What Does 'Chalal' Mean? A Fascinating Scriptural Interpretation

The term "chalal" might seem confusing. It connects to many unrelated things—like a superhero description in "Toteach Al Chalal" or a soldier who fell in battle, as King David lamented for Saul and Jonathan: "The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places."

This week's Torah portion introduces another concept of "chalal"—a person excluded from the priesthood.

A priest is prohibited from marrying a divorced woman. If he sins and does so, and they have a son, the son is considered a chalal. He does not have the rights of a priest, does not bear his hands in blessing, cannot partake in the offering, and may marry a divorced woman. Furthermore, a priest is forbidden to marry a challalah, and a chalal's son is also a chalal.

How are all these concepts related?

Interestingly, the Torah uses a similar root:

"There shall be no uncleanness... none shall defile himself... to desecrate... because the bread of Hashem they offer... the woman... shall not marry... and a divorced woman shall not marry... for he offers the bread of your God... and the daughter of a priest, if she desecrates herself, she shall be burned with fire."

The offerings and the bread that are presented before Hashem are the reason that a male priest avoids a woman viewed as a desecration for him, he shall not take her, nor shall he approach her.

So how are the sacrificial offerings connected to the male priest? And how is the presented bread related to avoiding desecration?

The bread signifies the special connection of the material. The unique nature of the gluten in wheat forms a bond and connection from separate grains into a new creation, commanded in the mitzvah of taking challah, thus the offering is named: My offering, My bread. This means closeness, attachment, and life force. The root "lechem" is the opposite of "lehalel", to separate.

The letter 'chet' symbolizes material, and 'lamed' represents the action and use of it. "Lamed" comes as an action, as use. There is "food", and when one performs the action, it becomes "to eat", as with other verbs: to open, to close, etc.

Chalal is the ongoing removal of material, as a corpse is called chalal, because it is now separated into its parts. Similarly, the priest chalal is separated from the priesthood. The priesthood is a large entity connected to the priesthood tribe and holiness, and the chalal becomes a separate part once part of the body. Creating the chalal is division.

So, too, other uses of 'chet' and 'lamed': a window is an opening or void, extraction means removal and creating space, as well as a section or part, leading to weakness. In contrast, "lechem" is bonding, removing separation, leading to connection and reinforcement. Thus, sages interpret "the bread he eats" as his wife, "luach" is a joining of boards, and even the battle is the clinging of parts together ("krav"). The fluid of life, the brain of living or growing, is sometimes called bread (as in Zephaniah 1:17, Jeremiah 11:19), from which "its moisture has not dried". All food is called "bread", as it nourishes and connects the body’s parts.

Therefore, "chillul" in all its forms—profanity of Hashem, desecration of the holy, desecration of the priesthood—is the opposite of "Hashem’s bread", offerings, and closeness. It is separation and division.