Priestly Blessing / Birkat Cohanim

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

What are the feelings and memories (if any) that the threefold Blessing evokes for you?

Making Memories

I love that scene in the original 1961 movie "Parent Trap" when Susan (played by Hayley Mills) hugs her grandfather, sniffing his collar, refusing to let go.

When her grandfather asks what she’s doing, she responds:

“I’m making a memory. Someday when I’m quite grown up I’ll remember my grandfather, and how he smelled of peppermint and pipe tobacco.”

The Magic

“I must only think of the Magic.” It all seemed most majestic and mysterious when they sat down in their circle. Ben Weatherstaff felt as if he had somehow been led into appearing at a prayer-meeting. Ordinarily he was very fixed in being what he called “agen’ prayer-meetin’s” but this being the Rajah’s affair he did not resent it and was indeed inclined to be gratified at being called upon to assist. Mistress Mary felt solemnly enraptured. Dickon held his rabbit in his arm, and perhaps he made some charmer’s signal no one heard, for when he sat down, cross-legged like the rest, the crow, the fox, the squirrels and the lamb slowly drew near and made part of the circle, settling each into a place of rest as if of their own desire.

“The ‘creatures’ have come,” said Colin gravely. “They want to help us.”

Colin really looked quite beautiful, Mary thought. He held his head high as if he felt like a sort of priest and his strange eyes had a wonderful look in them. The light shone on him through the tree canopy.

“Now we will begin,” he said. “Shall we sway backward and forward, Mary, as if we were dervishes?”

“I canna’ do no swayin’ back’ard and for’ard,” said Ben Weatherstaff. “I’ve got th’ rheumatics.”

“The Magic will take them away,” said Colin in a High Priest tone, “but we won’t sway until it has done it. We will only chant.”

“I canna’ do no chantin’” said Ben Weatherstaff a trifle testily. “They turned me out o’ th’ church choir th’ only time I ever tried it.”

No one smiled. They were all too much in earnest. Colin’s face was not even crossed by a shadow. He was thinking only of the Magic.

“Then I will chant,” he said. And he began, looking like a strange boy spirit. “The sun is shining—the sun is shining. That is the Magic. The flowers are growing—the roots are stirring. That is the Magic. Being alive is the Magic—being strong is the Magic. The Magic is in me—the Magic is in me. It is in me—it is in me. It’s in every one of us. It’s in Ben Weatherstaff’s back. Magic! Magic! Come and help!”

He said it a great many times—not a thousand times but quite a goodly number. Mary listened entranced. She felt as if it were at once queer and beautiful and she wanted him to go on and on. Ben Weatherstaff began to feel soothed into a sort of dream which was quite agreeable. The humming of the bees in the blossoms mingled with the chanting voice and drowsily melted into a doze. Dickon sat cross-legged with his rabbit asleep on his arm and a hand resting on the lamb’s back. Soot had pushed away a squirrel and huddled close to him on his shoulder, the gray film dropped over his eyes. At last Colin stopped.

“Now I am going to walk round the garden,” he announced.

from The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett CHAPTER 23 "Magic"

What questions do you have that arise from our text ?

Textual Analysis

There are in fact three separate blessings, which progress from

the blessing of physical protection, through the blessing of spiritual shelter, to the blessing of shalom – wholeness, completion or peace.

Accordingly, the three sections of the priestly benedictions illustrate an ascending order, starting with a blessing concerned with man’s material needs and then dealing with his spiritual wants, and finally reaching a climax combining both these factors together, crowning them with the blessing of peace. This ascending order and increasing surge of blessing is reflected in the language and rhythm.

Studies in Bemidbar, Nehama Leibowitz, p. 67

Part of the blessing’s power lies in the simplicity of its structure, which Bible scholar Jacob Milgrom describes as “a rising crescendo”: There are three words in the first line, five in the second, and seven in the third; fifteen consonants in the first line, twenty in the second, and twenty five in the third. The sense conveyed is of increasing, overflowing divine blessing.

The Blessing comes from God, not from the Cohanim - "not looking":

The verses that surround the priestly blessing (vv. 22, 27) raise important questions: Why does God dictate to the priests the exact formula they are to use in blessing the people? And why does God emphasize after dictating the words that "I myself will bless them"? The answer to both questions is the same: The Torah wants to underscore the fact that the priests are not the source of blessing. They are, rather, its conduits. "The blessing issues solely from [God]; the priests' function is to channel it." (Rabbi Shai Held)

It is customary for the people to refrain from looking at the kohanim (and vice versa) while reciting this blessing. The kohanim are accustomed to covering their faces and hands with a tallit during the blessing; many members of the congregation are accustomed to doing likewise, casting their eyes downwards and covering their own head and those of their children with their tallit. I was taught this is to emphasize the source of the blessing is not the Cohanim but God. Alternatively, there may be a suggestion of "danger" as expressed in the following source from the Talmud.

“Resh Lakish said: Whoever gazes at three things, his eyes grow dim: At the rainbow, and at the Nasi (i.e., the leader of Israel), and at the kohanim … [This refers to one] who looks at the kohanim at the time that the Temple was standing, when they stood upon the dukhan and blessed Israel with the Ineffable Name.” (Babylonian Talmud Chagiga 16a)

According to the Mishnah (Tamid 5:1) the words of the priestly blessings were part of the service during the time of the Second Temple. Rabbinic literature has an additional term for the priestly blessing: nesiyat kappayim "the raising of hands."

The Shekhinah is said to rest upon the hands of the priests during the blessing and so the custom not to look arose.

This in fact reflects an important theological point: namely, that the priests are not able to give blessing of their own accord. Rather, they serve as intermediaries, vessels of the Divine spirit, delivered by means of their reciting these words. At the time of blessing their own individual personality is, so to speak, obscured by their priestly function. Hence they hide their faces. The lesson taught is ultimately one of humility.

BLESSING AND LOVE

For the past several hundred years this blessing has been recited by parents at the beginning of Shabbat as a way of invoking God's blessing upon their children.

R. Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv, 1816-1893) picks up on the fact that the blessing, recited over the whole people, is nevertheless stated in the second-person singular, and interprets that each person be granted blessings appropriate to them. "For the one engaged in Torah-blessings for their study; for the one engaged in trade- for success in business," and so on. We can take the Netziv's point one significant step further: Divine blessing is not generic but specific to each individual and her needs, dreams, and yearnings. God sees and cherishes us as individuals,and we pray for blessings accordingly.

The Netziv's explanation of "and protect you" goes further:. "May God protect you, lest the very blessing you receive turn into a stumbling block." The blessing of wealth, for example, can lead to greed, or stinginess, or lack of empathy. Or it can lead to a perpetual state of anxiety that one does not have enough or that one may lose what one has earned Crucially, the Netziv points out, even the blessing of Torah learning can yield rotten fruit: The Torah scholar can easily become arrogant or cause a desecration of God's name.

The blessing traditionally recited by the priests before blessing the people is highly unusual. They say, "Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us with the sanctity of Aaron and commanded us to bless Your people Israel with love."

Two questions emerge from this formula: First, why do the priests talk about being sanctified with the sanctity of Aaron instead of employing the usual formula, "who has sanctified us with God's commandments"? And second, why the mention of love at the end of the blessing?

The answer to our two questions is identical: Blessing depends on love. The Torah does not assign the priests the task of rote recitation. On the contrary, it calls upon them to love the people. Indeed, the Zohar declares that "a priest who does not love the people or is not loved by the people should not raise his hands to bless them" (Naso, 147b). Aaron, the first priest, is remembered as "a lover of peace and a pursuer of peace, one who love[d] people and brought them closer to Torah" (Mishnah, Avot 1:12). "The holiness of Aaron," says R. Shalom Noah Berezovsky (1911-2000), "flowed from his love." A priest devoid of love is a priest in name only.

In Reb Zalman's book "Davening", he describes in his chapter "Who am I to Bless?" how he once went for an audience with the late Lubavitche Rebbe. Reb Zalman tells how the Rebbe knew who he was and said to him "Zalman, you're a Priest, please keep me in mind when you recite the Priestly Blessing, during the high holy days".

By doing this the Rebbe was offering him a lesson, that when you offer a prayer to bring down a blessing it requires a postal address, don't do it just as a routine - keep specific people in mind. Bring down blessings for them.

He was, also, I think, showing Reb Zalman his own love by showing that he recognized him and also his important role as a Cohen.

Midrash Tanhuma understands the hand-raising ritual as evoking the relationship between God and Israel. Song of Songs relates how one lover glimpses another: "There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the window, peering through the lattice" (Song 2:9). In the midrashic interpretation, God is the lover peering at Israel through the lattice and window formed by the hands of the priest raised in the priestly blessing.

In Midrash Tanhuma the people of Israel question the role of the priests in the blessing, saying to God: "We only need Your blessing." God responds, "I will stand with the priests and bless you."

Customs and Practices

In Israel this blessing is recited daily at shacharit (and at mussaf on shabbatot and yom tov) in the synagogue in the Repetition of the Amidah, during which the kohanim, members of the hereditary priesthood, lift their hands over the congregation and recite this text, word by word. It is not recited in the afternoon, because kohanim must be sober, and so it is not said during those times of day when the kohen might have drunk wine; for that same reason, it is recited at Minhah on fast days, and on Yom Kippur is even recited at Neilah

In Ashkenazi Diaspora it is done at mussaf of festival days.

The formulation of the mitzvah of Birkat Cohanim shows it is a mitzva De'oraita - a positive mitzvah from the Torah for the Cohanim to bless the Jewish People every day. This is how it is codified by the Sefer HaHinuch. So how did the custom of not doing Birkat Cohanim daily start in the Diaspora?
reasons given include:

The custom was to immerse in a mikveh before doing Birkat Cohanim. This was very hard to do in the Winter in Eastern Europe so they stopped doing it every day.

Rabbi Moshe Isserles wrote that "It has become the practice that the Cohanim do not raise their hands in blessing except on Yom Tov, as then they are in a state of happiness because of Yom Tov and a person who is in good spirits should administer the blessing. They are not in a state of happiness on other days even on Shabbatot as they are preoccupied with thoughts concerning their sustenance and over the cessation of their work. Even on Yom Tov they only do it at Musaf as then they are about to leave synagogue and rejoice in the celebration of Yom Tov."

Sephardi communities in diaspora also vary about when they do it - only days torah is read/ only shabbat/ every day/ only yom tov.....

The Reform/Conservative/Liberal Movements no longer classify Cohanim as a separate category, on the twofold basis that they no longer connect with God through Temple ritual and no longer pray for its rebuilding, nor for the return of the sacrifices, and because we cannot any longer be sure that those who believe themselves to be Cohanim really are of that priestly descent nor that there has not been a dislocation in their status. Because there are religious laws which disbenefit Cohanim they have abolished any meaning in this category in order to free the people to marry whom they will etc.

The Birkat Cohanim/Nesiyat Cappayim is therefore not given in Progressive liturgy in the way that the orthodox world does it. However the words of the prayer are powerful and meaningful, so this blessing is often given by the service leader at the end of the service, and in other liturgical contexts.

Antiquity:

It is very, very old.

An archaeological find in a burial chamber in Ketef Hinnom (South of the Old City of Jerusalem) in 1979 shows that this blessing goes at least as far back as the 7^th century BCE when the 1st Temple still stood and before the Babylonian exile.

Two tiny folded silver scrolls with different versions of this blessing and some other fragments of verses were discovered, each including the words “May YHWH bless you and guard you; may YHWH make his face shine upon you.”

This is the oldest text ever found, that occurs in the Hebrew Bible.

The scrolls must have been used as amulets by ancient Israelites more than 2,600 years ago.