Welcome To My Kosher Home

        Most people know that the accepted halacha is that during kriat HaTorah, the reading of the Torah, the first person called is the kohen. The first aliyah, of course, is the most honorable in that it begins the Torah reading. The Gemara tells us that this is just one of the situations where special honor is given to the kohen. For instance, the kohen should be the first to speak in a conversation, he should be given the honor of making the blessings both before and after a meal and he should also receive the best portion of food at a meal. What are the origins of this halacha to give the kohen special honors?

    Before we get to this question we must first ask a more basic question: why does a kohen have a special status in the first place? The answer is that the kohen plays the role of an agent or messenger. He is the agent of the Jewish people to their Father in heaven. The kohanim served in the Beit Hamikdash and brought offerings or korbanot on behalf of the Jewish people. When a kohen brought a korban on behalf of another Jew, he endeared that Jew to God and helped bring atonement for him. With this role came certain gifts and privileges as well as certain rules and restrictions. With respect to the gifts, one thing was that during the time of the Beit Hamikdash the kohen was given certain portions of certain korbanot for his own consumption and that of his household. In addition, every Jew was obligated to give a certain percentage of his crop to the kohen. As far as the restrictions go, they mainly took the form of various safeguards designed to protect the kohen from sources of ritual impurity, mainly dead bodies and forbidden marriages.

    The Gemara learns from the pasuk that says of the kohanim, “And you should make him holy…” that it’s a positive mitzvah from the Torah to give honor to a kohen. This means that in any holy endeavor, the kohen should always take precedence. As this is a positive commandment, when one fulfills it, one has fulfilled a mitzvah from the Torah and, conversely, when one does not give an honor to a kohen one has nullified this mitzvah. The Sefer Hachinuch explains the reasoning behind this mitzvah. He explains that it’s well known that when honor is given to the servants of a king, it’s not primarily the servants being honored but really the master whom the servants represent. In fact, this has a positive affect on the person giving the honor too. Every time we give honor to a kohen, it reinforces, in our own thoughts, the greatness of Hashem and the greatness of His honor. The Sefer Hachinuch continues that in the merit of giving honor to kohanim God’s blessing and good will be bestowed upon us.

    On a practical level, while the kohen is always given the first aliyah of the Torah reading, in other areas he is not always given precedence. The halacha states that a Torah scholar is given precedence over an unlearned kohen. If there is a kohen present that is a Torah scholar, he receives the honor. Also, if a kohen is eating as a guest; the host may decide to take this honor for himself as we see done in practice when it comes to making kiddush on Shabbat.

    In conclusion, we see that the long established practice of giving honor to the kohen is more than just a nice gesture. It is, in fact, a very important mitzvah from the Torah that’s brought down in the Gemara and in the halachic sources. May we all merit to see the day when kohanim will once again serve in the rebuilt Beit Hamikdash, thereby bringing us all closer to the One to whom, truly, all honor is due.