We are now beginning the second chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin, whose main topic is the special laws that apply to a Jewish king, both in matters of law and justice and in everything relating to his honor. However, the first Mishnah deals with another central figure in Jewish society who is worthy of honor: the kohen gadol. The learning is presented as a comparison between the laws applying to the kohen gadol and those applying to the king. In short: in most cases, the law for the kohen gadol is the same as the law for any Jew, but there are a number of differences that stem from his honor.
"Kohen gadol dan vedanin oso":
The kohen gadol is fit to serve as a judge and to sit in a Jewish court, and we do not worry that the judges might nullify their opinions before him due to his prominence, agreeing with him and not expressing their own views. "Vedanin oso" - he too stands trial in a regular court, and as was explained in the previous chapter, if he acted improperly he is judged in the regular courts. The only exception is in capital cases, where the kohen gadol stands trial before the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one.
There are those who learn that the novelty in these words (for otherwise there is no real novelty here) relates to the mitzvah of exile. One who kills inadvertently is sent to one of the cities of refuge and remains there until the death of the kohen gadol. When the kohen gadol himself is the killer, it turns out that he will never leave the city of refuge but will remain there until the day of his death, and therefore there was room to say that this law does not apply to him. The Mishnah comes and teaches that even this law applies to him, and there is even an explicit Mishnah regarding this matter. Alternatively, the novelty is stated here for the sake of contrast with the law of the king, who does not judge under certain circumstances, as we will see in the next Mishnah.
"Me'id ume'idin oso":
The kohen gadol is fit to testify and serve as a witness, and similarly, witnesses can testify against him. However, this should not be understood simply: usually, the kohen gadol would not testify in court, and the source for this is in the laws of returning lost property. The Torah exempts a person from occupying himself with returning a lost item when it is not in keeping with his honor, for example, an elder or a person worthy of honor, for whom it is undignified to deal with its return. And since any prevention of a loss to one's fellow or restoring something that he lost is included in the mitzvah of returning a lost item, the same applies in a Torah lawsuit, when a person needs a witness to testify in his favor in order to collect his loan and the like. It turns out that under normal circumstances, the kohen gadol is exempt from serving as a witness.
Nevertheless, there are situations where he does indeed testify: such as when a king is involved in the matter and needs the testimony of the kohen gadol, and he testifies before the Great Sanhedrin and the like. "Me'idin oso" is stated in a general sense, meaning one can testify against him, and there is no problem with this. Here too, the novelty is primarily in contrast to the law of the king, as we will see in the next Mishnah.
Chalitzah and Yibbum:
The mitzvah of yibbum and the mitzvah of chalitzah are two separate mitzvos that go hand in hand: if a person passes away and had no living descendants at the time of his death, his brother is required to marry his widow in yibbum, or alternatively, to release her from the bond that ties her to him through chalitzah. The chalitzah procedure includes three steps:
The widow removes the shoe of the brother who is not marrying her.
She spits on the ground in front of him.
She says: "So shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house."
Since this is not a dignified event, as someone spits in front of a person, there was room to think that the kohen gadol is exempt from participating in it, as we will see below regarding the king. But the Mishnah establishes three halachos:
"Choletz" - the kohen gadol performs chalitzah and participates in the procedure, they remove his shoe and spit in front of him, for this is the mitzvah and he is obligated in it.
"Vecholtzin l'ishto" - if the kohen gadol dies, his brother performs chalitzah for his widow and releases her from the bond.
"Umeyabmin es ishto" - the brother of the kohen gadol may even marry his widow in yibbum.
What is not permitted is "aval hu eino meyabem" - the Kohen Gadol himself does not perform yibum with his yevamah, "mipnei shehu asur b'almanah" - because he is forbidden to marry a widow. The Torah forbids the Kohen Gadol from marrying not only a divorcee, who is forbidden to any kohen, but also a widow, whom a regular kohen is permitted to marry. Through yibum, he would be marrying a widow - his brother's widow - and therefore this is forbidden. Since the Torah forbade it, he cannot fulfill the mitzvah of yibum.
In fact, there is an additional reason for this: there is a positive mitzvah upon the Kohen Gadol to marry a virgin. Both reasons together completely rule out the possibility of yibum. It is worth noting a technical detail from the Torah: if the yevamah were still a virgin and only at the stage of kiddushin, we would be faced with the positive mitzvah of yibum against the negative commandment of marrying a widow, and a positive mitzvah overrides a negative commandment, so on a Torah level he could perform yibum with her. However, the yibum is a one-time act, and after it, he would not be permitted to remain married to her. Therefore, the Sages established on a rabbinic level that even in this unusual scenario, the Kohen Gadol does not perform yibum.
Laws of mourning for a Kohen Gadol:
The Kohen Gadol, like all kohanim, is forbidden to contract tumah from a corpse. The difference is that for a regular kohen there is an exception: his seven relatives - mother, father, brother, sister (specifically when she is unmarried), son, daughter, and wife - if one of them dies, he participates in the funeral and contracts tumah for them. A Kohen Gadol, on the other hand, does not contract tumah even for his mother.
What is his halachah if one of his relatives dies? "Meis lo meis - eino yotzei achar hamitah" - he may not even walk behind the bier upon which they are carrying the deceased, out of concern that he might become distressed and come too close. We must remember that there is also the issue of ohel, being under the same roof, and he would end up contracting tumah in violation of the prohibition. Therefore, he must keep his distance even from the bier itself, and he cannot participate in the funeral procession the way people normally do. This restriction was stated specifically regarding one of his seven relatives. Regarding others, such as a friend or neighbor, he certainly does not contract tumah for them, but he is permitted to participate in their funeral from a distance, since there is no concern that he will act impulsively out of a lack of composure, as they are not his relatives.
How is this done? The Mishnah says: "Hen nichnasin vehu nigleh, hen niglin vehu nichseh" - the Kohen Gadol and the escorts are not on the same street at the same time: when they turn the corner, he enters the street. It turns out that he stays behind the funeral procession at a distance of one turn from them at all times, and certainly does not come close enough to contract tumah, nor is he with them under one ohel.
"Veyotzei imahen ad petach ha'ir" - according to Rabbi Meir, he escorts the funeral procession only until the city gate, from where they continue onward to the burial, since the cemetery is located outside the city. Two approaches were stated regarding the reason for this:
According to the Bartenura, from this point onward there are no more alleyways, and it is impossible to maintain that walk at a distance of one turn behind the procession.
Some learn, and it seems the Rambam is among them, that there is a Torah prohibition upon the Kohen Gadol to leave Jerusalem, and according to this approach, the stop at the city border stems from a Torah prohibition and not from the reasoning that the alleyways have ended.
"Rabbi Yehudah omer: eino yotzei min hamikdash" - according to Rabbi Yehudah, the Kohen Gadol does not participate at all in the funeral procession of his relatives (and again, he does participate for others), as it says, "umin hamikdash lo yeitzei" - and he shall not go out of the Sanctuary. The Gemara explains that this should not be learned simply, as the Kohen Gadol does not live in the Beis Hamikdash but in his house, and from there he comes to serve in the Mikdash. The intention is that the Torah instructs that he should not participate in the funeral, but rather stay in his home or in the Beis Hamikdash, and that is the halachah.
Comforting mourners:
We will now move to what is done after the funeral, starting with the laws of mourning in general, not necessarily for a Kohen Gadol. Today it is customary for the comforters to arrange themselves in two rows and the mourners pass between them and receive condolences, with the recitation of "Hamakom yenachem eschem" and the like - the mourners walk and the comforters stand in their places. At the time of the Mishnah, the order was reversed: the mourners stood in their places and the comforters passed before them, and this is the picture that the Mishnah describes.
The mourners stand in their places and the crowd passes before them to comfort them, and the Kohen Gadol wishes to participate. The problem is that it is not respectful for a Torah scholar, and certainly not for a Kohen Gadol, to mix in with the crowd and be swallowed up within it; he must be distinct. If we picture a row of mourners on the left, and to their right passes the group of comforters, the Kohen Gadol does not walk in the same row as everyone else but further to the right, so that he will be separate and distinct.
However, if he does so, not only will he be separated from the crowd, but he will appear like an excommunicated person isolating himself, and it is also not respectful for him to walk alone. Therefore, another person walks to his right - the Segan, who fills the place of the kohen gadol (and as we recall, on Yom Kippur, if the kohen gadol became tameh, the Segan would replace him). Thus, the Segan is to his right and the people to his left: he does not walk alone, yet he does not mix with the crowd.
And the wording of the Mishnah: "Ucheshehu menachem acherim - derech kol ha'am ovrin bazeh achar zeh" - all the other people pass in a line, one after the other, in front of the mourners who stand in their place. "Vehamemunah mematze'o beino levein ha'am" - the appointed one, who is the Segan of the kohen gadol, positions the kohen gadol in the middle: the Segan is on his right and the people on his left, and this is how he walks, as described.
And what is the law when the kohen gadol is the one receiving comfort, having lost his relative and people come to comfort him? The Mishnah says: "Ucheshehu mitnachem me'acherim - kol ha'am omerim lo: anu kapparatecha" - "And when he is comforted by others, all the people say to him: We are your atonement," a special blessing that is not the regular formulation, "vehu omer lahen: titbarchu min hashamayim" - "and he says to them: May you be blessed from Heaven."
Seudas havra'ah:
The final section of the Mishnah deals with the seudas havra'ah. The law is that when one returns from burying his dead, his first meal is not provided from his own food but from that of his friends and relatives, and this is the seudas havra'ah (from the word "barah", meaning a small meal). They come to sit with him for this meal after the burial. Here a tension arises: on the one hand, the kohen gadol must be honored, and on the other hand, a mourner is supposed to sit low, close to the ground, and a mourner would usually sit on the earth. Sitting on the earth was not a big issue in the times of the Mishnah, but it is not fitting for the kohen gadol to sit on the earth together with them. The comforters wish to take part in his mourning and also sit on the earth, but he should not be on the same level as them, for he is a kohen gadol.
An additional problem: one may not sit on the bed. A mourner is obligated in overturning the bed, meaning to flip the bed upon which one normally sits. This law applies even to the kohen gadol, but it is not respectful for him to sit on an overturned bed. The solution: they seat him on a low bench, within three tefachim of the ground, as this is considered like sitting on the ground itself, and conversely there is no need to overturn it since it is not a bed, and thus it is exempt from overturning the bed. And so the kohen gadol sits on the low bench, and the rest of the comforters sit on the actual ground: they share in his sorrow, and at the same time they show him honor and do not sit higher than him.
And in the wording of the Mishnah: "Ucheshamavrin oso" - when they serve him the seudas havra'ah after the passing of his relative, "kol ha'am mesubin al ha'aretz" - the people sit directly on the ground, "vehu mesav al hasafsal" - and the kohen gadol sits on the low bench, as described.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that the kohen gadol judges and is judged, testifies and is testified against (even though under regular circumstances he is exempt from testifying due to his honor); he performs chalitzah, and they perform chalitzah and yibbum with his wife, but he does not perform yibbum because he is forbidden to marry a widow and is commanded to marry a virgin. We also discussed the laws of his mourning: the prohibition of tumah even for his relatives, the manner in which he walks after the bier in the dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah, the order of comforting mourners when he is comforting and when he is being comforted, and his sitting on the bench at the seudas havra'ah.
In the next Mishnah we will discuss the laws of the king, and we will examine the comparison between the halachos that apply to him and those that were explained here regarding the kohen gadol.