What's in a Name?

Haim Cohn, a justice of Israel's Supreme Court, last March married twice-divorced, once-widowed Michal Smoira --and thereby, say Orthodox rabbis, seriously violated Jewish religious law. Cohn transgressed not because he is a Jew, or because he is a judge, but simply because of his name. To be a Cohn--or a Cohen, Kohn, Kahn, Coen, Cahn, Kahane, Kagan or even Katz--is to be a descendant of Moses' brother Aaron and his sons, who were the first hereditary kohanim (priests) of Israel. The honor entails for Orthodox Jews a long and specific set of responsibilities.

The obligation that allegedly applies to Justice Cohn is God's commandment to Moses in Leviticus 21:7, which prohibits kohanim from marrying divorcees, harlots, or women who have been violated. Orthodox rabbis refuse to marry any known kohanim to divorcees, and they charge that Justice Cohn circumvented the ban by getting married in Manhattan. Since Israel recognizes marriages validly contracted in other countries, his marriage is legal as far as the state is concerned; but the rabbis claim that Cohn is living in sin, and are putting pressure on Israel's powerful National Religious Party to force his resignation. Cohn intends to keep his post, and Justice Minister Yaakov Shapiro supports him. "The observance of the precepts of the Torah is a private matter between a man and his God," he says, reflecting the state's secular view but merely angering the Orthodox rabbis that much more.

Jewish religious law lists many other detailed restrictions on kohanim. A hereditary priest may not be in the presence of a corpse, may only attend the funerals of his wife or close blood relatives. Kohanim were expected to be the most perfect of men, and could be disqualified from ministering in the temple for any of 150 physical blemishes, such as a crooked foot or a nose longer than the smallest finger.

Over the years, many Jews from Eastern Europe have arbitrarily changed their name to Cohen even though they have no claim to priestly descent. As a result, rabbis are perplexed as to how to distinguish true kohanim from impostors--a particularly touchy problem if the Jerusalem Temple is ever rebuilt and priests are once again summoned to their hereditary ministry there. "Only the Messiah will be able to tell," says one Jerusalem rabbi.

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