Part of a series of articles on
Priesthood in Judaism
Kohen Presumption of priestly descent Priestly covenant
Roles Priestly Blessing Redemption of the firstborn son Tzaraath (skin disease and mildew) The Torah instruction of the Kohanim Sacrifice Incense offering Beth din shel Kohanim Priestly divisions
High Priests Aaron Eleazar Phinehas Eli Ahimelech Abiathar (First Temple) Zadok Shallum Hilkiah Jehoiada (Second Temple) Joshua the High Priest Simeon the Just Ishmael ben Elisha HaKohen Joshua ben Gamla Phannias ben Samuel
Twenty-four priestly gifts The ten gifts given in the Temple Sin offering Guilt offering Communal peace offering Fowl sin offering Leftovers from the suspensive guilt offering Oil from the offering for the leper Bread from First Fruits Showbread Leftovers of themeal offering Leftovers of the First Sheaf . Four gifts given in Jerusalem Firstborn animal First fruits Burnt offering Parts of thethank offering andNazirite's offering Ten gifts given (even) outside of Jerusalem Heave offering Heave offering of the Levite's tithe Dough offering First shearing of the sheep Foreleg, cheeks and maw Coins for redemption of the firstborn son Redemption of a donkey Dedication of property to a priest Field not redeemed in a Jubilee year The property of the foreigner with no heir
Priestly garments All Priests Undergarments Tunic Turban Sash High Priest Robe Ephod Frontlet Breastplate Urim and Thummim
Miscellaneous topics The mitzvah of sanctifying the Kohen Kohanic disqualifications Holy anointing oil Kahen Aaron's rod Bat-Kohen (daughter of a kohen) Sons of Zadok Contact by a kohen with a dead body 13 Kohanic cities
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Thepriestly divisions orsacerdotal courses (Hebrew:מִשְׁמָרmishmar) are the groups into whichkohanim "priests" were divided for service in theTemple in Jerusalem in ancientJudea.

The 24 priestly divisions are first listed in1 Chronicles 24.

1 Chronicles 24 refers to these priests as "descendants of Aaron." According to the Bible, Aaron had four sons:Nadab and Abihu,Eleazar andIthamar. However, Nadab and Abihu died before Aaron, and only Eleazar and Ithamar had sons.^[1] In Chronicles, one priest (Zadok) from Eleazar's descendants, and another priest,Ahimelech, from Ithamar's descendants, were designated byDavid, ruler of theUnited Kingdom of Israel, to help create the various priestly work groups.^[2] Sixteen of Eleazar's descendants were selected to head priestly orders, while only eight of Ithamar's descendants were so chosen; this imbalance was done because of the greater number of leaders among Eleazar's descendants.^[3]

According to theTalmud, the 24-family division was an expansion of a previous division by Moses into 8 (or 16) divisions.^[4] According toMaimonides, the separation of priests into divisions was already commanded in the time of Moses inDeuteronomy 18:8.^[5]

Lots were drawn to designate the order of Temple service for the different priestly orders according to 1 Chronicles 24:5. Each order was responsible for ministering during a different week andShabbat and was stationed at the Temple. All orders were present duringbiblical festivals. Their duties involved offering the daily and holidaykorbanot "sacrifices" and administering thePriestly Blessing to the people. The change between shifts took place on Shabbat at midday, with the outgoing shift performing the morning sacrifice and the incoming shift the afternoon sacrifice according toSukkah 56b.

According to theJerusalem Talmud (Ta‘anith 4:2 / 20a): "Four wards came up out of exile: Yedaiah, Harim, Pašḥūr and Immer. The prophets among them had made a stipulation with them, namely, that even if Jehoiariv should come up out of exile, the officiating ward that serves in the Temple at that time should not be rejected on his account, but rather, he is to become secondary unto them."

Many modern scholars treat these priestly courses either as a reflection of practices after theBabylonian captivity or as an idealized portrait of how the Chronicler (writing in c. 350–300 BCE) thought Temple administration ought to occur. The reference to David was how the Chronicler legitimized his views about the priesthood.^[6] At the end of theSecond Temple period, it is clear that the divisions worked in the order specified.^[7]

Following the Temple's destruction at the end of theFirst Jewish–Roman War and the displacement to theGalilee of the bulk of the remaining Jewish population inJudea at the end of theBar Kochba revolt, Jewish tradition in theTalmud and poems from the period record that the descendants of each priestly watch established a separate residential seat in towns and villages of the Galilee, and maintained this residential pattern for at least several centuries in anticipation of the reconstruction of the Temple and reinstitution of the cycle of priestly courses. Specifically, this Kohanic settlement region stretched from theBeit Netofa Valley through theNazareth region toArbel and the vicinity ofTiberias.

After the destruction, there was a custom of publicly recalling every Sabbath in the synagogues the courses of the priests, a practice that reinforced the prestige of the priests' lineage.^[10] Such mention evoked the hope of return to Jerusalem and reconstruction of the Temple.

A manuscript discovered in theCairo Geniza, dated 1034 CE, records a customary formula recited weekly in the synagogues, during the Sabbath day: "Today is the holy Sabbath, the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; this day, which is the course? [Appropriate name] is the course. May the Merciful One return the course to its place soon, in our days. Amen."^[11] After which, they would recount the number of years that have passed since the destruction of Jerusalem, and conclude with the words: "May the Merciful One build his house and sanctuary, and let them sayAmen."

Eleazar ben Kalir (7th century) wrote a liturgical poem detailing the 24-priestly wards and their places of residence.^[12] Historian and geographer,Samuel Klein (1886–1940), thinks that Killir's poem proves the prevalence of this custom of commemorating the courses in the synagogues of theLand of Israel.^[13] A number of suchpiyyutim have been composed, and to this day some are recited by Jews as part of theTisha Beavkinnot.

Several stone inscriptions have been discovered bearing partial lists of the priestly wards, their order and the name of the locality to which they had moved after the destruction of the Second Temple:

In 1920, a stone inscription was found inAshkelon showing a partial list of the priestly wards. In 1962 three small fragments of one Hebrew stone inscription bearing the partial names of places associated with the priestly courses (the rest of which had been reconstructed) were found inCaesarea Maritima, dated to the third-fourth centuries.^[14][15]

In 1961 a stone inscription referencing "The nineteenth course, Petaḥia" was found west ofKissufim.^[16]

In 1970 a stone inscription was found on a partially buried column in a mosque, in the village ofBayt Ḥaḍir,Yemen, showing ten names of the priestly wards and their respective towns and villages. The Yemeni inscription is the longest roster of names of this sort to be discovered. Professor Yosef Tobi, describing this inscription (named DJE 23) writes:

As for the probable strong spiritual attachment held by theJews of Ḥimyar for the Land of Israel, this is also attested to by an inscription bearing the names of themiśmarōṯ (priestly wards), which was initially discovered in September 1970 byW. Müller and then, independently, by P. Grjaznevitch within a mosque inBayt al-Ḥāḍir, a village situated near Tan‘im, east of Ṣanʻā’. This inscription has been published by several European scholars, but the seminal study was carried out byE.E. Urbach (1973), one of the most important scholars of rabbinic literature in the previous generation.^[17] The priestly wards were seen as one of the most distinctive elements in the collective memory of the Jewish people as a nation during the period of Roman and Byzantine rule in the Land of Israel following the destruction of the Second Temple, insofar as they came to symbolize Jewish worship within the Land.^[18]

Though a complete list of sacerdotal names numbers at twenty-four, the surviving inscription is fragmentary and only eleven names remain. The place of residence of each listed individual inGalilee is also listed.^[19]

The names legible on the Yemenite column read as follows:^[17][20]

• Twenty-four priestly gifts

• Priesthood (Judaism)
• Books of Chronicles
• Jewish sacrificial law
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