[Avodah] Chezkas Kehunah

[jew at when.com]

On Tue, Feb 09, 2010 at 05:29:37PM +0000, Allan Engel wrote:
: If today's Kohanim would be considered "safeik kohanim", would they be
: obliged to do a Pidyon Haben on their firstborns, mita'am sofeik d'orayso,
: or would it be a sfek sfeika?

But they aren't. There is a chazaqah in place."


I just spoke spoke to a Rabbi that takes all halachic questions over the
phone professionally. We pretty much had the following conversation....

"Hi Rabbi, I am a kohen. my wife recently
told me (and a friend corroborated this) that she had relations once
with a non-Jew in college. We have been married for 2 years and she
told me this as soon as we both found out that such a woman is
prohibited from marrying a kohen according to orthodox Jewish law (I told him that I
thought a kohen should not marry such a woman because it wasn't the
right thing to do and was not very observant at the time- though I never
would have thought it could invalidate our children from being considered
kohanim). She had dated this non-Jew for a short time. He
asked me about my parents. I told him that my mom grew up modern
orthodox. He asked me if she dormed in a college and I told him she
did. The Rabbi said that there was a good chance that she too had
relations with a non-Jew once, and also that there was a good chance
that my father's mother (being a holocaust survivor I suppose) also had relations
with a non-Jew once prior to meeting my father. 


The Rabbi said because of this, I can be a chalal (he used those exactwords; chalal)- theproduct of a union between a kohen a someone prohibited to him. He thenasked me if the penetration my wife had with this non-Jew was painful.I said I wasn't sure, she didn't say. He said that if she truly hadrelations with him the penetration would have been painful, therefor,there is a doubt whether she is "someone who is forbidden to akohen". Last but not least,he told me that since there are two doubts, I can remain married to mywife (because of sfek sfeka deoreita lekula). Heassured me that I can still go up for the first alliya, duchen, andeverything- and that our children will be able to also. (I was half expecting him, at the end of the conversation, to tell me to "quack like a rooster" while duchening; B''H, he didn't ). 

--Now, we said that the reason we have to honor kohanim is because theyare not safek kohanim, but rather, that they have a chazaka. If theywere safek kohanim, being that safek derobanan lekula, we would nothave to honor them according to the Rema and Tosfot. However, becausethey have this chazaka, we do have to honor them. How do we know thatthey have this chazakah? Because if they duchen, being that ducheningis a deoreita, if they were safek kohanim, they would not be permittedto duchen, because safek deorieta lechumra (in the sense of not doing).But this Rabbi just said that I, a real kohen deoreita with a chazaka,can remain married to my wife who most certainly had relations with anon-Jew because I might be a chalal. 
So you see, 

1) When it comes to kavod; they have a chazaka. 
2) When it comes divorce; they do not have a chazakah. 

This Rabbi used the same exact logic as I did, when itsuited the kohen. There seems to be a double standard: every non-kohen(who is not a Rabbi (talmud chacham takes precedence)) has to treatkohanim with the kavod as if they have chazaka- even if it makes theirlife difficult. While kohanim can treat themselves as if they do nothave a chazaka- when it makes their life difficult.

-I have heard there is a family that have documentation proving they are kohanim- I would run to treat them as vadai kohanim! 

-Josh S. 


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