Topic: Has the Levitical line of priests been broken?
Question: I'm wondering if you can affirm or deny what I just heard on a Catholic apologetics tape set by Tim Gray, namely, that the line of Levitical priests was broken at the Destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and therefore there can be no more bloody sacrifice in Judaism. I just used this argument with a Protestant, but he says there still are Jewish priests, and now I'm stuck.
Answer:
This is a touchy point. The official genealogies used to establish the Levitical bloodlines were stored in the Temple in Jerusalem and destroyed when it was burned in 70 AD. Technically, it is not possible to OFFICIALLY reinstitute the Levitical priesthood.
During a modern bris (Jewish ritual of circumcision) of a first-born son, the moyl (a member of the kohanim : that is, of an ALLEGEDLY priestly family) is traditionally given a silver coin (usually in America, a silver dollar) by which the first-born child is redeemed. All the first-born mammals in a Jewish household are dedicated to God since he saved the first-born at Passover. The first born animals are sacrificed. the first born sons are redeemed. Traditionally, this ritual is carried out by a Priest and he keep the coin. Since the Aaronic descent of priests cannot be definitively established OFFICIALLY, the modern moyl returns the coin after the ceremony is over. For a non-priest to accept this coin would be a sacrilege.
Many modern Ultra-Orthodox Jews allege that they have kept PRIVATE family genealogies that are sufficient to establish priestly lineage going back to Aaron. The Anti-Christian apologist Rabbi Tovia Singer claims this for himself. (I have this by exchanging e-mail with him.) I am not sure that this would meet the halachic requirements, but then I am not a rabbi either :-). After all, ANYONE can make up a phony genealogy either in this century or in any previous one. To my knowledge, there is no way to verify these private genealogies.
My general impression is that the BIBLICAL Jewish priesthood was irrevocably lost when the Temple was destroyed. The radical Jews who want to restart the Temple sacrifices (and those Christian evangelicals who support them) are applying a non-biblical criteria for Aaronic priestly lineage which in my opinion flies in the face of the Word of God. There is nothing wholesome about this impulse since the reinstitution of the dead sacrifices that Christ superseded is a denial of His once-for-all Atonement. It is supposedly a requirement for the advent of the Anti-Christ.
I have tried to find some information on the criteria for valid priestly lineage in the modern world, but it is very carefully guarded and hard to find. I wonder why?
Art Sippo
The Catholic Legate