Emor:Cohanim and Naso:Nazir: Compare Prohibition Against Tumat Mayt

(5) לא יטמא בעמיו THERE SHALL NONE BE DEFILED BY THE DEAD AMONG HIS PEOPLES — This means, as long as the dead is among his peoples thus excluding the case of a מת מצוה . Nazir 43b) (1) כי אם לשארו BUT FOR HIS KIN [THAT IS NEAR TO HIM] — שאר here denotes his wife (Sifra, Emor, Section 1 4; Yevamot 22b). (1) הקרובה THAT IS NIGH UNTO HIM — This is intended to include the sister who was only betrothed

(1) לא יטמא בעל בעמיו להחלו, the reason why a priest is not to defile himself through contact with the dead except those of his next of kin, is that also the priest is indeed a בעל בעמיו, a distinguished, highly placed member of his people, it is his task to understand and teach these laws as we know from Maleachi 2,7 “for the lips of the priest are meant to guard knowledge, and Torah and the people will enquire concerning these from his mouth.” This makes him a person to be treated in the manner one treats a politically highly placed person, a king. Seeing he is supposed to be ever ready to serve the King of Kings, in His Temple, it is not appropriate for such a person to desecrate his status even temporarily in order to participate in the burial rites of ordinary people. According to our sages in Sanhedrin 47 the prime purpose of burying and eulogising the dead is to render honor to them. This conflicts with the honor the priests have to accord to G’d on an ongoing basis. However, the Torah permitted the priest to become impure because their honor is his honor.

(1) על נפש מת לא יבא; he must not desecrate his sacred activities by honouring the dead and thereby downgrading his spiritual concerns. In this respect he is much like the High Priest. Our sages report that a father who had sent his son to study Torah in an advanced academy in Tiberias heard that his son was engaged in doing charitable deeds there. When the father heard about it he sent the following message to his son: “are there no opportunities to perform such charitable deeds in our town that I had to send you to Tiberias to do this?” (Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 1,7)

(1) 'קדוש הוא לה. He will merit the light available for those enjoying eternal life, as well as be able to instruct the spiritual leaders of his generation. This may have been what Elkanah referred to when he said: “may the Lord keep His word” (Samuel I 1,23). What he meant was that he agreed with Chanah his wife’s vow that the child she would bear would spend his life on earth as a Nazirite. He did not add any additional request regarding the child that would be born to them. If G’d would allow Chanah’s prayer and vow to come true this would be more than enough satisfaction for him.