54 A History of Judaism
proportion of them could serve in the Temple in any year. Thus a tithe
of all agricultural produce in the land of Israel was to be handed over to
a priest, and a priest could hope to be a beneficiary of this pious gift
from his non- priestly neighbour regardless of any service he might or
might not carry out in the Temple. Unjust distribution to priests of
tithed grain, through intimidation of poorer priests by the servants of
richer priests at public threshing floors, was a serious grievance in the
last years of the Temple, and the Levites, who had been envisaged as
beneficiaries of tithes in the book of Nehemiah, no longer seem to have
received a share.
Josephus’ assertion, in his apologetic description of Judaism in
Against Apion, that the ‘appointed duties’ of the priests included gen-
eral supervision of their fellow Jews, is likely to be idealized, since he
also claimed in this passage that priests were chosen for their pre-
eminence in persuasion and prudence, blithely ignoring the role of
inheritance in priestly status. But it is plausible enough that many priests
who did serve in the Temple will have become expert in wider issues
than just the mechanics of sacrifice. For instance, the biblical notion
that only a priest was considered able to decide whether surface dis-
colouration in fabrics, people’s skin or the walls of houses should be
deemed tsara’at, a technical term generally but inaccurately translated
as ‘leprosy’, continued to be observed in the last years of the Temple,
and some priests must have become quite good at this task. The special
status of priests as mediators of divine blessing was reinforced by their
recitation, enjoined by the Torah, of a special blessing in the Temple
after the daily sacrifice:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
“Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, ‘The Lord bless
you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gra-
cious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you
peace.’ ” So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.’The text of this blessing was inscribed on two tiny silver amulets, dated
to the first half of the seventh century bce, which were found in 1979
in a rock- hewn burial chamber at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem.^24
Within the priesthood itself there emerged by the end of the Second
Temple period a clear hierarchy of status. Out of all the priests there
could only be one High Priest at any one time. To this High Priest was
entrusted, most crucially, the duty on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atone-
ment, a day in the early autumn set aside annually for ritual repentance)