Why is it that Orthodox Jewish men with the last name "Cohen" cannot attend funerals?

A Jew who is a Cohen, a descendant of the priestly class, will only attend the funeral and burial of his immediate family as he is otherwise forbidden to come near a corpse. You may see a close friend or relative who is a Cohen remain outside the funeral parlor or cemetery because of this law. At the cemetery, another custom in traditional funerals is to stop seven times – as the coffin is carried to the grave--to recite Psalm 91. Once the coffin is lowered into the grave, family and close friends cover the coffin with a few handfuls of dirt. The rabbi then repeats Psalm 91 and El Maleh Rachamim.

The Cohen are descended from Aaron- they are the High Priests.

Some Cohens do go to funerals. Since there is no temple, it's a moot point whether or not they are ritually clean. But to be clean, they would need the ashes from the red heifer.

And the spelling does vary- even Kahn is a lot of times a kohanan.

As an orthodox Jew I will tell you Redunicon hit the nail on the head. All paternal (from father to son) descendants of Aaron are members of the Priestly Class of Israel. As such they must take greater care to keep themselves ritually pure the biggest way to become impure is contact with a dead body. In Israel they even have special lights in sections of hospitals that if someone should die it inform all Cohen’s to leave the area. This goes for funerals as well there are only seven exceptions when a Cohen is REQUIRED to go to a funeral. Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Son, Daughter, and husband/wife.

I second Gratvol's explanation.

And as other's have said, it's not just people with the last name Cohen, but anyone who is a kohen, whatever their last name is. It can be Cohen, Kahanowitz, or Rappaport.

Death defiles in Judaism. Different people have different roles, and kohanim have different rules.

They don't mean people named Cohen. They mean kohan. The link below explains somewhat. It's kind of a long story to write here, so I suggest reading the article at Young Israel Org about instances where this occurred.

I THINK it is because the lineage of Cohen traces back to Levi which was the priestly line of Yacob. There may be some law regarding this line and being near the dead.

Wow, admiralbob77, how close we got to each other! :)

The newspapers are purely making a huge deal out of not something. each physique honors someones loss of life their very own way. there is not any set of regulations that would desire to be observed while somebody dies to rightfully honor them. i think of the yankees and Jeter have carried out a lot to honor Shep because his loss of life and could proceed to all season. I dont think of it became required for everyone to attend Sheppards funeral mass till they had to. additionally, in step with danger it became a request of the relatives to maintain gamers faraway from the mass because it might create a circus like ecosystem with ppl attempting to get autographs and such. Jeter and different Yankees have in all likelihood met with the Sheppard relatives in a non public placing to honor his passing. no would desire to do it in public.

Cohen Funeral

Because in theory they are Levites, the priestly tribe whose members alone fulfill the role of Aaron, and in the Bible, priests are not to be near dead bodies.

You spell it cohen