The main purpose of the Kohanim was NOT to perform the services. Each family only did this job for 2 weeks per year.

The rest and bulk of their time was spent studying and teaching.

The Chinuch writes that the idea behind Maaser Sheini and Bikkurim was to force a family member to take the produce to Jerusalem and eat it all while there. This could take a long time, the produce was support them for a year while they studied Torah with the Kohanim in Jerusalem. This was their primary purpose.

The service was like a job, teaching Torah was their life.

EF

I'm going to be the difficult one and argue with you here

I think you're being a bit apologetic. First, stripping the kohanim of their ability to perform sacrifices was really stripping them of the major thing that they did — during the time of the Temple, most worship was via sacrifice. The Talmudic debate you cited does show that *some* kohanim were allowed to perform the priestly blessing, but it also shows that many (if not most) were not.

Also, many of the “deformities” that are listed (ie. disfigured face) wouldn't actually disqualify a priest from physically performing a sacrifice, so I don't really think there's much of a practical justification for them. I see these restrictions as based in concerns about purity — you can tell from the fact that they come right after the laws about kohanim having contact with dead bodies. Clearly physical deformities were seen as impurities, just like genital discharges, contact with the dead, etc. The interesting question to me is whether we can really equate the ancient Israelite idea of taharah and tumah with MORAL purity as we think of it today. I think you could argue both sides of that. What do you think?

Sorry for jumping in and disagreeing here, when I never comment usually. I do always enjoy reading what you write, and I think this is a really interesting analysis, even if I'm a bit more cynical than you

We need more people who think the way you do!

In truth, I think image actually plays a part in priestly service. The Torah wishes that people not have the opportunity to (wrongfully) mock or poke fun at those performing the services. The Torah knows that people are not perfect and the priestly service was too delicate to mess with.

This fits in with your idea that the disformed priests were still priests in every OTHER way.

You make all the right points and I think most importantly, we need to recognize that the ultimate Jewish experience is oneness with GD and inner peace, performing services in the temple do not help or hinder one's pursuit of those goals. Service in the temple is not related to how well one makes good moral choices and that is what constitutes growth.

I recently wrote a similar idea (in a different context) here —> http://bit.ly/QIIJj

Wonderful article.

ef