263. Keep It Clean: The prohibition against a kohein becoming impure for the deceased

A kohein (priest, a descendant of Aaron) is not permitted to indiscriminately become ritually unclean through corpse impurity. (There are, however, certain exceptions, as will be discussed in the next mitzvah.) Therefore, a kohein may not touch or carry a dead body, enter a cemetery, or be under the same roof as a corpse. (The same applies to parts of a corpse.)

The basis of this mitzvah is that the kohanim are the designated functionaries of God. They have to be kept to a higher standard of purity and there is nothing more impure than the body of a deceased person. It is therefore appropriate for the kohanim to avoid such contamination under normal circumstances. (In the case of very close relatives, there are exemptions, as we shall see. A kohein is also permitted to bury a meis mitzvah, a body with no one to attend to its needs.)

This mitzvah applies in all times and places but only to male kohanim. (The verse says, “the sons of Aaron,” which is understood to exclude the daughters of Aaron.) The Kohein Gadol (High Priest) had a more stringent rule just for him, which we will see in Mitzvah #271.

The prohibition for a kohein to become impure by the dead is discussed in the Talmud in the tractates of Yevamos (60a-b) and Makkos (21b). It is codified in the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah 369 and is #166 of the 365 negative mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos. It is #141 of the 194 negative mitzvos that can be fulfilled today in the Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar.