Special Facts About Cohens or High Priests of Tribe of Levi and the J1 Haplotype

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

   Moses (1391-1271 BCE) had a stuttering problem so brother Aaron spoke for him.  Here they are proving to the Pharaoh that their G-d was more powerful than the Pharaoh's through the power of their snakes.   Aaron was 4 years older than Moses.  They also had a sister, Miriam, the oldest of the 3 siblings.   This took place about 3,332 years ago which is about 133 generations. 

                                                                      

There was one High Priest out of all the priests.  They all wore the regular priestly garments, the breeches, tunic, girdle, and miter.  The High Priest wore a robe, an ephod, breastplate, and frontlet.  Attached to the breastplate was the Divine oracle-the Urim and Thummim consisting of 4 rows of 3 precious stones on which were inscribed the names of the tribes.  These garments were worn when the high priest conducted the service, which occurred whenever he chose.  He donned white linen on THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (Yom Kippur) when he entered the HOLY OF HOLIES -a special part of the Temple, to burn incense.  

                                                               

The tribe of Levi is the tribe that Moses and his brother, Aaron came from.  Aaron had all the descendants who were the high priests in the Temple and that meant that they were the chief officials.  Aaron's line held this position until the time of King Herod (73 BCE-4CE). when it became dependent on the will of the Jewish rulers and the Roman procurators (governors).    

Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron.  In reward for zealous action against Zimri, he and his descendants were promised the priesthood (Num 25) and the Zadokites traced their ancestry to him.  He received a holding on Mt. Ephraim and was still officiating at the time of the campaign of the tribes against Benjamin (Judg. 20-28).                                              

Jews in Judea started the war with Rome in 66 CE, the High Priest position was filled by lot.   Phinchas ben Samuel was the last high priest .PHINEHAS BEN SAMUEL (known also as "the man of Kefar Habta"; first century C.E.), high priest before the destruction of the Temple, 67–70 C.E. Phinehas was appointed to his office by the casting of lots. Until then the appointment was made only from among the families of distinguished birth. However, within the framework of the democratic reforms introduced by the Zealots, the selection of the high priest was made by casting lots in order to abolish the rule of these families (in this they relied on the ancient tradition in I Chron. 24:5). The lot fell on Phinehas who belonged to the watch of Jachin. Josephus censures him and says that "he scarcely knew what the high priesthood meant," for he was a farmer who tilled the earth (Wars, 4:155). This statement is to be treated with caution, however. In talmudic sources Phinehas is mentioned as a son-in-law of the house of the nasi (Tosef. Yoma l:6), and the view that he was not learned in the affairs of the priesthood cannot be accepted (Klausner). This act of the Zealots gave rise to great bitterness and was the cause of civil war between them and the other parties among the people.

During the 1st Temple Period of Solomon (961-920 BCE to 586 BCE) of about 375 years, there were traditionally 18 high priests, while from about 60 high priests served in the 2nd Temple Times 538 BCE-70 CE) a period of about 608 years.                                                              

The high priest was only permitted to marry a virgin.  He was forbidden to become defiled by proximity to a corpse and this carries out today by Cohens having regulations about entering a cemetery.  When they die, they usually have the Cohen symbol on their gravestone.  They have certain rules about mourning the dead.  

Jews are divided into 3 groups for synagogue functioning;  Cohens, Levites and Israel.  Cohens are the first to read from the Torah, Levites 2nd, and Israel after that.  Cohens and Levites also have other responsibilities as well.                                                                                                           

  Dan Eskow, my husband, was a Levite.  His mother's father was a Cohen.   This is our going-away party leaving the USA for Israel.  We were both teachers.  

What people didn't know then was that each man carries a Y haplogroup in their DNA and that that the tribe of Levi carried a haplotype scientists have labeled as J1.  This has been called the COHEN gene.  No doubt Jewish men today carry this handed down from Aaron.  A 5th cousin of mine, Herb Hochfeld, who  happened to be J1 which was upgraded to J-M267.  All his life he had known that he was a Cohen, the group in the synagogue who reads from the Torah first, among other expectations.  Finding this out was icing on the cake for him; proof of who he was and the oral tradition handed down through all these centuries.                                                                                                

                 Rabbi Chaim David Hochfeld (1829-1904) born in Belaya Tzerkaw, Ukraine,                                      Bessarabia, Russia and died in Portland, Oregon, grandfather of my 1st cousin's mother, my Aunt Helen,  and great grandfather of my 5th cousin, Herb.  No wonder that Aunt Helen read Hebrew so well.                                                  

 Before he was born, he had a grandfather who was a rabbi in the Portland area. What was exciting for me was that a 1st cousin of mine's mother happened to also be a Hochfeld and was directly related to Herb.                           

                                                  

   The 2 hands on the stone signify that this is a Cohen.  This happens to be the stone for Rabbi Chaim David Hochfeld. 

From surveys of markers in Jewish cemeteries, about 5% of Jewish men have historically been Cohanim. Genetic research indicates that many Jewish men who self-identify as Cohanim belong to the Y-chromosome DNA lineage that is most common in the Cohanim. That is, they belong to the Cohanim Modal Haplotype (CMH). Further, in a study conducted in Israel where men were asked at random if they were Cohanim, Levite, or Israel, of those answering Israel, about 3% when tested were part of the Cohanim Modal Haplotype lineage.

The original scientific research was based on the hypothesis that a majority of present-day Jewish Kohanim share a pattern of values for six Y-STR markers, which researchers named the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). Subsequent research using twelve Y-STR markers indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim shared Y-chromosomal J1 M267, (specifically haplogroup J-P58, also called J1c3), while other Kohanim share a different ancestry, such as haplogroup J2a (J-M410) .

"The Kohen hypothesis was first tested through DNA analysis in 1997 by Prof. Karl Skorecki and collaborators from Haifa, Israel. In their study, "Y chromosomes of Jewish priests," published in the journal Nature, they found that the Kohanim appeared to share a different probability distribution compared to the rest of the Jewish population for the two Y-chromosome markers they tested (YAP and DYS19). They also found that the probabilities appeared to be shared by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Kohens, pointing to a common Kohen population origin before the Jewish diaspora at the destruction of the Second Temple. However, this study also indicated that only 48% of Ashkenazi Kohens and 58% of Sephardic Kohens have the J1 Cohen Modal Haplotype". I consider the many anti-Semitic acts in Europe as an example of why we have a lower amount that made it from the Ashkenazi side to today as reason enough from the Crusades to the Holocaust.  

"Thomas, et al. dated the origin of the shared DNA to approximately 3,000 years ago (with variance arising from different generation lengths). The techniques used to find Y-chromosomal Aaron were first popularized in relation to the search for the patrilineal ancestor of all contemporary living humans, Y-chromosomal Adam.

Molecular phylogenetic research published in 2013 and 2016 for haplogroup J-M267 places the Y-chromosomal Aaron within subhaplogroup Z18271, age estimate 2638-3280 years Before Present (yBP)"

As the Cohen gene came from Aaron and Moses of the tribe of Levi, all 12 tribes were fathered by Jacob, and so we would expect that all Jews carry this same haplogroup, but that isn't the case.  My own father, through my brother, carries QBZ67. This has been found to originate in the area of Mongolia, Siberia and parts of Turkey. What happened?  Well, Turkey is easily explained as the Ottoman Empire had their supervisors in Palestine for 400 years. Intermarriage can happen, also rape, etc.  Who knows?  What's important is that Judaism was determined at first by the father, then later by the mother.  The religion carried on to this day.  

However, the J1 line is also carried by many of the Arabs.  I know of one personally who carried J1c3.  This goes back to prove our connection in which Abraham was also the father of Ishmael and that Jacob was father of Esau-Jacob's  twin, sons of Isaac. 

In genetic genealogy and human genetics, Y DNA haplogroup J-M267, also commonly known as haplogroup J1, is a subclade (branch) of Y-DNA haplogroup J-P209 (commonly known as haplogroup J) along with its sibling clade Y DNA haplogroup J-M172 (commonly known as haplogroup J2). (All these haplogroups have had other historical names.

Men from this lineage share a common paternal ancestor, which is demonstrated and defined by the presence of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation referred to as M267, which was announced in (Cinnioğlu 2004). This haplogroup is found today in significant frequencies in many areas in or near the Arabian Peninsula and Western Asia. Out of its native Asian Continent, it's found at very high frequencies in Sudan. It's also found at very high but lesser extent in parts of the Caucasus, Ethiopia and parts of North Africa and amongst most Levant peoples, incl. Jewish groups, especially those with Cohen surnames. It can also be found much less commonly, but still occasionally in significant amounts, in parts of southern Europe and as far east as Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.

What I am finding is that the whole world must have been divided into tribes in their beginnings.  England had tribes, and so did France and Germany whose names come down to us today.  Native Americans, who were called wrongly, Indians as they were not from India, were a tribal people when first discovered in the 1600s.  We can go back 4,000 years ago and we know the names of tribes found in ancient Israel because of the Torah (Old Testament).  

                                                       

             My Goldfoot family; My parents, Morrie and Millie and brother David 

     PM Benjamin Netanyahu, wife and 2 sons:  his family 

Tribes came from families, and a family is still so important.  Someday, people might be created artificially in a type of test tube, an artificial uterus, and that would be so sad for them.  They'd be missing out on family.  We still gather together with uncles, aunts and cousins.  We are family.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Priests_of_Israel

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J-M267

https://learn.familytreedna.com/jewish-dna-testing/percent-jews-carry-cohanim-modal-haplotype-cmh/ 

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/phinehas-ben-samuel

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/mice-artificial-wombs/106539/