The source of marriage restrictions placed on the kohen is found in vayikra;
וַיֹּאמֶר ה’ אֶל מֹשֶׁה אֱמֹר אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם .. אִשָּׁה זֹנָה וַחֲלָלָה לֹא יִקָּחוּ וְאִשָּׁה גְּרוּשָׁה מֵאִישָׁהּ לֹא יִקָּחוּ כִּי קָדֹשׁ הוּא לֵאלֹהָיו.
And Hashem spoke to Moshe; Speak to the kohanim the sons of Ahron, and say to them.. a woman (who is a) harlot, a challalah they shouldn’t take and a woman who is divorced from her husband they shouldn’t take since he is holy to his G-d.
The torah thus forbids three types of women to the kohen, the zonah (Harlot), the challalah and the divrocee.
Rabbinically speaking
Chazal add the convert and chalutzah to the three women the torah text lists on the premise that they are derivatives of the zonah and divorcee, respectively. This brings the total count to five.
The zonah mentioned in the torah has additional far-reaching implications understood by chazal and the rishonim, most notably that even non-consentual relations with another partner would render the eshet kohen forbidden to her kohen husband (although she is entitled to her ketubah should this occur).
It is this torah law that forbids a woman who had relations with the following from becoming the legal wife of a kohen – even if the relations where non-consensual;
- A challal
- A mamzer
- An idol-worshipper
- A slave
Although a kohen is permitted to marry a widow, he is forbidden from marrying the widow of a challal. Generally speaking, it is important for the kohen marrying a widow to ascertain that the said woman is not a bat-challal (or any other disqualifying factor prior to her becoming a widow), as she is thus forbidden to him.
Also, a kohen is forbidden to marry a woman who’s father is non-jewish or a convert – even if the mother is jewish.
Rabbi Elazar stated that any non-marital intercourse (even with a permitted-for-marriage jewish male) would defile a woman from ever marrying a kohen – yet the halachic consensus disagrees with his view.
All places, all times
As with all mitzvot that are an “obligation of the body” (מצוות שהן חובת הגוף) these marriages are forbidden to the kohen in all times and places.
A kohen in a prohibited relationship
It occurs that one becomes more aware of his kehuna status well in to adult life and now has to grapple with his situation; divorce his forbidden wife or just live with being demoted (temporarily) until ending his forbidden marriage.
10 Comments
I am now widowed after being married to a Jewish man for 36 years. Before marriiage I had been with a goy — would i be permitted to now marry a Kohane?
Based on the torah verse אשה זונה וחללה לא יקחו, Rabbinic law forbids the kohen from that type of marriage
Can I marry a widow who was divorced prior to the death of her husband?
Unfortunately not, as is written אשה גרושה מאישה לא יקחו
If a Jewish woman never had a kosher first marriage with Kiddushin/Adim then later divorced civilly without a kasher get and remarried another Jewish Kohen man (relations solely with these two Jewish men) are the children to 2nd husband Kohanim or chalalim?
Assuming her prior relationship/s where solely with (a) Jew/s, there is room to be lenient. But verify this with your local orthodox Rabbi.
Should a Kohen refrain from dating a girl from a Kohen family in the event that they might not be real Kohanim, in the sense that someone was a challallah along the way? Or are we not concerned about that type of doubt?
What if a woman had a child by a man married with another woman. Her child is a daughter and that daughter marries a kohane. Is that a problem?
Provided the father and mother of the daughter are both Jewish, what would the problem be?
Can a Cohen marry a Jewess or Bas Coheness who is in a slave status? For example, if a woman’s ancestors were crypto Jews/Cohenim, and she and her very Christian religious parents never knew, and she married civil secular clergy Christian marriage, was abused by Pastor husband, received a divorce and through a series of events left Christianity and all she knew for Judaism and tried to convert to Orthodox Judaism but then finds out she may actually be Jewish Cohen through her mother, if she discovers she is indeed Jewish Cohen, what please tell is her status? Her father has evidence his ancestors are Jews and his Cohen status can’t be proved yet. She is in a quandry as to her status. According to Moses-NOT RABBINICISM, is her status that of a Jewish Cohen slave woman taken captive? She has been forced into things not meant for her. What if she wishes to be a free woman and have full rights and status of Bas Coheness if and when she can prove it? What if she must wait to marry until she is completed with her Orthodox Jewish conversion all the while trying to crack the mystery of her Jewish and Cohen heritage and her biological clock is ticking? What is her status? Slave? A captive slave? What if she is in a legal guardianship and legal conservatorship because life as a single frum woman got so hard trying to convert Orthodox Jewish all alone with no support that her religious Christian family and younger brother took her to court and put this restraint on her? Now what if this same woman is still trying to convert Orthodox Jewish while in a legal gaurdianship and legal conservatorship and the powers that be say lies about her that her religious Christian family and the locals actually believe? This woman what if she wants to get married? What if this woman is saving herself for her husband whomever he may be because she believes in marriage? What is the status of this woman? A captive slave under the thumb of the judge of the court now and the legal gaurdians and legal conservators who actually happen to be Christians? What would Moses say? Is this a specialty case for the reorganized Nascent Sanhedrin? How would the Cohenim Priests rule on this? The Cohenim are the real government and the real religious leaders, not the Rabbinate. What if this is only a slice of the pie of horrendous circumstances that this woman has had to deal with in life? Please tell if this woman is a Jewish captive slave status according to Moses law. If she is a Jewish captive slave status according to Mosaic Law, then does Cohenim are they able to marry Jewish captive women? For example, what if a Jewish bas Cohen daughter was taken captive somehow or was born into and became a slave of the non-Jewish enemy? What if somehow a young Cohen priest was able to get back and take back this Jewish bas Cohen daughter from the non-Jewish enemy? Could this young Cohen priest marry this Jewish bas Cohen daughter who is a slave of the Non-Jewish enemy? What if this Jewish bas Cohen daughter has had no say in her birth place, her way of upbringing and is a captive slave of the Roman Diaspora due to crypto Jewish ancestors who were mum about their Judaism? What is the case for Jews and Cohenim by ethnicity who do not know they are ethnic Jews but decide to try to convert Orthodox Jewish and then in so doing discover they already may be Jews or Cohenim via crypto Jewish ancestors? How does this ruling apply for the status of their Jewishness ethnically? I understand there is a two-fold piece to being a Jew- Ethnicity and religion. They really go hand in hand. My questions are intense. I apologize. However, this is what is happening in the inter-temple pre-Moshiach end of exile days. Cases as complicated as this are not going to be unusual especially with the rise in anti-semitism. Please, if someone could answer what the status of this poor woman is, please let me know. Her case is not completed and she is in the thick of hardships and oppressions. She has no access to her money to take trips to travel the world to research her ancestral heritage in cemetaries, synagogues, or quaint towns in Europe or Asia.