February
1997

THE CHROMOSOME Y-FACTOR

MR. COHEN TO AARON HAKOHEN

One of the stories I grew up with and whose impression
upon me has remained undimmed throughout the years has to do with the funeral
of Israel Rokeach obm, the celebrated founder of the Kosher soap empire bearing
his name, who died in 1933. Although separated in age by six decades or more, a
powerful friendship developed between him and my father obm, and when life was
fast ebbing from Rokeach he gave instructions to his family that my father be
in charge of all his funeral arrangements and conduct the funeral service as
well. Thousands of people, in a large outpouring of private and public grief,
filled the synagogue where the funeral was held and overflowed into the
surrounding streets to pay tribute to this enormous legend in his own time. The
Rokeach name was found then in nearly every Jewish home in this country. But,
right at the outset, my father ohm, was faced with a knotty problem. Mr. Rokeach's
sons who were entirely of a different ilk than he, insisted that their
non-orthodox rabbi, to whom they were personally very close and who indeed was
widely recognized as a brilliant speaker should give one of the eulo­gies. They
made their request knowing full well that their meticulously observant father
may not at all have been enamored with their rabbi's progressive brand of
Judaism. My Father's obm, dilemma, however, was far more serious.

You
see, the rabbi in question was a Kohen and a scion of even more famous rabbi,
known universally as a Kohen, and who had deliberately appended the word HaKohen
- the Kohen - to his name so that there should be no mistake about it. And, it
is common knowledge, that Jewish law forbids a Kohen, to be in the same room
with a dead body save for the most immediate relatives. How could my father in
good conscience, introduce this rabbi, abetting him, as it were, in his blatant
defiance of Halakha, quite apart form the offense it would
constitute against the deceased and all he symbolized.

But
G-d was good to my father obm, that day. In the course of the service, before
my father introduced the rabbi and indeed, not knowing yet, what tact he would
take in this matter, a note was passed up to him with the following message:
Dear Rabbi Charlop, I would appreciate it very much if you would announce
before this solemn gathering that Judge ---, president of the Zionist
Organization of America (which in those days was the most prestigious Jewish
Organization in America) has come also to pay tribute to the late Mr. Israel Rokeach.
However, since he is a Kohen, he is pre­vented from entering the sanctuary
where the remains of the deceased repose. My father read the note to great
dramatic effect, as he was singularly able to do, and then immediately
introduced the rabbi who happened to be the Judge's brother. The mes­sage was
not lost upon anybody in that audience and tellingly reported the next day in
the various accounts of the funeral that appeared in the Yiddish press.

When
I first heard the story, years later, and was able to comprehend its implica­tions,
I wondered how the rabbi explained his position. For I knew that he belonged to
that original group of innovative rabbis who stoutly claimed, and, I believe
with some sincerity, that with all their deviations from age-old orthodox
traditions, they still adhered to Halakha - authentic Jewish usage as it
they understood that term. They extenuated what in effect was their
renunciation of the Kehuna (Priesthood), with seemingly disarming and
persuasive argument. There is much question about the authenticity of the
purported genealogy of Kohanim today to Aaron, the original Kohen. After all,
nearly two thousand years of unrelenting persecution since the destruction of
the Temple and the forced migrations from country to country, and continent to
continent, are hardly calculated to keep genealogy intact. In fact, there are decisors
of Jewish law, notably the Beis Ephraim (Orach Chaim: responsa 6), who
expressly acknowledge that we can no longer rely with confidence upon the
unbroken integrity of the Priestly line - particularly after the onset of the
Crusades in 1096. Moreover, according to some leading interpreters of Jewish
law, the prohibition against a Kohen willingly contaminating himself with
uncleanness (Tumah) caused by contact with the dead, now carries only
rabbinic force. In such circum­stances, the Halakhic principle Safek Tumah D'rabbonam
L'Hakel applies. When there is question relating to Rabbinic structure of Tumah
we follow the more lenient course. Consequentially, the disabilities of Kehunah
fall away. But, in fact, even those sages who doubt the overall intactness of
the Kohen's lineage, were of one mind, that the prohibitions attached to the
priesthood, including those relating to the dead are still and entirely
operative either because of Minhag - long-held custom - or Takanah an
enactment, especially promulgated, in this instance, to maintain the sta­tus
que ante even in the face of doubt. To those who were in a hurry to
institute change, Minhag and Takanah didn't matter much halackically.
This kind of cavalier dismissal of some of the chief components of Halachic
structure quickly brought in its wake the rejection of even essential original
practice and doctrine.

But,
lo and behold, last month, Nature, one of England's premier medical and
sci­entific journals, published the results of an altogether bona fide genetic
research pro­ject which astonishingly concluded that the patrineal descent of Kohanim,
from father to son has by and large been kept in tact.

The
New York Times highlighted this article in its weekly Science section (1-7-97):
A unique aspect of the Y-chromosome that lends itself to this sort of research
is that the Y does not swatch stretches of DNA with other chromosomes. Changes
that occur in the Y tend to persist in a lineage over x time. In a previous
study, Dr. Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona and also chief principal
in this research used segments of the chromosome to suggest that all men can
be traced back to a common ancestor 188,000 years ago, if indeed that's how
far our ancestry goes. Finally, Dr. Karl Skorecki, another co-author of the
report who leads genetic studies at the Technion in Haifa said that the
simplest, most straightforward expla­nation is that these men have the Y
chromosome of Aaron. The study suggests that a 3000 year old oral tradition was
correct or had a biological counterpart.

What
I found particularly exciting about this genetic study of Kohanim is how it
lights up for us what has been until now unsure terrain, and how it suddenly
gives real substance to little noticed and nuanced
inferences.

The
Magen Avraham, one of the foremost commentators on the Shulchan Arukh
-the supreme code of Jewish law - whose notes and elucidations have been
included in all the printed editions of that central work for several centuries
already, writes (Orach Chaim, 457) that the doubtful status of the Kohen
today has to do with the purity of his priestly lineage. He makes no mention at
all about the authenticity of this lineage. What concerned the Magen Avraham
was whether at some point in that line a Kohen ancestor may have taken for
himself a wife who belonged to one of those categories that the Torah expressly
places out of bounds for him and thereby rendering all his direct male
descendants after him, forevermore, Challalim, unsuit­able to serve as Kohanim.
About the line itself, however, the Magen Avraham does­n't seem to have
any question. For him, it was an article of his faith in Masorah -Jewish
continuity - in the integrity of the Kohanim as the progeny of Aaron and the
Jewish people as the progeny of the Patriarchs - not unmindful, of course, of
the many serious and genuine converts who cleaved to Judaism down through the
ages. This is part of the significance of the latest scientific corroboration
that we are indeed the children of the fathers!

Rabbi Zevulun Charlop