Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!

Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.

Comments on How does a firstborn know to wash the kohen's hands?

Parent

How does a firstborn know to wash the kohen's hands?

+2
−0

Mishna B'rura 128:22 says that if no Levi is around to wash a kohen's hands for the latter's blessing, a firstborn-to-his-mother should do so. Although Kaf Hachayim :40 notes that he hasn't seen this done, I'm guessing some communities must have this custom. My question is how this works in practice. At musaf, no big deal: it's easy to see during the Torah reading (which precedes musaf) that there's no Levi. But in places that have the kohen's blessing at shacharis also, how does a firstborn know to go wash the kohen's hands?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

Wouldn't a gabbai keep track and announce? (2 comments)
Post
+4
−0

I have seen this a few times. Really quite simple. Just like the Gabbai will, unless he knows everyone, ask "Is there a Cohen?" or "Is there a Levi?" when it comes to Layning, he will do the same, if needed, for Duchening. Either "Is there a Cohen?" to find out if there will be any Duchening, or "Is there a Levi?" to wash the Cohen/Cohanim hands. And if the answer is "no" for "Is there a Levi?" then, unless he is himself a Bechor, ask "Is there a Bechor?"

I know at least one person who is a Bechor (and not a Levi) who jumped at the chance to do this Mitzvah when he had the rare opportunity to do so.

(And for those who are wondering, I am a sometimes Gabbai, but despite being a Katz, I am not a Cohen.)

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

1 comment thread

Interesting. I've never seen this done afair. But maybe I've never been in a minyan that had shachari... (3 comments)
Interesting. I've never seen this done afair. But maybe I've never been in a minyan that had shachari...
msh210‭ wrote over 2 years ago

Interesting. I've never seen this done afair. But maybe I've never been in a minyan that had shacharis duchening and didn't have anyone the gabay knew to be a Levi.

manassehkatz‭ wrote over 2 years ago

I have definitely seen this at Mussaf. IIRC, we had this at least once at a COVID-19-restricted-size Minyan, either Pesach or Shavuos of this year. At the time we also had "Baal Koreh gets all the Aliyahs", so no knowledge from Layning (unless Baal Koreh was a Cohen or Levi) of who was a Cohen or Levi in the Minyan. We tried to plan in advance for Cohanim to be spread out to the different Minyanim but Leviim were not as critical - because Bechor as backup.

Mithical‭ wrote over 2 years ago

Here in Israel it's definitely something I've seen before, including by my older brother. Especially when it's a small minyan and it's easy to tell who's there or not, it can be possible to identify at a glance if there's a Levi or not.