Parashat Emor begins with detailed instructions and restrictions for the Kohanim. Sum up these clear rules together and you get this:
1- The priests and especially the High Priest, must be worthy and ‘holy’ unto HaShem.
2- No priests with any blemish can serve at the altar.
3- A priest who is unclean cannot partake of the holy food.
4- No animals with any blemish can be an offer.
5- Plus other precise rules.
The tit for tat is interesting: Just as the human (priest) must be perfect and cannot serve if he has physical shortcomings, so cannot an animal have any blemishes if it serves as offer. Rabbis have pointed out that even though the Parashat is most important for the Kohanim, it has an even more important message. There’s an obvious redundancy in the words: “Emor el Ha’Kohanim…Ve’Amarta Aleihem.” Why does HaShem make it a point to tell Moshe to “speak to the priests”, only to immediately say: “…and tell them”? Rashi writes: “Le’Hachzir Ha’Gedolim Al Ha’Ketanim” – “to instruct the adults with regard to the children.” Moshe was to “say to the Kohanim” the Halachot, and then “say to them” that these laws must be taught to their children as well.
Obviously, here’s where Hinuch – Education begins. Moshe was to instruct the Kohanim their laws and requirements as they would have to teach them to their children. Ramban explains it like this; It is a warning to adults who regard themselves only not to forget about the purity of their children. Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel, (1250-1327) declares that in all other instances, the Torah refers to “the sons of Aharon, the Kohanim” (Vayikra 1:5). Here the phrase is reversed: “the priests, the sons of Aharon.” This suggests that this law includes a definition of Kohanim – who are no more than “the sons of Aharon” – referring to the children.
Is this the right time to introduce the mitzvah of Hinuch in the Torah? Aren’t we focused on a small group of privileged people?
One could argue that no group of people had a more difficult time educating their children than the Kohanim. After all, their children cannot do certain things other children can. And, as every parent surely has experienced before, a child will quickly ask why it cannot do certain things when it sees other children getting away with the things it can’t. Kohanim have special tasks and are bound to teach these privileges to their children. It could be that the Torah introduces Hinuch exactly for those reasons at this particular point. By extension, these Kohanim laws serve as a reminder to the rest of us of how much easier we have it. And that if the Kohanim must oblige by these rules, surely the rest of Israel can understand their simpler tasks?
So in fact, what we are seeing here is the trickle down effect. First, the Kohanim have their laws handed to them, only to immediately be asked to teach these to their children. Followed by the implied lesson that the righteous mitzvot have to be taught from parent to children among all of us. Later on we will learn that this is the only way for Am Israel to survive, for without Hinuch everything simply stops.
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