ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Y-chromosomal Aaron

Alright kiddo, let me explain this to you. Y-chromosomal Aaron is a fancy name for tracing back a very long time ago in history to find out who the common ancestor of all Jewish men with the surname "Cohen" was.

You see, a long time ago, there was a man named Aaron who was chosen to be a high priest by God. And from him, there came a family line of priests called the "Cohens" or "Kohanim" in Hebrew.

Now, scientists can study the Y-chromosome, which is a part of DNA that only men have, to trace back the lineage of a certain group of people. This is like looking at a family tree that only shows the fathers and their sons.

By studying the Y-chromosome of many Jewish men with the surname Cohen, scientists can trace back their ancestry and find out who the common ancestor, or "father," was. And they believe that this common ancestor was none other than Aaron, the high priest from a long time ago.

So, Y-chromosomal Aaron is basically a scientific way of tracing back the family history of Jewish men with the Cohen surname to find out who their ancient ancestor was. Cool, huh?