[Avodah] How to become a Kohen

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sun, Mar 05, 2017 at 05:34:44AM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: When Pinchas was born, his father was not yet a kohen, so - obviously -
: Pinchas did not become one automatically at birth...

: And a somewhat related question:  I don't know how old Elazar and Itamar
: were at this point, but they probably were not too young, given that Aharon
: was already past 80..

Elazar and Itamar were made kohanim at the same time Aharon was. "Ve'es
Aharon ve'es banav aqadeish lekhahein Li." (Shemos 29:44) And the actual
consecration of "vehilbachta osam, es Aharon achikha ve'es banav ito
... veqidashta osam vekhihanu Li" in 28:41.

: ...                  So, was Pinchas the only grandson? In other words,
: once Pinchas became a kohen, did the kehuna now include all of Aharon's
: male descendants, or were some left out?

Shemos 6:25 mentions Pinechas before Yetz'is Mitzrayim. So he's alive
at this point.

But, since the process requires wearing bigdei kehunah, only descendents
that were old enough to serve could have been included in veqidashta. Not
just born, but 13 years old (w/ 2 sa'aros).

It is quite possible that only 1 grandchild was born during that 13 year
window. In other words, given everyone's age, perhaps he was the youngest,
with the rest of Aharon's einikelach being consecrated together with
their fathers.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness
micha at aishdas.org        which is seldom fully achieved and easily lost
http://www.aishdas.org   again. Fulfillment lies not in a final goal,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but in an eternal striving for perfection. -RSRH