I think I read this somewhere a long time ago, but I can’t remember my source. It came up while playing the game “Abstracts” and I couldn’t wage a successful argument against my brother because I didn’t have all the facts…
Is there a “family” or lost tribe whose responsibility it is to pray at the Western Wall for the sins of all Jews? I thought this was a belief the Hassidics held, but I could be mistaken. If this is correct, what is the family or tribe name? I looked in a few books about Judaism, but they just skimmed over the Hassidic branch.
I’m an Orthodox Jew with several Hasidic relatives, and I’ve never heard of anything like that.
Chaim Mattis Keller
cmkeller@compuserve.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
Chiam - help here, please. I read something recently about the Cohens who pray at the wall but can’t recall any specifics now. Not being Jewish, I have no education to draw on about such things, but I think I remember reading something about the genealogy of this family going back for centuries and those who try to claim kinship. Can you clarify & give a brief lesson? (That didn’t make much sense, but my memory is really fuzzy on this article.)
Damn! And I misspelled your name even though I do know how to spell it. Just washed my hands and can’t do a thing with 'em.
Apologies, Chaim.
OldBroad: I think I must have read the same thing you did. Cohen sounds like the name I remember, I just can’t place what I was reading.
As I understand it, Cohen is derived from “Cohain” (priest). In ancient days, the priests served in the Holy Temple performing their priestly duties. No one is obligated to pray there specifically, but it revered as a holy place since the Western Wall is the last remenant of the Holy Temple.
Well, Cohen is the Hebrew word for the preistly families, and it is true that when the Holy Temple stood (the entire complex of which now only the outer Western Wall remains), it was the responsibility of Cohens to perform the Temple service.
There might be a Cohen family which has made it a family tradition to always pray by the wall. As far as I know (and there could very well be some info I don’t have), there are no Hasidic sects which believe that it is the specific responsibility of one family to pray by the wall.
Chaim Mattis Keller
I found the article I remembered!!!
It was in the October '99 issue of National Geographic. The article is “Secrets of the Gene”. Doesn’t look like the text is on line, but some of the photos are there including a photo of Cohanim praying at the Western Wall: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/2000/science/gene/index.cfm
Scanning the text in the magazine I don’t see and real discussion of this - just the photo captions that refer to genetic markers on the Y chromosomes of some of this clan that may have been passed down for 100 generations and reference to an inherited duty to pray at the Wall.
C3, is this the same thing you refer to?
Chaim, can you shed any light on this for us?
The link in my previous post just takes you to the article. The photo in question is the 5th of the six in the gallery for the article.
OldBroad:
From your lips to my ears…
Once the technology for determining male-line genetic relationship was established, someone (I’m not sure who) in the Jewish community got the idea that this could be used to see if all those who claim to be Cohens in modern times are actually descended from the same male ancestor (i.e., Aaron) some 3300 years back. As I recall, the results turned up positive; almost all those who claim to be descended from Aaron definitely have a common male ancestor that is not shared by the general Jewish population. I’ll try to find a more detailed article about that.
As for a special duty to pray by the Wall, the Cohens definitely had the duty of serving in the Holy Temple while it stood. Also, it just occurred to me that they might be referring to the “Priestly Blessing” which Cohens say. Outside the land of Israel, the Cohens only say this on holidays, but in Israel (or at least in Jerusalem), they say it every morning, and on the holidays of Passover and Sukkos, a huge number of them do a mass blessing at the Western Wall. It’s not a specific obligation to do it there, and I don’t know who originated the idea of a mass Priestly blessing there, but it’s definitely caught on. Maybe that’s what you heard about.
Chaim Mattis Keller
Thanks, Chaim for responding. Answered my question.
Excellent!!
I knew I could count on you all to shed some light on this for me!
OldBroad: that’s exactly where I saw it!
thank you!