Vayikra 10:10

10 And that ye may put difference between kodesh and chol (common, profane), and between tameh (unclean) and tahor (clean);

Vayikra 10:10 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 10:10

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy,
&c.] That being sober they might be able to distinguish between the one and the other; which a drunken man, having his mind and senses disturbed, is not capable of; as between holy and unholy persons, and between holy and unholy things; particularly, as Aben Ezra interprets it, between a sacred place and one that is common, and between a holy day and a common week day; the knowledge and memory of which may be lost through intemperance; and so that may be done in a place and on a day which ought not to be done, or that omitted on a day and in a place which ought to be done:

and between unclean and clean;
between unclean men and women, beasts and fowls, and clean ones; and between unclean things in a ceremonial sense, and those that are clean, which a man in liquor may be no judge of: hence, as the above writer observes, after this section follow laws concerning fowls clean and unclean, the purification of a woman after childbirth, the leprosy in men, garments and houses, and concerning profluvious and menstruous persons; all which the priests were to be judges of, and therefore ought to be sober.

Vayikra 10:10 In-Context

8 And Hashem spoke unto Aharon, saying,

9 Do not drink yayin nor strong drink, thou, nor thy banim with thee, when ye go into the Ohel Mo’ed, lest ye die; it shall be chukkat olam throughout your generations;

10 And that ye may put difference between kodesh and chol (common, profane), and between tameh (unclean) and tahor (clean);

11 And that ye may teach the Bnei Yisroel all the chukkim which Hashem hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moshe.

12 And Moshe spoke unto Aharon, and unto Eleazar and unto Itamar, his banim that were left, Take the minchah that remaineth of the offerings of Hashem made by eish, and eat it without leaven (i.e., matzot) beside the Mizbe’ach; for it is kodesh kodashim;