Naso: The Priestly Benediction

Baruch atah Adonai
Eloheinu Melech ha-olam
asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav
v'tzivanu la'asok b'divrei Torah.

Y'varech'cha Adonai v'yishm'recha.
May God bless you and keep you.
Ya-eir Adonai panav eilecha vichuneka.
May God's light shine upon you, and my God be gracious to you.
Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v'yaseim l'cha shalom.
May you feel God's presence within you always, and may you find peace.
~Translation from Mishkan T'filah

Each of its three verses contain two blessings, yet the verses expand in length from three to five to seven words, suggesting that God's blessing expands.
In 1979, archeologists discovered in Jerusalem two small silver scrolls dated to the late 7th or early 6th century B.C.E., inscribed with a text nearly identical to the Priestly Blessing. Although their function remains unknown, these silver scrolls provide the earliest known parallel to a biblical text and probably served as protective amulets.
~The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 829

The first blessing is material, the second spiritual, the third combines both.
~N. Leibowitz
"May God bless you," with possessions; "and protect you," from these possessions possessing you. May God guard you from sin and shield you from all destructive influences that so often follow in the wake of earthly prosperity.
~J. H. Hertz
Shalom has a much wider meaning [than abstinence from strife] and involves prosperity, good health, wholeness, and completeness in every way.
~N. H. Snaith
(collected from Gleanings in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, p. 944)

I do recall Mr. Nimoy telling me in detail how he sat next to his grandfather as a child, enthralled by the pageantry of the High Holiday services, especially the moment when the Kohanim blessed the congregation.
Years later, it was that memory, he said, that led to his developing the Vulcan greeting – hand held out in front of his face, the middle and ring fingers spread apart in what is now a very familiar pose.
The four-word greeting, almost always uttered by Mr. Spock in his oh-so emotionless manner, also nicely echoes the Priestly Blessing – “Live long and prosper.”
https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/leonard-nimoy-mr-spock-and-the-priestly-blessing/

In prevailing Ashkenazic practice of the Orthodox, the blessings are pronounced only on the holy days. Those men whose families have by name or tradition preserved the memory of their priestly status leave the service in order to wash themselves or be assisted in the washing by members of Levitical families. When they return they mount the rostrum (which used to be called duchan). They cover themselves with their prayer shawls so that they might concentrate on the holiness of the moment and also so that the congregation not be distracted by looking at their faces and by seeing them as people they know in everyday life, rather than as representatives of an ancient clan. They lift their hands and spread their fingers to create a simile of the Hebrew letter ש (shin, the first letter of Shaddai, Almighty). The benediction is then intoned in a special sing-song that is meant to impress the listeners with the awesomeness of the moment.
~The Torah: A Modern Commentary, p. 940

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay
Forever young...
~Forever Young, by Bob Dylan (aka Robert Allen Zimmerman)

Rashi says something that may be helpful here: saying to them…this is a full (spelling, indicating:) do not bless them in haste, nor in hurried excitement, but with full consciousness (kavannah), and with a whole heart.
Rashi believes that the priests were commanded to have the proper reverence as well as the proper wording. Perhaps then we can say that the priests were chosen not only as vessels of blessing, but also as role models of caring for the people. Maybe God didn’t need the priests to deliver a blessing, maybe God needed the kohanim (priests) to show the other Israelites what it meant to be reverent and loving, to wish the best for someone else, to pray for another with a “whole heart.”
In other words, God did not want these ritual leaders to have Divine powers, but rather, a full humanity — and maybe that’s why these words still move us today.
~RABBI NEAL J. LOEVINGER, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/human-vessels-for-blessing/

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." (Bible Scholar Jacob Milgrom) The same point is driven home by the (syntactically unnecessary) repetition of God's name (YHWH, "the Lord") as the beginning of each line of the formula—these are actions that God and God alone will perform. To imagine that the priests are themselves the source of blessing, or to assume that they have some mysterious capacity to guarantee it, is to expose them to the ever-present danger of grandiosity—and worse, it is to open the door to exploitation of the weak and vulnerable by those believed to have magic powers at their disposal.
~Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, Vol 2, p. 104

And when we bless others with these words, the place in which we find ourselves becomes a holy place. We learn this lesson in the very next verse, when Moses completes the Tabernacle. Ibn Ezra connects these verses, noting, "For on the day that Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them, the dedication of the Tabernacle took place." Only after the people have been blessed could the structure that allowed for God to dwell among them be complete-the blessing allows for the dedication, and in essence is the way through which the dedication begins. This teaches a great lesson: holy community must precede holy space. At the same time that humanity is given the power to offer blessings, humanity is also given the additional power to transform ordinary places into holy ones. Sanctity is a matter of human declaration. The power is in our hands.
~ELISA F. KOPPEL, https://reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/torah-commentary/blessing-faces-and-places

Notes from Rabbi Rick Jacobson's podcast...
Naso - to lift up. Counting the leaders of the ancient Israelites. Lifting their heads - to help them see what might be possible. Naso connects to "yisa"
Sneezes - bless you. we don't think about that. How does a person bless another person? Is it the words we speak or a formula we say?
priests recite this blessing as part of the ritual service of the people
progression - 3 words, 5 words, 7 words - symmetry
We say this at Friday night dinner
Is this the only way to bless others? It's not just the words we say.
Shavuot - story: great Reb Zusya - going to spend Shavuot in the town of the Maggid of Mezerich. on the journey, he gets distracted, and wanders off the road into the forest. "God, give me for just one hour - the power of the ancient priests to bless those around me" He felt the power - but no one was there - trying to find someone. Hour is over and the spiritual energy leaves his body - didn't have time to get to Mezerich, goes to a tavern - going to have to spend the holiday there with a couple he doesn't know. As he sees the couple - they don't know anything about Shavuot. He brings joy and song and teaches them into the night. I didn't have the power to bless - but what did I just spend the day doing? I brought joy, hope, learning to others.
https://reformjudaism.org/podcasts/other-hand-ten-minutes-torah/other-hand-ten-minutes-torah-naso-what-blessing

Using traditional prayer therefore requires us to bring meaning to the sounds we utter. That meaning can be on the emotional level or the cognitive one, or a combination of both. This is not merely a question of understanding Hebrew. Even if one understands the language, words can be meaningless if they are recited totally by rote or with no attempt to understand them. The more we understand the words and what lies behind them, the greater the opportunity to use them well.
Prayer requires kavana, which implies not only concentration but meaning and intention in expressing ourselves before God. The word kavana basically means “to aim.” There must be intent in whatever we say, an aiming toward closeness to God.
What is needed, therefore, is a synthesis of the old and the new. The old is the received text (the keva), the words so many others have said and still say. The new is the personal feelings and the individual meaning, which changes every time we say these words, if we say them with fervor and intention, if they are accompanied by kavana.
Rabbi Reuven Hammer, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/fixed-prayer-and-spontaneity/

My favorite interpretation comes from Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Yehudah Berlin’s “Ha’amek Davar.” He suggests that the blessing is vague so that it might convey “whatever is appropriate for each person to be blessed with.” Likewise, each person should be blessed according to “everything that is in need of blessing, protection from whatever causes trouble” (“Ha’amek Davar” on Numbers 6:24-26)
Midrash Tanhuma imagines God telling the kohanim, “From the beginning I have blessed My people; from now on the blessings are transmitted to you. You are to bless My children.” This transition from divine blessing to human blessing began when Isaac and Jacob blessed their sons (Tanhuma Nasso 8-9). We can use this argument to give all humans the power and permission to bless each other.
~Rabbi Leah Berkowitz, https://reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/torah-commentary/power-and-permission-bless

Suggestions for Writing a Parent Blessing (Intro)
As parents of the bar/bat mitzvah, you have a special opportunity to offer your child a blessing upon the occasion of this lifecycle event. This is a unique and meaningful moment where you can look at your child on this transformative day and offer a wish for your child as you look towards the person that they are becoming. We hope these tools will help you to write a blessing that is meaningful for you, your child, and the congregation.
~excerpt from a guide we give to parents before the b'nei mitzvah here at Emanu El