Nadene Goldfoot
Aaron, brother of Moses, was the father of the most respected and intelligent of the Jewish people, yet they were not given land or home to call their own. Aaron and Moses belonged to the tribe of Levi, who was the 3rd son of of Jacob and Leah. Levi was not the best son out of the 6 boys and 1 girl that they had, but a caused trouble when over-reacting to his sister's rapist.
Levi and his older brother, Simeon, the 2nd son, avenged the dishonoring of his sister, Dinah. She had been raped by Shechem, the prince of the region. Her 2 brothers annihilated the men of the town of Shechem (today's Nablus, an Arab town) (Gen.34). Dinah was abducted and raped near the city of Shechem, by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite (the Hivites were a Canaanitish people). Some of the Hivites lived in Northern Canaan, near Mt. Hermon (Josh.11:3). Hamor offered that Shechem and Dinah marry, but they could not accept that offer.
Some scholars believe that this indicated the beginning of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes. When Jacob found out what his sons had done, an act that occurred shortly after they had arrived in Shechem and were actually new immigrants there, he realized what a terrible position they were now in. Jacob had believed that at last he would find tranquility in Canaan, but his family had to experience this moral outrage on his own daughter from its beginning. They could not tolerate what others might consider commonplace such as a rape. On Jacob's deathbed, he forecast that Levi's descendants would be scattered throughout Israel.
Levi married Milkah, whose father was Aram, the Syrian, and they had Jochabed, a female, and Gershon, Kohath, and Merari,
Jochabed married Amram (son of Kohath), her nephew , and they were the parents of Mirium, Aaron and Moses.
Aaron married Elisheba, and their children were Nadab and Abihu, who when were young Cohens, ascended Mt. Sinai to behold the Divine revelation (Exod.24:1-11) but later sacrificed strange fire on the altar, and, in punishment, were mortally struck by fire from before the Lord. (Lev. 10:1-3). Other children of Aaron were Eleazar who followed his father in being the Cohen Gadol, and Ithamar.
Aaron's line would provide the people following Moses a High Priest, a Kohen gadol. The principle function of the High Priest was the performance of the service in the Temple. The process, described in the book of Leviticus, requires the High Priest to bathe himself and dress in special linen garments to attain atonement for the people of Israel. Yom Kippur was also the one day of the year when the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, the Temple’s innermost sanctum, where he sprinkled the blood of sacrificial animals.
Eleazar was the 3rd son and successor of Aaron. the high priests of the house of Zadok were descended from Eleazar. The age a Levite entered the priesthood was 30 years of age. The high priest was the presiding officer of the Sanhedrin. In the post-Maccabean period the high priest was looked upon as exercising in all things, political, legal, and sacerdotal, the supreme authority, shows it to be almost certain that the presidency of the Sanhedrin was vested in the high priest.
Ithamar was a priest or Cohen. together with his brother, Eleazar, he succeeded his father, Aaron in the priestly office.
Abiathar was the son of Abimelech, the high priest at Nob. Abimelech descended from Aaron's son, Ithamar and the High Priest of Israel who was Eli.
There was also an Abimelech who was the illegitimate son of Gideon,of the tribe of Manasseh, and a judge of Israel for 40 years. Gideon had defeated the Midianites near Ein Harod using a group of picked volunteers, and then was offered the kingship, but refused out of loyalty to the principle that G-d is king of Israel.
In an attempt to establish a monarchy in Israel in the 12th century BCE, Abimelech killed all of his 70 brothers except Jotham, his youngest brother. He ruled for 3 years in Shechem, largely with the support of the chiefs of that city, and was killed in the ensuing revolt. Jotham uttered a parable from Mt. Gerizim, rebuking the people of Shechem for electing Abimelech as king. He must have been named for the high priest but could not have been the high priest at Nob.
Eli was the High priest at the shrine of Shiloh and one of the last Judges in the 11th century BCE. He was mentor of Samuel, the prophet. He succeeded to the high priesthood at the age of 58 and died 40 years later as a result of falling from his chair on hearing of the Philistine capture of the Ark. His family was subsequently deprived of the high priesthood, the Bible ascribing this to the immoral conduct of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were priests at Shiloh. Their evil behavior and deaths came in battle at the hands of the Philistines (I Sam. 1-4).
Nob was a priestly city, probably situated near Jerusalem on Mt. Scopus. After the destruction of the tabernacle at Shiloh, the priests of the sons of Eli built a high-place in Northern Israel where they officiated. As a punishment for the assistance given to the fugitive David, Saul slew all the priests of the place.
Zadok son of Ahitub was a Levite priest during the time of King David. For a long time, he was co-high priest with Abiathar. Zadok was a descendant of Aaron and a leader over his family of Levites (1 Chronicles 27:17). After Saul's death, Zadok went to David at Hebron and together with Abiathar, was David's chief priest.
Abiathar was the only one of the priests to escape from Saul (reigned c. 1020–1000 BCE)'s massacre in Nob, when his father and the priests of Nob were slain on the command of Saul. He fled to David (reigned c. 1003–970 BCE) at Keilah, taking with him the ephod and other priestly regalia. Rabbinical literature that linked the later extermination of the male descendants of David with the priests of Nob, also link the survival of David's descendant, Joash with that of Abiathar. On David's command, Abiathar anointed Solomon as king.
Solomon appointed Zadok's son a high priest in the Temple and from that time the high priesthood remained in the Zadokite family until the period of the Hasmonean rising. Even after their deposition from their high office, many aristocratic priestly families claimed kinship with this family. it is not known whether the sons of Zadok mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls have any connection with this family. Zadok was also the name of one of the Pharisees who with Judah the Galilean founded the Sect of Zealots in 6 CE.
After the conquest of Canaan, the Levites were expected to teach the Torah to the people, being therefore excluded from any territorial inheritance but receiving 48 towns and surrounding lands throughout the country, as well as the tithe of the agricultural produce. This arrangement worked somewhat differently in practice. Certain towns assigned to the Levites were only captured a long time after the conquest, or not at all, and there is no evidence to show how effective was the collection of tithes. As a result, some of the Levites served at High Places, especially in the Northern Kingdom after King Jeroboam (930-910 BCE) had instituted independent worship. Jeroboam's capital of the north was Shechem, and this was after Solomon had died and Israel broke apart into Israel and Judah. To combat the influence of the Jerusalem Temple, he set up new shrines at Bethel and Dan with a similar cult but centering around the symbols of golden calves. The bible and Talmudic sources are violently hostile to Jeroboam I who "sinned and caused Israel to sin."
High Priest -Kohen Gadol
As it came to be, Aaron's direct descendants were to be the Cohens or Priests of the 12 tribes. The Cohen was the chosen holy instrument to mediate between man and G-d. Originally every Israelite family head was consecrated to serve as the priest with the 1st-born son who was regarded as the inheritor of his father's house and was in a position of considerable power.
This arrangement was maintained until after the Exodus when the 1st-born became suspect as a result of the Golden Calf incident, and then with such a disappointment, including Aaron's situation of not being able to stop the people from such a deviation of what Moses was working hard to bring to an end, Moses changed the rules. The tribe of Levi was selected in their stead. They were chosen because of their loyalty of Aaron in trying to stop the Golden Calf incident.
Each family of Levi was assigned specific duties connected with the transport and assembly of the parts of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The family of Aaron was singled out for service within the Tabernacle and later the Temple after it was built as priests. 
Most of the Levites were thereafter employed in work connected with the Tabernacle, but the family of Aaron became the actual Cohen responsible for special duties; the sacrifices, the supervision of hygienic purity (kashrut) and instructing the people in the Mosaic Law. One priest out of all was chosen as the High Priest-Kohen Gadol, who was also charged with Divination through the Urim and Thummim.
Divination came in many forms throughout the Middle East. The Urim and Thummim were sacred means of divination used by the early Hebrews. Their nature has not been exactly determined, but they were attached to the breastplate of the high priest. The divination apparently involved the use of 2 stones or tablets which, according to ancient Hebrew belief, could answer questions, on occasions fateful for the nation or its rulers. After the time of David, with the growth of prophetic influence, their usage is not mentioned.
To prevent the Cohen acquiring political domination (a normal phenomenon among neighboring peoples like Egypt, for instance), the tribe of Levi was excluded from acquiring its own tract of territory,, and its livelihood came from the contribution of Tithes, while the Cohen received a tenth of the Levites' tithe and also a portion of the sacrifices offered.
The priesthood was hereditary and the Cohens were subject to strict laws regarding contamination by corpses and the choice of a wife. While worshiping, they wore a distinctive dress. Special cities were assigned to them in the territories of the various tribes. The Cohens lived in every tribe's territory with different people, living in their homes. These laws, laid down prior to the conquest of Canaan, evolved differently when the Israelites settled in their land. Moses died outside of Canaan, so Joshua had to take over his plans for the people.
The descendants of Aaron concentrated living around the Tabernacle, but local shrines were also established; either following a local revelation or to meet needs, and these were serviced by other Cohens, often Levites. David (I chron. 24) reorganized the priesthood and Levites about the future Temple in Jerusalem, arranging 24 watches of Cohens and corresponding watches of Levites, singers, and gatekeepers.
In his utopian Temple plan, Ezekiel replaced the non-Jewish Nethinim (Temple servants, originally conquered Canaanites who were said to have been allotted by David to the Levites for menial service in the Temple)with the Levites, but this scheme was never executed. When the Jews were exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE and 586 BCE, the Nethinim were included and also returned with them under Zerubbabel and Ezra, being given a special quarter of Jerusalem.
The Nethinim maintained their identity down to amoraic times. Traditionally, the Amoraic period is reckoned as seven or eight generations (depending on where one begins and ends). The last Amoraim are generally considered to be Ravina I and Rav Ashi, and Ravina II, nephew of Ravina I, who codified the Babylonian Talmud around 500 CE. In other words, the great sages of the Mishnah and Talmud.
In 2nd Temple times, the Cohens outnumbered the Levites, and apparently shared their tithe. In halakhah, the Levite is regarded as 2nd to the Cohen, as at the Reading of the Law, and has the privilege of having the Cohen's hands before the latter blesses the people.
Today the Cohens or priestly line still exist, with many of the responsibilities. Their position is told to their sons, and their DNA show up as J1 and J2. They were also in the Sanhedrin. There are families who can trace their lines back to RASHI (1040-1105) who had a tree going back to King David. Rashi was an only child born at Troyes, Champagne, in northern France. His mother's brother was Simeon bar Isaac, rabbi of Mainz. Simon was a disciple of Gershom ben Judah, who died that same year. On his father's side, Rashi has been claimed to be a 33rd-generation descendant of Johanan HaSandlar, who was a fourth-generation descendant of Gamaliel, who was reputedly descended from the Davidic line.
Gamaliel was the name of 6 rabbis, one a descendant of Hillel of 1st century BCE who wrote the Golden rule, with the Elder who was president of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, grandson of Hillel, president of Sanhedrin after the death of Jonathan ben Zakkai.
The amazing thing is that Cohens in the synagogue, men who were told by their fathers that they were Cohens, have taken DNA tests and have found the J1 DNA, proving that they are Cohens.
I personally have 477 Cohens with this spelling at FTDNA directly connected to my father's line with DNA connections, and have a total of 928 Cohens matching me. One Cohen I know is a Hochfeld. There are Jews who chose other surnames but were Cohens like his family. My friend and distant cousin, Victor, has 1,309 Cohens matching his DNA. Cohens may be the line that has survived the best through the years.
The Cohen line is patrilineal -- passed from father to son without interruption for 3,300 years.
Cohens kept a practice up of headstones in cemeteries with the information of being a Cohen on it picturing hands. KOHANIM (COHANIM) HANDS - Hands with thumbs (and sometimes forefingers) joined. On Jewish tombstones you will sometimes see a symbol showing two hands arranged for the Priestly Blessing like the example here. This is a symbol of the Kohen or Cohen (Hebrew for priest). The plural form is Kohanim or Cohanim.
Some Jewish surnames frequently associated with this symbol are Conn or Cohn (Kohn), Cahn (Kahn), and Cohen (Kohen), but you will find the symbol on the grave markers of people with other surnames. Today families can sometimes verify a priestly lineage from the tombstones of ancestors that have this symbol.
Israel has had 2 head rabbis, one for the Ashkenazim and one for the Sephardim. The present Sephardi Chief Rabbi is Yitzhak Yosef, and the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi is David Lau, both of whom began their terms in 2013. The Rabbinate has jurisdiction over many aspects of Jewish life in Israel. Its jurisdiction includes personal status issues, such as Jewish marriages and Jewish divorce, as well as Jewish burials, conversion to Judaism, kosher laws and kosher certification, Jewish immigrants to Israel (olim), supervision of Jewish holy sites, working with various ritual baths (mikvaot) and yeshivas, and overseeing Rabbinical courts in Israel.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Priests_of_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimelech
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Priest_of_Israel
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/high-priest/
https://www.aish.com/ci/sam/48936742.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Rabbinate_of_Israel#:~:text=The%20present%20Sephardi%20Chief%20Rabbi,of%20Jewish%20life%20in%20Israel.
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