Sanhedrin 031

כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל דָּן וְדָנִין אוֹתוֹ, מֵעִיד וּמְעִידִין אוֹתוֹ, חוֹלֵץ וְחוֹלְצִין לְאִשְׁתּוֹ, וּמְיַבְּמִין אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ, אֲבָל הוּא אֵינוֹ מְיַבֵּם, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהוּא אָסוּר בָּאַלְמָנָה. מֵת לוֹ מֵת, אֵינוֹ יוֹצֵא אַחַר הַמִּטָּה, אֶלָּא הֵן נִכְסִין וְהוּא נִגְלֶה, הֵן נִגְלִין וְהוּא נִכְסֶה, וְיוֹצֵא עִמָּהֶן עַד פֶּתַח שַׁעַר הָעִיר, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי מֵאִיר. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אֵינוֹ יוֹצֵא מִן הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "וּמִן הַמִּקְדָּשׁ לֹא יֵצֵא". וּכְשֶׁהוּא מְנַחֵם אֲחֵרִים, דֶּרֶךְ כָּל הָעָם עוֹבְרִין בְּזֶה אַחַר זֶה וְהַמְמֻנֶּה מְמַצְּעוֹ בֵּינוֹ לְבֵין הָעָם. וּכְשֶׁהוּא מִתְנַחֵם מֵאֲחֵרִים, כָּל הָעָם אוֹמְרִין לוֹ "אָנוּ כַּפָּרָתְךָ", וְהוּא אוֹמֵר לָהֶן "הִתְבָּרְכוּ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם". וּכְשֶׁמַּבְרִין אוֹתוֹ, כָּל הָעָם מְסֻבִּין עַל הָאָרֶץ וְהוּא מֵסֵב עַל הַסַּפְסָל:

The High Priest may sit in judgment and may be tried; he may also testify and may be the subject of accusatory testimony; he may perform the ceremony of Ĥalitzah and his wife may be involved in this same ceremony; his childless widow may be taken in Levirate marriage by her brother-in-law - but he [the High Priest] may not contract a levirate marriage, since he may not marry a widow. If one of his near relatives dies he may not join the funeral procession, but he must follow behind while keeping them out of sight; Rabbi Me'ir says that he may thus accompany [the levayah] as far as the gates of the city [of Jerusalem], whereas Rabbi Judah says that he may not leave the precincts of the Bet Mikdash (as the Torah says, "And he shall not leave the Sanctuary"). When he comforts others (according to the custom of the people to do so one after the other) his Master of Ceremonies acts as a buffer between him and the people. When he is comforted by others, everybody says to him, "May we be your atonement offering", to which he responds, "May Heaven bless you". When he is served the Meal of Consolation everybody sits on the ground, whereas he himself sits on a low stool.

1:
This second chapter of our Tractate is concerned with what we might now define as 'immunity' of national figures. Two functionaries are the subject of our study in this chapter: the High Priest and the King (what we might now call the 'Head of Government'). The first mishnah of this chapter is concerned with the dignity of the High Priest, and the subject of the rest of its mishnayot is the rights, privileges and duties of the Head of Government.

2:
There is a common misunderstanding that the High Priesthood was passed on from father to son, by direct hereditary line back to Aaron, Moses' brother, the first High Priest. While it is true that in order to qualify for this office one had to be a descendant of Aaron, a 'Kohen', and while it may possibly be true that direct heredity (from father to son) was the general rule during the period of the first Bet Mikdash - and even that is uncertain - it is quite definitely the case that during the period of the second Bet Mikdash (and particularly during the latter part of that period) that the high priesthood was an appointment that was in the hands of the 'Head of Government'. The appointment had to be made, of course, from all the Kohanim but that was the only real restriction. It was customary that the appointment be made from the "priestly aristocracy", but this was not always the case. One one occasion, for example, King Herod 'imported' an 'ordinary' priest, one ĥanam'el ha-Miztri, a citizen of the city of Alexandria (where there was an enormous concentration of Jews) and appointed him High Priest.

3:
The first clause of our Mishnah stipulates the juridical status of the High Priest: as far as the system of justice was concerned he was an ordinary citizen. That is to say that he could be accused of any crime, sued for damages, and so forth. That being the case, he could also act as a judge (according to his personal qualifications). For a golden rule of halakhic jurisprudence is that only someone who may be tried by a court of law may sit in judgment upon others and, conversely, anyone who can sit in judgment must also be liable to judgment himself. (You will recall that the fifth mishnah of the previous chapter stipulated that a high priest who was accused of a capital crime must be tried before the Supreme Sanhedrin of seventy-one, and not a lesser Sanhedrin of twenty-three.)

4:
The Reisha [first clause] of our mishnah also stipulates that the high priest may offer testimony in a court of law and would be subject to testimony against him. If we translate this into modern terms we would have to say that the high priest may bring someone to trial by his testimony and may also stand accused because of someone else's testimony against him. In order to understand this we must explain that in the halakhic system there are two kinds of witness: there are the people offering testimony as to what they saw in order to clarify facts at law; but a very different function is reserved for the witnesses - at least two - upon whose evidence the charge is brought. These witnesses are, in fact, the accusers, it is they who bring the suspect to trial (we recall that there was no police force employed by the state to detect crime and bring suspects to justice). I refrain from going into further detail at this stage since these functions will be described and categorized by the Mishnah in later chapters.

To be continued.