"You have taken too much upon yourselves! All the people in the community are holy, and God is with them. Why are you setting yourselves above God's congregation?" (Num. 16:3)

Korach's call for religious equality resonates well with the modern, egalitarian ear. Why indeed does the Jewish people need a special caste of priests? Why cannot each member of the nation participate in the holy service, personally offering up his own gifts to God? Why do we need kohanim to serve as intermediaries?

Specialized Sectors

To answer this question, Rav Kook employed the paradigm of the human body. Each organ performs a unique function, providing for the health and general welfare of the body. Despite their different qualities and tasks, the organs work together, functioning harmoniously as a unified organism.

Human society is also a living organic body, composed of various sectors and groups. Each sector — farmers, scientists, doctors, and so on — provides a specific service for the collective whole. These communal 'organs' meet society's various needs according to their particular talents and training. As they work together and recognize the contribution of other sectors, they ensure the harmonious functioning and flourishing of the community as a whole.

The analogy may be extended further. Just as each individual is blessed with certain strengths and ambitions, so too each nation has specific talents and ideals. These national aspirations may be expressed in the sciences, art, philosophy, economic strength, etc.

Not every limb of a gifted individual is directly involved in his chosen profession. The artist utilizes the hand and eyes, the singer uses the voice, the philosopher uses the mind, and the Olympic runner uses the legs. It is similarly impossible for the entire nation to be directly involved in advancing the nation's ideals. Each nation needs a cadre of spiritual leaders who cultivate the soul of the nation. This spiritual elite allows the other sectors to attend to society's material needs, confident that the unique content that gives the nation its distinctive nature will not be forsaken.

Guarding Israel's Spiritual State

The need for a spiritual leadership is even more pronounced with the Jewish people, whose national ideology so transcends the physical world in which we live. All efforts at promoting the nation's material basis run the risk of diverting energy from the nation's spiritual aspirations. As a mediaeval Jewish moralist wrote, "Whatever builds up the physical, detracts from the spiritual." 

Due to this concern, practical affairs are attended to in desultory fashion. In the end, both aspects are harmed. Spiritual efforts become disoriented due to the confused material state, and the physical robustness is weakened due to the coerced admixture of concern for spiritual matters.

Therefore, we need a cadre of lofty saints, blessed with breadth of knowledge, charged with securing the spiritual state of the nation. This elite is not perturbed if the rest of society cannot not fully share in the richness of their spiritual life, due to preoccupation with material and economic matters. They know that spirituality will automatically permeate throughout the nation, in accordance with their natural inclination. These public servants represent the entire community, safeguarding its spiritual treasure. The nation in return sees in them its most important assets, and honors them accordingly.

'Radical Agents' of Godliness

The priesthood is mistakenly thought of as an intermediary between Man and God. In fact, the priesthood is not an intermediary, but immediacy. When an individual approaches God, he does not utilize his base drives and lowly inclinations, but his holiest aspirations and desires. His elevated aspects draw his entire being towards a Godly, enlightened life.

The same is true for the national organism. It is not right or even possible to approach God with society's weakest forces. The nation cannot draw near to God with those aspects that are confused and occupied by a life filled with physical sensations and upheavals. This would lead to a feeble enlightenment, spiritually impoverishing the nation and the world in general.

Therefore, society sets aside a special sector, enabling the entire people to approach God. The sublime, righteous kohen, filled with kindness and elevated wisdom, truly knows God. The rest of the nation relies on his holy knowledge and emotions. They take pride in the greatness of the kohanim. They are blessed with their blessing and are sanctified with their sanctity. The people are filled with strength and courage for their material, social and political labors.

The tendency to appoint an exclusive priesthood is a natural aspect of human nature. Only after a long development will this institution be truly revealed in all of its light — but we are not deterred by lengthy processes. We continue along the path begun so long ago, and we continue to look forward to its completion and perfection.

To elect the entire people as priests, without distinctions, all equally wise and spiritual — this is not feasible in the world's present state. Currently, we need to aspire towards a general spirit of God over the people, by virtue of the noblest parts of the nation. The kohanim will serve as radical agents for Godly piety, enabling the entire nation to flourish in all of its special traits, in its renascence of life in the Land of Israel.

(adapted from Orot, pp. 53-55)

Copyright © 2006 by Chanan Morrison