The text of Leviticus 21:16-24 proscribes the blemished priest from serving in the Sancta. Combining theories like Mary Douglas’ early perception of holiness=wholeness and Schipper and Stackert’s perception of the blemished priest as an affront to YHWH, the great king, both biblical and disability scholars understand this priest as an unappealing representative due to their flawed physicality.
In this paper, I argue that this unusual priest represents an eschatological hope that there will be a priest one day who perfectly executes the office on behalf of the people, rendering together them and the place where God dwells with them as holy. To that end, I engage voices from both scholarly circles, combine them with an investigation of the priest in the Priestly traditions, provide a brief etymological analysis of the term mum, and finally read the episode back into the larger Torah testimony.