page_title: Kohen
section_title: Priestly blessing
hierarchical_section_title: Kohen / Modern application / Priestly blessing
caption_attribution_description: birkhat cohanim at the w:Western Wall during Passover 2004.
context_page_description: Kohen or cohen is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronides. Levitical priests or kohanim are traditionally believed and halakhically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron, brother of Moses.
  During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, kohanim performed the daily and holiday duties of sacrificial offerings. Today, kohanim retain a lesser though distinct status within Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism, and are bound by additional restrictions according to Orthodox Judaism.
  In the Samaritan community, the kohanim have remained the primary religious leaders. Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders are sometimes called kahen, a form of the same word, but the position is not hereditary and their duties are more like those of rabbis than kohanim in most Jewish communities.
context_section_description: The kohanim participating in an Orthodox and some other styles of traditional Jewish prayer service also deliver the priestly blessing, during the repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei. They perform this service by standing and facing the crowd in the front of the congregation, with their arms held outwards and their hands and fingers in a specific formation, with a Jewish prayer shawl or Talit covering their heads and outstretched hands so that their fingers cannot be seen. Kohanim living in Israel and many Sephardic Jews living in areas outside Israel deliver the priestly blessing daily; Ashkenazi Jews living outside Israel deliver it only on Jewish holidays.
caption: Large crowds congregate on Passover at the Western Wall to receive the priestly blessing.
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