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I may have let the cat out of the bag in the last few weeks about some of my geekier interests and hobbies, but for parashat Tzav it's time to delve into another - Dungeons and Dragons (and other tabletop role-playing games).
D&D is a fantasy role-playing game in which each player creates a character to be their avatar in the game world, each character is defined by statistics, abilities, level, alignment and, most crucially for our discussion today, a class. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses - a fighter would be good at hand to hand combat but not best at sneaking past foes unseen, while a Magic User could draw on a potent range of spells but were weak if caught in combat.
Clerics were an interesting bunch. They had combat potential and could wear armour, they could call on their deities to banish the undead, and most importantly, they could always be relied on for healing spells. As long as a cleric was true to the strictures of their god (whichever god that might be), their powers were essential for keeping the party alive and in one piece, while a party without a cleric might struggle to make it to the final encounters with only a few hit points to spare.
And of all the stats that a D&D character has, it was Wisdom that was the Clerics most important characteristic.
As a student Rabbi, I like the idea that a cleric's main role is in wisdom (though I suspect Intelligence, Charisma and Constitution are also pretty important). A rabbis role is to learn our sacred texts and bring them to the people so they are accessible, meaningful and transformative.
But what about the Cohanim?
