Kohen

[1] They are traditionally believed, and halakhically required, to be of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron (also Aharon), brother of Moses, and thus belong to the Tribe of Levi.

[3] Today, kohanim retain a lesser though distinct status within Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism, including certain honors and restrictions.

[citation needed] Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders are called kahen, and do similar works to the kohanim.

Here God offered the entire Jewish people the opportunity to become a symbolic "kingdom of priests and a holy nation".

[15] More practically, though, in this chapter "the priests who approach the Lord" were warned to stay away from Mount Sinai during the revelation of the Ten Commandments.

[27] Since Aaron was a descendant of the Tribe of Levi, priests are sometimes included in the term Levites, by direct patrilineal descent.

The Torah provides for specific vestments to be worn by the priests when they are ministering in the Tabernacle: "And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for dignity and for beauty".

A priest would serve barefoot in the Temple, and would immerse in a mikvah before vesting, and wash his hands and his feet before performing any sacred act.

Numerous Biblical passages attest to the role of the priests in teaching Torah to the people and in issuing judgment.

[39] Following the destruction of the Second Temple, and the displacement to the Galilee of the bulk of the remaining Jewish population after the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jewish tradition in the Talmud 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.

[43] A kohen may become disqualified from performing his service for a host of reasons, including ritual impurity,[44] prohibited marriages, and certain physical blemishes.

However, they retain a formal and public ceremonial role in synagogue prayer services, as well as some other unique religious duties and privileges.

Traditionally, a kohen (if one is present) is called for the first section (aliyah), a Levite for the second reading, and an "Israelite" (non-kohen, non-levite) for all succeeding portions.

The pain experienced by the families of kohanim who were required to divorce their wives as the result of the rapes accompanying the capture of Jerusalem is alluded to in this Mishnah: If a woman were imprisoned by non-Jews concerning money affairs, she is permitted to her husband, but if for some capital offense, she is forbidden to her husband.

[51] This is the attitude of the Israeli rabbinate, with the result that a kohen cannot legally marry a divorced or converted woman in the State of Israel.

[52] To this day, kohanim keep the prohibition (Leviticus 21:1–4) against becoming ritually impure through proximity to a corpse (within the same room, at a cemetery, and elsewhere), except when the deceased is his immediate family member.

Some Jewish cemeteries have special facilities to permit kohanim to participate in funerals or visit graves without becoming impure.

One of these ways is that priests (and in their absence, occasionally Levites) are the first offered the opportunity to lead Birkat Hamazon.

However, a bat kohen (the daughter of a priest) holds a special status in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical texts.

Accordingly, in Orthodox Judaism only men can perform the Priestly Blessing and receive the first aliyah during the public Torah reading.

As a result, some Conservative synagogues permit a kohen's daughter to perform the Priestly Blessing and the Pidyon HaBen ceremony, and to receive the first aliyah during the Torah reading.

Because most Reform and Reconstructionist temples have abolished traditional tribal distinctions, roles, and identities on grounds of egalitarianism, a special status for a bat kohen has very little significance in these movements.

Thus, if kohanim share a direct male lineage to Aaron, one would expect to see a high level of commonality among their Y chromosomes.

To date, all men who have served on the Presiding Bishopric have been Melchizedek priesthood holders, and none have been publicly identified as descendants of Aaron.

The positioning of the kohen's hands during the Priestly Blessing was Leonard Nimoy's inspiration for Mr. Spock's Vulcan salute in the original Star Trek television series.