[Avodah] birchat kohanim

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 06:14:45PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
: But Minchas Yitzchak says that the real reason is that our kohanim's yichus
: is uncertain, so every time they duchen they are risking an avera.

Which is? The worst they did was recite three pesuqim. I know many
fathers who are not kohanim who use these pesuqim when blessing their
children Fri night.

And if there is a safeiq, how can they make a birkhas hamitzvah --
safeiq berakhos lehaqeil?

(There are other cases where the safeiq ends up lehaqeil, eg not showing
kavod to a niftar who earns it but is short of parents or a rebbe muvhaq.)

I take it this means the MY would not give a terumah to pircheiq kohanim.
Unsurprising, for a Galizianer -- or any Ashkenazi, the people who
(in chu"l) have this minhag WRT duchaning as well.

: Therefore, just as a safek kohen only takes teruma once a year so as not to
: lose his status, so also our kohanim only duchen on those occasions when it
: would be obvious if they abstained, and people would talk.

But isn't this circular? We only don't mutter about the kohein abstaining
from duchaning on a weekday or Shabbos because we removed the norm of
doing so. So why did the minhag go to every Yom Tov and not just Yom
Kippur -- also once a year?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
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