SHABBAT READING
How All Kohanim Became Sons of Aaron: Prof. Mark Leuchter, The Torah.com, May 30, 2019 — The Torah lays out clearly the origins of the priesthood.[1] As part of YHWH’s command to build a Tabernacle, he informs Moses that his brother Aaron and his sons are to become Israel’s kohanim,[2] their priestly leaders:
שמות כח:א וְאַתָּה הַקְרֵב אֵלֶיךָ אֶת אַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ וְאֶת בָּנָיו אִתּוֹ מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְכַהֲנוֹ לִי…
Exod 28:1 You shall bring forward your brother Aaron, with his sons, from among the Israelites, to serve Me as priests…
In Leviticus, Aaron and his sons are installed as priests in an elaborate ordination (מִלּוּאִים) ceremony conducted by Moses, after which their position as the official priesthood is established in perpetuity. Although Aaronide priests are only referenced sporadically in other parts of the Bible, the assumption in Second Temple period works is that kohen “priest” is coterminous with Aaronide. For example, the book of Nehemiah refers to priests as “descendent of Aaron”:
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Genome-wide Data from Medieval German Jews Show that the Ashkenazi Founder Event Pre-Dated the 14th Century: Shamam Waldman, Daniel Backenrother, Karin Sczech, et al, Cell, Nov. 30, 2022 — We report genome-wide data from 33 Ashkenazi Jews (AJ), dated to the 14th century, obtained following a salvage excavation at the medieval Jewish cemetery of Erfurt, Germany.
Frequently asked questions: Shai Carmi, Dec. 2, 2022 — What is known about Ashkenazi Jewish history? Ashkenazi Jews formed as a distinct cultural unit in the Rhineland (Western Germany) around the 10th century.
In First, Archaeologists Extract DNA of Ancient Israelites: Ariel David, Haaretz, Oct. 9, 2023
Meeting the Ancestors: Andrew Curry, Science, Nov. 30, 2022
DNA and the Origin of the Jews: Prof. Steven Weitzman, The Torah.com, Oct. 1, 2017
Deep in Colorado, A Lost Valley of Jews: The Jewish Chronicle, Feb. 16, 2024
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
Judean Ethnicity: The DNA Evidence: Joshua Marks, The White Rose Magazine, Issue XVIII, 2024 — GENETICS has proven that modern Jewish populations carry their Israelite ancestors’ ancient Middle Eastern DNA. Jews’ unbroken patrilineal descent displays a continuous chain from the time of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Additionally, the DNA of the Jewish people dates even further back to the Canaanites of the southern Levant.
The Geography of Jewish Ethnogenesis: Aram Yardumian and Theodore G. Schurr, The University of Chicago Press Journals, Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 75, Number 2Summer 2019 — A reevaluation of the anthropological genetics literature on Jewish populations reveals them not simply to be a body of genetically related people descending from a small group of common ancestors, but rather a “mosaic” of peoples of diverse origins.
DNA Research Confirms Geographical Origin of Jews, Times of Malta, June 11, 2010 — New research has found Jews share a genetic bond with Cypriots and Druze and confirms the Jewish diaspora maintained a strong DNA continuity despite its long separation from the Middle East, according to scientists.
Origin of the Jews and the Arabs: Date of their Most Recent Common Ancestor is Written in their Y-Chromosomes – However, There Were Two of Them: Anatole Klyosov, ResearchGate, Feb. 2010 — A pattern of Y-chromosomal mutations in 37 and 67 marker haplotypes of the Jews and the Arabs indicates that their most recent common ancestor in haplogroup J1 (subclade J1e*) and that (a different one) in haplogroup J2 (subclade J2a*) lived 4300+/-500 years before present (ybp) and 4175+/-510 ybp, respectively, that is practically at the same time.
Do Jews Carry Trauma in Our Genes? A Conversation with Rachel Yehuda.: David Samuels, Tablet, Dec. 11, 2014 — The James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx is one of those out-of-the-way places where America warehouses the casualties of its wars.
