This past Shabbat, we read Parshah Sh'mot, or "names." The name (there you are!) of the parshah comes from the list of names of our ancestors who settled in Egypt after Joseph achieved his position of prominence there. A lot of the commentary on the parshah that whizzed through my email this week had to do with the significance of names; one from the URJ discussed the significance of the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue."
Each of us has a name that ties us to our ancestors; we are called to the Torah by our own (Hebrew) name and the names of our parents (or just the name of our father for those who follow more traditional practices), which indicates that we are links in the chain of the generations of Judaism. Some of us have names that tie us all the way back to the Jews of Egypt. We might be Levi'im, members of the tribe of Levi, or Cohanim, descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. As it happens, I'm a Levi, and it means something to me that my ancestors kept track of their tribal identity for so many generations, and gave it to me as a gift to pass on. The tribal designation is passed through the paternal line, and women are thus not typically considered as Cohanim or Levi'im.
In our congregation, the first aliyah to the Torah always goes to a Cohen and the second always goes to a Levi, in accordance with age-old tradition. Not every shul, and not even every Conservative shul, follows this practice. We didn't do it in the shul I grew up in, and thus it is a little new to me here. (It does have the benefit that I get an aliyah on many weeks, as we don't have too many Levi'im in the congregation!)
One of my biggest jobs as ritual chair of Tifereth Israel is to hand out all of the honors during High Holiday services. There are about a hundred honors that need to be distributed to our congregants. It's a big puzzle to solve every August and September (Av and Elul, really), with a lot of moving parts. One place where I don't have a lot of flexibility is in the assignment of the Cohen and Levi aliyot; there are only a few people qualified to take them.
Now, I'm always looking for an extra move. How can I give those honors to a larger pool of people? We could choose to not restrict the first two aliyot to Cohanim and Levi'im; it is considered halachially acceptable by the Conservative movement. But there is another option that I like even more -- we could allow the daughters of men who are Cohanim and Levi'im to be recognized as members of those groups. This too has been deemed halachially acceptable by the movement. From a practical standpoint, it probably doubles the pool of people who could have these honors. From a social standpoint, it allows us to be more egalitarian. And from the standpoint of our identity as Jews, wouldn't it be nice to allow more people (such as my daughter) to embrace their heritage and connect them with their ancestors who served God in the Temple? I think especially of some of our older members, many of whom were not allowed to be on the bimah for most of their lives. Now we can also give them the opportunity to be full members of our Jewish family.
Actually, Ken, when Rabbi Seidel was our Rabbi we did include women in the category of Kohanim/Leviim...I used to be called to the Torah as a Levi because my father was a Levi and my mother used to be called to the Torah as a Kohen because her father was a Kohen. The only thing that might make difficult, is that traditionally Kohanim are not to go into a cemetery which was a problem for my mother who did go into the cemetery to attend funerals. We should definitely talk about this option, however, because I still like the idea of maintaining the two aliyot for Kohanim/Leviim, but we might have to use the term BAT KOHEN, BAT LEVI since women were never called kohanim or leviim....let's think about it more and talk with those who really are indeed thinking about this issue.
ReplyDeleteWould this option apply only to females whose father is Kohen/Levi? Would it extend farther back? For instance, my grandmother's father was a Kohen. Would that make her Bat Kohen? Would that make me Bat Kohen?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. The way it worked in the past was that the kohen/levi lines passed from father to child. My grandfather was a kohen on my mother's side which made my mother a bat kohen but my father's father was a levi which made him a levi which then made me a bat levi not a bat kohen. A bit complicated, huh?
ReplyDeleteAnother thought...if more individuals are available to take the first two aliyot...then there are less individuals available to take the last 5 aliyot. Who ever takes cohen or levi cannot take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. Will that negatively impact the #s available on any given Shabbat for those aliyot? Something about which to think.
ReplyDeleteSo the congregation followed the practice of recognizing Bat Kohen/Bat Levi for Kohen and Levi aliyot for some years and then stopped following it? Interesting!
ReplyDeleteDid the Rabbi who followed Rabbi Seidel object? Or did the B'not Kohen v'Levi lack the interest? Or were the male Kohanim and Levi'im offended? Or did it just fall by the wayside for no particular reason?
The Rabbis who followed did not recognize that practice. Some of the older women who participated in that fashion, moved out of town, the rest of us yielded to the concept of "mara d' atra."
ReplyDeleteCan kohen and levi take 2-7 if they did not take 1 & 2? Or is it only 1 kohen and 1 levi per service?
ReplyDelete