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). But Targum Onkelos does not treat these alike: at Poti Phera and Yisro he renders kohen as rabbah, master, which is political standing rather 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 a religious functionary, except where it is attached to a place name (kohen Midyan), where it means a position of leadership in that place.

On the root, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim 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 ties kohen to hachanah as well: the Kohen models how Hashem is to be served and so prepares others for that service. Rabbi Pappenheim adds secondary senses: one who wears distinctive garments, as a chasan does (Yeshayahu 61:10), and one who holds official standing, as a prince does (Shmuel II 8:18). Rabbi Aharon Marcus proposes the root koh, "thus," the prophets' word when they relay Hashem's message, which suits the fact that kohanim taught Torah as well as served in the Mikdash (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, against the Kohen, whose garments in the Mikdash were white. Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi) reads it as closed, clustered, cloistered, citing the Targum to Tehillim 77:10 and the Talmudic komer shel anavim, a clustered mass of grapes (Bechoros 31a); on his reading a komer is specifically a secluded, cloistered priest, a monk, while kohen is the general word.

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 barred those kohanim, Aharon's descendants, who had served idolatry from serving in Yerushalayim (Melachim II 23:5-9, with Radak).

Tzefaniah 1:4, where both words stand together, has three readings. Targum and Rashi: komrim are any who worship idols and kohanim are the idolatrous priests, which reverses the usual division. Rabbi Yosef Ibn Kaspi: komrim are the priests of Baal, kohanim are Hashem's kohanim, some of whom had gone corrupt. Radak, in three places: both words mean idolatrous priests. Ibn Kaspi and Radak both leave the general rule standing, that kohen covers a priest of any sort while komer is the idolater's.

Rendering guidance

• Aharon's descendants: Kohen, capitalized and untranslated, in any frum context. "Priest" for them reads Christian and flattens the halachic term.
• Kohen of a gentile: priest, or "chieftain" where Onkelos reads rabbah (Yisro, Poti Phera). Say which you followed if the passage is being darshened.
• Komer: idolatrous priest, or "priest of the idol." Where Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur's reading is at issue, "cloistered priest" or "monk."
• Trap: English "priest" absorbs both words. In Tzefaniah 1:4, where both stand in one pasuk, one English word for both destroys the pasuk; pick a reading, render the two differently, and footnote the other two views.
• Trap: do not import "idolatrous" into kohen where the Hebrew has not said it. Rashi and the Targum supply that in specific places only, and where the word is bound to a place name it may not mean a priest at all.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Holy Priests vs. Unholy Priests," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 30 Kislev 5780 (2019-12-28): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8529-holy-priests-vs-unholy-priests.md. Primary loci cited: Bereishis 41:50, 43:30, 47:22; Shemos 2:16, 3:1; Shoftim 18:4; Shmuel II 8:18; Melachim II 23:5-9; Yeshayahu 19:8, 51:20, 61:10; Tzefaniah 1:4; Malachi 2:7; Tehillim 77:10 (Targum); Bechoros 31a; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Sefer HaTishbi. The article prints Ecc. 5:1 for komer as "blackened"; the locus for that sense is Eichah 5:10, oreinu kesanur nichmaru. An Akkadian cognate and a documentary papyrus cited by an academic Semitist are omitted here (house rule 9).