“But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,”
A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die, except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother. The general prohibition on priestly contact with the dead is immediately qualified by the close-relative exception: the priest may become ritually impure for the death of a parent, child, or sibling. The close-relative exception communicates the covenant's recognition of the natural bonds of family grief: even the priest's elevated holiness does not require the suppression of normal human mourning for immediate family. The priest who can grieve a parent or sibling in death is the priest who retains his humanity within his holiness.
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