Ask the Rabbi

Rabbi Schochet has a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies from University College London. He authors numerous articles for newspapers, magazines and journals, and lectures extensively across the country and abroad. He served as Diary Rabbi to the Guardian Newspaper and has featured in The London Times as well as Time Magazine International. Rabbi Schochet can often be seen on television including BBC as a regular panellist for The Big Questions as well as CNN.

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Dear Rabbi
Please explain the importance of reciting the kaddish every day. My father passed away three weeks ago and I am not sure I understand the need to do this every day for an entire year.
Robert
Dear Robert
If you understand why you need to do it for even one day – or even at the grounds for that matter – then you’ll understand why it’s important for the whole year.
The ancient Sages explained that it is only in our corporeal world that we can perform good deeds. Once our ship has sailed, there are no more opportunities. So, if you don’t lead an observant life, does this mean you’ve missed the boat? Certainly not, explain the mystics. Those in this world closely connected to the dearly departed can still accrue merit on their behalf. Every time you do something meaningful or engage in study in their memory, you add merit to their soul.
Kabbalah explains that in reciting the Kaddish prayer, “one helps to limit negative judgement against a soul and, furthermore, enables the soul to ascend to a higher, deeper place in the upper realms”.
To be sure, there is also an implicit benefit to you, as the mourner. The process of exalting and sanctifying the Name of God is a healing process.
Reciting alongside other mourners helps create fellowship, where each person helps the others mitigate feelings of loneliness or hopelessness. A small community of healing is created.
I’m sorry for your loss. In light of the above I trust you will make every effort to bring honour to your father and merit to his soul.

Dear Rabbi
Is there such a thing as a stupid question? And, if so, is this one?
Leanne
Yes. And yes. Next!

Dear Rabbi
I believe my family were once Cohens. Can I be one even if my surname is not “Cohen”?
Joel
Dear Joel
Do I have to be in the meat business just because my surname is Schochet? If you want to determine whether you are a Cohen, get in contact with the United Synagogue or a genealogy department. They should be able to trace your roots.
What you need to remember is that, while membership among the Jewish community has always been determined maternally, tribal identity, which would include Cohen status, is patrilineal – tracing roots back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, from the Levite tribe.
In recent years it’s been claimed DNA testing can aid tracing lineage. It’s even been suggested that there is a DNA makeup unique to the Cohen.
Professor Karl Skorecki did a study where the ‘Y’ chromosomes of Cohanim appeared to share a different probability distribution compared to the rest of the Jewish population for the two ‘Y’-chromosome markers they tested.
They also found that the probabilities appeared to be shared by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Cohanim, pointing to a common Cohen population origin before the Jewish Diaspora under the Roman Empire.
It later proved inconclusive and, in any event, we don’t typically rely on DNA evidence to establish information in Jewish law. We like 100 percent proof. DNA is still only 99.99 percent. Not good enough!
Dear Rabbi
I recently had a debate in the pub with a friend about why people become rabbis. Is it due to a strong spiritual calling or do some just see it as a good career move?
Reese
Dear Reese
A really good career move? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what kind of bad-mouthing, back-stabbing, gripes, grumbles and grudges we have to deal with?! And that’s just from the people who show it. (We’re very aware of the many that do so behind our backs as well, but when they smile we just smile back!).
So, a good career move it is not. But whether it is a “calling” is also debatable. For many, it is very much a profession – albeit a spiritual one that they enjoy, as they like to make a difference to others – and why not get paid for it in the process?
There may be those for whom it is an ambition, but only if they make it to Chief Rabbi (you know who you are).
For someone like myself, I can only sum it up in the same words I used when I attended my first interview at Mill Hill Synagogue 18 years ago. Being aware of the paranoia (prejudice?) in the United Synagogue toward Chabad rabbis, I explained: “Chabad is essentially founded on one primary
principle: the love of all Jews irrespective of background or affiliation.
For many others, the Rabbinate is a profession. For me, as a Chabad rabbi, it is a passion – a way of life.”
But here’s a question of my own: do you have nothing better to talk about in the pub? Or were Arsenal losing again?

Dear Rabbi
I’ve been told to check my garments for “shatnez” but have no idea what this means. Can you help?
Ryan
Dear Ryan
Shatnez is a rare disease that can infect clothing with devastating affect.
It seeps through the garment and makes contact with your skin. Actually, it is simply a mixture of wool and linen which is proscribed by the Torah to be contained together in any one garment. The consequences, though, can be the same.
There are special centres that are able to properly and non-intrusively check for the mixture. Did you know that the prohibition of shatnez is so severe that if, while walking in the street, you suddenly realise you’re wearing shatnez, you have to immediately remove the garments? “But officer, my rabbi told me I had to strip off right here, right now!”