Hands of the Kohanim

Kohanim, descendants of the Temple priests, still give the priestly blessing with hands spread, palms forward and fingers parted in pairs, a shape like the Hebrew letter shin. Carved on a stone, the hands say the dead man was a kohen.

Kohen status passes from father to son, like the status of the Levites, of whom the kohanim are a branch. The hands therefore also point to the man's father and his sons, which makes the symbol a useful check when tracing a male line.