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A quick thread on the High Priest in Jewish liturgy, in honor of Yom Kippur, with some suggestions for synagogue reading (though I guess that may not really be a thing this year 
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This thread is also in memory of Dr. Michael Schneider z”l, a leading scholar of Jewish Mysticism, who just recently passed away https://www.avelim.co.il/%D7%93%D7%A8-%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%93%D7%A8-%D7%96%D7%9C
Schneider is best known for his excellent book on the High Priest in Jewish Mysticism: _The Appearance of the High Priest – Theophany, Apotheosis and Binitarian Theology: From Priestly Tradition of the Second Temple Period through Ancient Jewish Mysticism_ (Cherub Press, 2012).
The title—“Mareh Kohen”—the”appearance” or “countenance” of the High Priest, comes from one of the most joyous piyyutim (liturgical poems) of the Yom Kippur prayers, which appears following the detailed depiction of the High Priest's work on the Day of Atonement, the “Avodah.”
The liturgy turns to a celebration of the High Priest as he exits the Holy of Holies—a late-antique poem that likens the High Priest's countenance, in a slew of similes, to many beautiful things (here’s the 1951 Birnbaum translation, courtesy of @opensiddur)
Interestingly, this piyyut is written in a genre of particular antiquity, as a very similar poem appears in the (early 2nd c. BCE?) book of Ben Sira that describes Simon the High Priest (seemingly of the author’s time; identified w/ Shimon ha-Tsadik from Rabbinic literature).
Simon appears at the culmination of a list of “famous men” from Israel’s past, extolled by Ben Sira over a number of chapters.
Here’s Ben Sira (NETS trans; to the best of my knowledge, no Hebrew original has been found yet for this section), alongside the late-antique poem:
Here’s Ben Sira (NETS trans; to the best of my knowledge, no Hebrew original has been found yet for this section), alongside the late-antique poem:
Note the similarities?
The differences are also telling—as discussed by Ophir Münz-Manor in this article (and by others before him), the Second Temple poem sticks to one field—nature—whereas the late antique poem jumps around like crazy! https://www.academia.edu/799983/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%97_%D7%A0%D7%90%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%9B%D7%9F_%D7%9B%D7%94%D7%9F_%D7%91%D7%A6%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%95_%D7%94%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%99_%D7%91%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%95%D7%98%D7%99_%D7%9E%D7%94_%D7%A0%D7%94%D7%93%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%98%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%93%D7%9D_%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%AA
The differences are also telling—as discussed by Ophir Münz-Manor in this article (and by others before him), the Second Temple poem sticks to one field—nature—whereas the late antique poem jumps around like crazy! https://www.academia.edu/799983/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%97_%D7%A0%D7%90%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%9B%D7%9F_%D7%9B%D7%94%D7%9F_%D7%91%D7%A6%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%95_%D7%94%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%99_%D7%91%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%95%D7%98%D7%99_%D7%9E%D7%94_%D7%A0%D7%94%D7%93%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%98%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%93%D7%9D_%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%AA
Some see this as a deterioration in artistic quality in the period of late antiquity (e.g., this mosaic from the Beit Alpha synagogue).
But others argue that we shouldn't see this (judgmentally) as “deterioration,” but as adherence to a different notion of beauty, one that raised up the beauty of the parts above the coherence of the whole—what Michael Roberts famously called a “Jeweled Style.”
In any event, on Second Temple era antecedents to the Avodah liturgy, see this recent-ish article by Vered Noam: https://www.academia.edu/38785030/Ben_Sira_A_Rabbinic_Perspective
On traditions around Simon the Just, see Amram Tropper, Simeon the Righteous in Rabbinic Literature https://brill.com/view/title/22961
For photos, transcriptions, and translations of all of the known Hebrew fragments of Ben-Sira, see https://bensira.org/
And, on the Avodah liturgy more generally (with English translations!), see Michael D. Swartz and Joseph Yahalom, Avodah: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-02357-1.html
