SOME HISTORY AND BIOLOGY

Dear Family

Hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Mendel Kehaty on his upcoming birthday. If I have it correct your Sefira is Tiferes Shebehod. Just to let you know we have quite a few birthdays in Sefira and their main drift seems to be Chesed Netzach and Tiferes. So you fit in nicely with the Family Mendel and you bring in an added dimension! Enjoy the Shabbos farbreng and we wish you a happy and successful year.

In this weeks Parsha Emor, there are many Laws relating to KOHANIM, and I saw an interesting article about the Kohanim in 'The Coming Revolution' which I would like to share.

Historically, it is known that there was only one Kohen, after Bnei Yisrael left Egypt, and that was Aharon i.e. the brother of Moishe.

Moishe (and Aharon and the rest of their Family) were from the tribe of Levi and they (ie Moishe and rest of their Family) remained Levites. Only Aharon was granted the title of Kohen, and was actually the Kohen Gadol.

In the Divine decree of appointing Aharon the Kohein Gadol, it was stated that the Priesthood would be passed from father to son, and it would be Aharon and his descendants for all generations who would serve in the Temple as Kohanim.

The halacha is also, that if a daughter of a Kohen marries a non-Kohen, she loses her Priestly status, and also her sons are no longer called Kohanim.

The passing of Kehuna from father to son was obviously Spiritual in nature, but the article goes on to explain an astounding discovery, that this transmission is also visible in the physical realm.

A GENETIC Research Project was carried out by Prof Karl Skorecki at the Rambam Medical Centre in Haifa, to investigate this matter by looking at the Gene structure of Kohanim.

Many other researchers from all over the world participated over manyyears, and the results were published in 1997.

Without going into extensive detail, it is incredible to see how a Torah directive is also so encapsulated right within the physical genes.

The project collected data from Kohanim all over the world, and it was found that they carry a shared genetic marker on their DNA. I.e. 80% of Kohanim tested carried the same genetic trait, whereas only 20% of other Jews carried this trait, and only 5% of non-Jews.

Furthermore the most compelling finding of this research is that these shared characteristics are passed on only from father to son, and not from mother to son or daughter.

This is because the gene in question exists only in the mail Y chromosome which travels from father to son only.

The Research also managed to determine the number of generations that have passed since original father, and they decided that the average number of years per generation is 30.

They worked this out to be 106 generations, and if this is multiplied by 30, it equals 3180 years.

According to Jewish tradition Aharon lived approximately 3300 years ago.

I.e. a scientific calculation has determined dates and generations very much in line with Aharon's life according to Torah!!

If anyone is interested to get more Scientific details of the Project it was printed in 1997 in the journal Discovery, and in 1998 in Science News entitled 'Chromosomes of Jewish Priests.'

Wishing everyone a Good and Happy Shabbos.