standards, for the priests, the High Priest, and the rest of Israel, the distinguishing factor is the obligation to be entirely whole, unblemished, perfect. And the higher one rises through the ranks, the tighter the restraints become. It is clear why these rules are put in place, as the priests serve the greater religious and spiritual needs of the community and need to be different in order to perform those duties. And in order to do so, they must sacrifice a piece of their humanity, their ability to fall short and be imperfect. They cannot mourn as other people do, they cannot have physical disabilities as others do, and they cannot marry as others might, in order to serve the higher power of their people.
They must be perfect and to be perfect means losing a part of the core of being a human being.

Hannah Elkin is a 4th year Rabbinical and Education student at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles.

929 is the number of chapters in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, the formative text of the Jewish heritage. It is also the name of a cutting-edge project dedicated to creating a global Jewish conversation anchored in the Hebrew Bible. 929 English invites Jews everywhere to read and study Tanakh, one chapter a day, Sunday through Thursday together with a website with creative readings and pluralistic interpretations, including audio and video, by a wide range of writers, artists, rabbis, educators, scholars, students and more. As an outgrowth of the web-based platform, 929 English also offers classes, pop-up lectures, events and across North America. We invite you to learn along with us and be part of our dynamic community.
To join 929's listserv for new and dynamic content each week click here