신명기 18:8의 주석

חלק כחלק יאכלו THEY SHALL ENJOY LIKE PORTIONS — This teaches that they (the priests who come to Jerusalem on the festivals as pilgrims but are not in charge) participate in the hides (of the burnt offerings due on the festivals) and the flesh of the he goats brought as sin-offerings on account of the festivals. One might think that they participate also in sacrifices which are offered not on account of the festivals, as, for instance, the continual burnt offerings, the additional offerings due on account of Sabbath (on which a festival happens to fall) and vow- and free-will offerings! Scripture, however, states: לבד ממכריו על האבות [THEY SHALL ENJOY LIKE PORTIONS] EXCEPT THE SALE OF THE FATHERS — i.e. except those things which their ancestors sold to each other in the days of David and Samuel when the system of shifts was established and they made, as it were, an agreement of sale, saying, “Take thou the ordinary priestly perquisites during thy week and I shall take them during my week (Sifrei Devarim 169:3; Sukkah 56a).

לבד ממכריו אל האבות, the members of any priestly roster, known as בית אבות or as here. plain אבות, do not have the right to share their sacrificial meat with their relatives or friends except when this meat was part of the daily or weekly public offerings. These may be shared or exchanged between different rosters. However, any offerings brought to the altar on the pilgrimage festivals are not subject to the authority of the priestly roster officiating during that week at all. The expression ממכריו, “of his acquaintances,” does not apply to the days of the festivals. Therefore, the Torah orders that on that occasion basically any priest present may eat a share of such offerings regardless of whether he belongs to the roster of that particular week. This is why the Torah writes; חלק כחלק יאכלו, of the offerings presented during the festivals all the priests enjoy an equal share.

לבד ממכריו על האבות, according to the plain meaning: “like one of his personal acquaintances if he has such among the priests serving in the Temple, who is willing to appoint him to offer his personal sacrifice on his behalf so that he will be able to eat some of the sacrificial meat with him, and the restriction of his not being part of the day’s roster would be waived.” (compare Sukkah 56)

חלק כחלק יאכלו, “portion for portion they shall eat it.” According to the plain meaning of the text these words mean that the priests shall eat all that is given to them and share it out equitably among themselves, including the skins of the burnt-offerings, and the meat of the sacrifices which were not burned up totally.

That they share in the skins and in the flesh of the sin-offering goats, etc. Rashi mentions specifically skins and flesh of the sin-offering goats because [visiting] kohanim only have a portion in the musaf-offerings of the festivals, and these musaf-offerings are burnt offerings and sin-offering goats as it says in parshas Pinchas. And they offer up the burnt offerings completely to Hashem and the kohanim receive only their skins. But [regarding] the sin-offering goats, the kohein receives [their skins and also] their meat after the burnt portions have been offered up.

חלק כחלק יאכלו, “they shall eat (receive) equal shares, etc.” when we were told in Samuel I 2,36 that the sons of the High Priest Eli would have to go begging to get a morsel to eat, from which we see that even as priests they did not get their allotted shares, and from which we also know that allocations were based only on service actually performed in the Temple, we must remember that these offspring of Eli described there had not yet attained the age at which they were fit to perform such service, i.e. they were below thirty years of age. This is clear from what is written in Samuel I 2,33. [There they were destined not to die until they had attained full maturity, i.e. the age at which, but for the curse, they could have performed Temple service. Ed.].

לבד ממכריו, “beside what is due to them as a result of his having sold the house he had inherited from his parents.” [The fact that therefore he had independent means and did not need to go begging was not taken into consideration by the Torah when it legislated what he was entitled to due to having been born a Levite.]’An alternate interpretation of this phrase: the word ממכריו is derived from מכיר, “knowing someone personally.” The Torah tells us if the Levite in question has friends who are willing to give him handouts from the goodness of their hearts, this does not therefore prevent him from claiming what is due and sharing it with his fellow Levites. This is so even if he does not ask for his share during the week his roster ids performing the service in the Temple. [This is an important piece of legislation, as the Rabbis stipulated that when someone has independent means, even minimal amounts, he is not entitled to ask for handouts. Ed.]