There are numerous thoughts in rabbinic literature expressed as to the intent of the Torah in banning kohanim – the priestly male descendants of Aharon – from coming into contact with the deceased. Ramban exposits that it is the “ordinary” Jew, so to speak, the non-kohein, who is immersed in the daily material existence of competitive life that requires constant reminders of one’s own mortality in order to temper excessive desires and evil acts. Not so the kohein, the priest who serves in the Temple and who is thereby removed from the daily spiritually debilitating struggles of mundane society.
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