The priesthood as you did not know it - part XNUMX: the end of the days of the First Temple and the exile in Babylon

First list on the subject of the succession of priesthood status in Judah

That's how it started

To most of us, the priesthood throughout the period of the First Temple and during the Second Temple appears to be some kind of mechanism that functioned within the temple, was conducted for many years and lived its "boring" routine life. Well, it turns out that's not how things look, and the face of the generation as well as the face of the priesthood.

Examining and checking the phenomenon of the priesthood throughout the Jewish history of the First and Second Temple days, it becomes clear that this framework went through very interesting upheavals and waves of development, which we will review briefly.

The priesthood for a well-known and clear existence is nothing more than the status entrusted with the work in the temple - the sacrifices, the prayer, the upkeep, the donations, the administration, the organization, the housekeeping and more. This status was concentrated in Jerusalem from the time the temple was built in the days of King Solomon, and until then the priests functioned in the various centers in the regions of Canaan such as Dan, Gilgal, Mitzpe, Shiloh, etc., and from the moment the temple was established, Solomon intended to centralize the worship, to single it out, to unify and unify it, as he manages the entire system. Shlomo? indeed-indeed. and why? Solomon was a product of the ancient being who understood in the course of time why the role and status of the priest was important, lofty and noble. and why? Because religion, and its experiential-ritual-social realization in the form of worship, was perhaps the leading force in the ancient world.

Religion and its beliefs came to answer existential questions first and foremost, such as the matter of birth from one and death from another, why these are sick and these are healthy, why there was a year of drought, there was a "flood" and so on.

In every human society, large or small, manipulative, enterprising and sophisticated figures, some of them delusional and swept up in an enhanced self-euphoria, "caught a ride" on this matter and presented themselves as having a direct connection with the world beyond, with the gods, with the influencing forces, and demanded in return, of course, payment - In status, in leadership power and certainly in existential sustenance.

This is how a system was gradually created, complicated by this or personally-militant by that, and held in its hand the key to happiness and wealth. This system was used by stronger leadership forces such as royal houses or military juntas and with it demonstrated control over their environment.
This system in the history of the people of Israel was called priesthood and it was focused around a ritual center - the temple.

The biblical era

The biblical Moses paid attention to this and he ruled over the people with the help of the religious-ritual charisma and beside him was Aaron - the father and first of the priests, of the classical priesthood line. Moses is the one who establishes contact with God, and in a direct manner ("And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying..."). He who sees him (like the burning bush and Mount Sinai) and he who communicates with him, just like the Egyptian pharaoh.

Yehoshua ben Nun works in his footsteps, as one who was ceremoniously ordained by Moses, and who does not need intermediaries, intermediate people such as priests or fat men. He is blessed with divine enlightenment that guides him on his way and in his military moves. The minister of the Lord's army turns to these, for example before the battle in Jericho and the text "And the Lord said to Joshua..." is quite common in connection with Joshua, such as: "And it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, saying: Moses my servant is dead and now arise for the This Jordan, you and all this people to the land that I am giving to the children of Israel" (Joshua 2:1-XNUMX).
Yehoshua, it will be noted, is the one who builds an altar to God on Mount Ebal.

During this period, the star of Pinchas ben Eleazar the priest, Aaron's grandson, appeared. At the time Pinchas was sent by Moses to take revenge on the Midianites at the head of 12 thousand "army pioneers" and with him the holy vessels and trumpets of rejoicing. These attacked the Midianites and killed every male member of the tribe and the rest in it and looted it.

It was Eleazar, his father, who announced the Torah constitution to the military men under his authority as a priest, and his son, Pinchas, who was known as the father of the Zealots, exterminated in the desert all those who followed the worship of Baal Peor, and in the days of Joshua he was sent by the mitzvah of the leader to the two and a half tribes to rebuke them and prove to them that they built for themselves altar and rebelled in this way against God (and in fact against Joshua), and their expected punishment was death.

Joshua is therefore helped by the priests but rules with their help over the people, since they are defined as sanctified.

After Joshua died "And the children of Israel asked Jehovah saying: Who will go up for us to the Canaanite god at first to fight him?" (Judges 1. XNUMX). There is therefore no leader, no priests rule and the people's representatives take the initiative and ask directly for God's advice.

"And they did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and enslaved the owners", reports the Book of Judges, and therefore God set judges over them - "and he will save them from the hand of their horses". The judges inherit the status and authority of Moses and Joshua in the religious-ritual context, and as evidence - the contact between them and God was direct, without intermediaries and intermediaries.

"Suddenly" Phinehas the priest emerges from "out of nowhere" in a relationship with a concubine on the hill, when after the exhausting war the children of Israel went up to Beit El "and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and they came up full and whole before the Lord, and the children of Israel asked the Lord and the name of the ark God's covenant in those days, and Phinehas ben Eleazar ben Aharon standing before him in those days to say: Is the collection yet to go to war with the sons of Benjamin, my brother, if I do not? And Jehovah said: Go up, for tomorrow we will be delivered into your hand" (Judges 28-25). Again Pinchas appears in connection with the tribal injustice and as a mediator between the people and God. Pinchas takes advantage of the absence of the judge's figure to fill the void created as a result. Before us is an event that symbolizes the end of the struggle between the religious-ritual-faith power and the state power that seeks to harness for its own sake, and as clear as they may be, religion and belief for the benefit of the function of controlling the people.

The solution proposed by the religious authority was also the kidnapping of the potential brides by the Benjaminites, and this was connected with the "Holiday of Yahweh" in Shiloh - a famous ritual center controlled by Ali the priest and his sons Hafni and Panchas.

It is not for nothing that the book of Judges ends with the famous sentence: "In those days there was no king in Israel." A man who is righteous in his own eyes will do" (Judges 25:XNUMX) to hint at what is to come - without state leadership (including, as we will see later, religious control, or rather to say - over religion) every nation will be destroyed.

Between the age of the judges, those who kept direct contact with God among themselves, and the age of the monarchy, the star of Shmuel steps, who although was defined as a kind of judge, but treasured within him the function of the priesthood (and without being a priest).

The people are disturbed from time to time, in the examination of the qualified leader in order to propose a monarchical rule along the lines of "Give us a king to judge us" (6 Samuel XNUMX:XNUMX). Shmuel refuses because he was afraid of losing his power as a communicator with God and as the moral of his word to the public, but he was forced to give up under the pressure of the people and their representatives. In the passage known as "The Monarchy Trial", Shmuel explains to the people the dangers hidden in the adoption of the monarchy system, but among the lines, the leader's pain stands out as he feels that his power is dissolving.

The first traditional king, although Gideon the judge like his predecessor, was Saul, but this is to know and remember that the election/appointment, as well as the colorful ceremony was conducted by Samuel and he will also rule David after him, to teach about the secret struggle between priesthood and kingship and in fact about the process of disintegration of priestly power - The ruling belief. As is known, the king was consecrated with the anointing oil, and as a result was adopted by God and was therefore kosher to perform religious duties.

Shmuel, as mentioned and of course cannot put up with the competing force standing in front of him, and a conflict soon arose between the two. For example, on the eve of the war with the Philistines, Saul gathered the people and waited for Shmuel in Gilgal (to teach about hierarchy and status) and Shmuel "was shy to come". The people expected and waited, were disappointed and dispersed. Finally Shmuel arrived and angrily scolded Saul for not waiting for him.

Later in the campaign we find next to Saul her brother Ben Ahitov, brother of Phinehas ben Ali the priest, with the sacred vest on him. Shaul gives instructions to her brother to use the ark of God in order to establish success.

At this moment, it seems, King Shaul's position is strengthened in front of the priesthood, which is shrinking in power, and he orders his brothers: "Remove your hand" from the ark of God. Moreover, despite the presence of the priest next to him, Saul "dare" to turn to God directly and ask him: "Hold after the Philistines...?"

Another confrontation between the monarchy and the priesthood/prophecy, although Negus and Morot is revealed in relation to the confrontation with the Amalekites. Despite Shmuel's instructions to destroy the Amalekites, Saul behaves differently, and for this he receives an indignation from Shmuel.

Samuel anoints David as king while Saul is alive and functioning. David realized that he needed religious support and so he came to Nob, the city of the priests and met with Ahimelech the priest who handed over the sword of the Philistine Goliath. Saul takes revenge on the priests of Nob and orders them to be killed, and Avitar son of Ahimelech the priest, who escaped to David with the vest in his hand, was saved from the slaughter. This contact, when the vest is under David's protection, he begins to ask God, that is - to communicate directly with God.

Later on in his journey, David demonstrates personal sovereignty. He reigns by the people of Judah without the involvement of the priesthood and he roars to bring up the ark of God from the house of Aminadav while he rushes and crouches in front of the ark while wearing a cloth vest as is the custom of the priests.

David is the one who first builds a tabernacle for God and he is also the one who conceived the plan for the foundation of the temple. That is why David, in an unprecedented way, turns the priesthood into a tool that serves him, into a clerkship for everything and anything. Ira the Hiari, for example, was a "priest to David" as was Zadok and Abitar.

Solomon is not ruled by Shmuel, but by David and the role of anointing was entrusted to Zadok the priest.

Solomon establishes the system and, like the other positions, he appoints his "ministers of government" such as Benyahu ben Yehoida in charge of the army and Zadok the priest under Avitar in charge of the priesthood.

The establishment of the temple places Solomon in a higher category than David in terms of holiness and control over the temple system. Solomon in his honor and by himself offers the first sacrifice in the temple and addresses God directly and informs him that his son is a dwelling place for him.

As soon as the temple was built and its procedures established, although it was not the only one in the kingdom, Solomon could rule over the people also through this sacred institution.

The control of holiness and worship by the royal house of Judah passed to his son after him and their descendants, and two kings in particular became known - Hezekiah and Josiah towards the end of the Kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah conducts a religious-ritual reform - he removes the platforms from Judah, who created the tombstones, cut the Ashra and cut off the copper snake that Moses made in his time, which until then the Israelites despised him and called him "copper". In vain we will look for the priesthood as functional during the reformation. Mainly when this was intended to centralize state control and strengthen the personal status of the king.

A much more significant reform is carried out at the initiative of King Josiah at the end of the 9th century BC. The king sends his messenger, Shapan the writer, to find out the state of the financial infrastructure in the temple from the mouth of the head priest and Tu Lao. Even here, the priesthood is not a partner in the reform process.

So what did we have? She clearly understood that the one who holds the funds of the altar is the one who holds the funds of control, which is why a process takes place during the First Temple period during which the priesthood becomes the "judge" of the royal house. She is involved in the technical and sometimes also the organizational field in the temple, but beyond that she is deprived of powers and powerful status.