Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Skip to content

Nazir 43: The Beheaded Kohen

What verse teaches the limitations on the kohanim about coming into contact with a dead body? The kohanim not only are not supposed to come in contact with impurity, and then they do, they also engage in a measure of profaning their extra holy status (it’s not a bad thing, just a thing). Plus, a dispute based on the nuance between two verses, as per the differences between a kohen and nazir as well. Also, if a man’s head was cut off, a kohen cannot become impure for that person, even when related, because the body needs to be intact for a kohen to be allowed to be impure for him. With exceptions, especially a “met mitzvah.”

Click here for the Talking Talmud podcast on Nazir 43.

 

To listen: Click the link above. Or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Or join the Talking Talmud WhatsApp group, and receive the link as soon as it goes up.

 

Please like our Facebook page and join our conversation there: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Talking-Talmud-113324056898191/" target="_blank" rel="noopener

Anne and Yardaena

Anne Gordon is the deputy editor of Ops & Blogs at The Times of Israel. She is a veteran educator, having taught in high school and post-high school institutions in Israel and America for several decades. Yardaena Osband is a pediatrician and teaches in her community and online. They both hail from Boston, proud alumna of Maimonides School, where they first learned Gemara. Talking Talmud is their conversation (via podcast) on the daf yomi. They say: "Learning the daf? We have something for you to think about. Not learning the daf? We have something for you to think about! (Along with a taste of the daf...) Join the conversation with us!"
Scroll To Top