priest

Distinctions

Kohen (כהן)

Used of idolatrous and foreign functionaries throughout: Poti Phera kohen On (Bereishis 41:50), Yisro kohen Midyan (Shemos 2:16, 3:1), the Egyptian priests exempt from Yosef's levy (Bereishis 47:22), and the man appointed over Michah's idol (Shoftim 18:4), so that in all these places it seems the word is being used of a religious functionary of an idolatrous cult. But Targum Onkelos does not treat these alike: at Poti Phera and Yisro he renders kohen as rabbah, master, which implies political leadership more than ritual office, while at the Egyptian priests and Michah's priest he renders komer. Rashi likewise calls the Egyptian kohanim komrim, and gives the rule: kohen means any religious functionary, except where it is attached to a place name (kohen Midyan), where it means a position of leadership in that place. So sometimes the word names a priest, of legitimate worship or otherwise, and sometimes a political leader.

• On the root, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740-1814) gives the biliteral כ-ן, base or basis, which also yields ken (so, yes) and nachon (correct), both of which affirm a thing by acknowledging its basis, and tochnis (plan) and hachanah (preparation), the bases of any serious undertaking. A kohen, then, is the man charged with seeing that the preparations for the worship at a temple, of whatever kind, are in order.
• Rav Hirsch (1808-1888) ties kohen to hachanah as well: the Kohen sets an example of how Hashem is to be served and so "prepares" others to be initiated into that service.
• Rabbi Pappenheim adds secondary senses: one who wears any sort of special clothes, as a chasan does (Yeshayahu 61:10), and anyone priest-like in functioning in an official capacity, as a prince does (Shmuel II 8:18).
• Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843-1916) notes that the Arabic kahin, soothsayer or diviner, is probably a cognate of kohen, and on that basis suggests that the root of kohen is koh, "thus," the prophets' word when they relay Hashem's message. Indeed, kohanim served in the Mikdash and were also instrumental in teaching Torah, so it makes sense that they would be associated with prophecy, which likewise relays Hashem's word (see Malachi 2:7).

Komer (כומר)

• Radak (Tzefaniah 1:4, Melachim II 23:5, and Sefer HaShorashim): komer means blackened (compare Eichah 5:10), so a komer is a priest in black vestments, which a Kohen is not, the legitimate Kohanim in the Mikdash having worn white.
• Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (1469-1549, Sefer HaTishbi) argues that komer literally means closed, clustered, cloistered, citing the Targum to Tehillim 77:10 and finding his evidence in the Talmudic komer shel anavim, a mass of grapes all clustered together (Bechoros 31b); on his reading a komer is specifically an idolatrous priest secluded and clustered in a monastery, that is, a monk, while kohen is the more general word.

A letter from the Elephantine Papyri distinguishes Jewish priests, called kohanim, from Egyptian priests, called komrim.

Rav Hirsch reads komer from nichmeru rachamav, of Yosef's mercy welling up when he saw Binyamin (Bereishis 43:30), together with michmar, a net (Yeshayahu 19:8, 51:20). The idolatrous priest catches his followers in the net of his cult by working on their imagination and their feelings, where the Torah addresses a man's understanding; so the komer feeds on his followers' emotions while the Kohen feeds them Torah.

The disputed pesukim

Yoshiyahu's purge: he removed the komrim from their idolatrous posts and helped them do teshuvah, and barred those kohanim, Aharon's descendants, who had previously been komrim for idolatry from serving in the Mikdash in Yerushalayim (Melachim II 23:5-9, with Radak).

Tzefaniah 1:4, where both words stand together, has four readings.

• Targum and Rashi seem to understand that komrim are any who take part in idol worship and kohanim are the idolatrous priests, which reverses the usual division.
• Rabbi Yosef Ibn Kaspi (1279-1345): komrim are the idolatrous priests of Baal, kohanim are Hashem's kohanim, some of whom had been acting corruptly.
• Radak, in three places: both words mean idolatrous priests.
• Dr. Chaim Tawil notes that kumru means priest in Akkadian and in other Western Semitic languages, so that Tzefaniah's komrim was likely an oblique reference to cultic functionaries from the places where those languages were spoken; on that reading it could be that komrim and kohanim both mean idolatrous priests and are perfect synonyms drawn from two different languages.

Ibn Kaspi and Radak both leave the general rule standing, that kohen covers a priest of any sort while komer is the idolater's.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Holy Priests vs. Unholy Priests," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 28 December 2019.

Cited in the essay: Bereishis 41:50, 43:30, 47:22; Shemos 2:16, 3:1; Shoftim 18:4; Shmuel II 8:18; Melachim II 23:5-9 with Radak; Yeshayahu 19:8, 51:20, 61:10; Tzefaniah 1:4 with Targum, Rashi, Radak and Rabbi Yosef Ibn Kaspi; Malachi 2:7; Eichah 5:10; Tehillim 77:10 with Targum; Bechoros 31b; Targum Onkelos; Rashi; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Sefer HaTishbi; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo s.v. כן; Rav Hirsch; Rabbi Aharon Marcus, Keses HaSofer to Bereishis 14:18; Dr. Chaim Tawil; the Elephantine Papyri.