CBA-Torah Study-Naso-060725

(22) The Eternal spoke to Moses: (23) Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them: (24) May the Eternal bless you and protect you! (25) May the Eternal cause God's face to shine upon you and show you favour! (26) May the Eternal raise God's face to you and set for you peace! (27) Thus they shall set My name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

(1) THE ETERNAL BLESS THEE. The Eternal increase your life and your wealth. (2) AND KEEP THEE. God will protect what God has increased so that no one steals it.

"And protect you." For every blessing requires protection so that it does not become an obstacle, God forbid. A master of Torah needs protection from pride, desecration of God's name and the like. And similarly, that they not forget their learning. A property owner needs protection that their wealth not be to their own detriment, like Korach and Navot the Jezreelite and the like. And similarly, protection from theft and loss. And likewise for everything that is in need of blessing, protection from whatever causes trouble is requested.

יאר, may God grant light to your eyes to see and appreciate all the wonderful things God has done and keeps on doing. You should become aware that all that you achieve is due to divine blessing.

...Another interpretation: "The Eternal lift God's face" — (May God) remove divine anger from you. "and grant you peace": peace in your coming in, and peace in your going out, and peace with all humanity. Rabbi Chanina, the adjutant high-priest says: "and grant you peace" — in your house...

ושמו את שמי על בני ישראל, ...A Midrashic approach: The first verse contains three words; the second verse contains five words The third verse contains seven words. The first verse represents the three patriarchs, i.e. God will remember for them the covenant with the patriarchs; the second verse represents the five Books of the Torah; as the Torah itself had been given to in recognition of the merits of the patriarchs. The seven words in the last verse are an allusion to the seven heavens...

..."Thus shall you bless" - the word thus (Heb. koh) comes to remind us of the merit of the verse "the boy and I will walk thus far" (Gen. 22) and also "thus shall be your offspring" and also "thus The LORD has blessed me." The two letters that comprise the word "thus" in Hebrew, kaf and hey, make 25 and there are 25 letters in the Shema, the word blessing appears 25 times in the Torah and also the word peace appears 25 times. This is why the Priestly Blessing starts and finishes with the word peace and that is the meaning of "The LORD will bless His people with peace."

Amor Lahem = tell them (God commands Moses to tell the Kohanim): Tell = Amor, the word "amor" (from the verb leemor = say) is complete, [that is written with Vav for the vowel "o". And the letter Vav is the number 6]. This represents the 6 blessings [that the Kohanim will say]: Yebarejejá, Veishmereja, Yaer, Vijuneka, Isá, Shalom. It also represents [6 virtues of God that are found in Psalm 19: 8-10]. Torah of God, Testimony of God, Instructions of God, Commandments of God, Fear of God, Judgments of God.

אמור להם, “saying to them:” The word אמור, though an infinitive, is spelled here with the letter ו, something quite unusual. The extra letter ו which stretches the word, makes it longer, is to suggest to the priests that they must not relate to the duty to bless the people as a burden imposed upon them by G’d, something they want do be done with as soon as possible, in a hurry. On the contrary, they should bless the people with all the concentration they are capable of. Another reason for the letter ו in the word אמור here is that the numerical value of the word including the digit 1 for the word itself is 248. The blessing is absorbed by all 248 limbs/organs of a person. If only one organ were left out this could be the heart upon which all other organs are so vitally dependent. The mystical element in the number is that it corresponds to the Shechinah which rests on the palms of the priests hidden there as if it were the heart of the heavens reciting the blessing. Both celestial and terrestrial forces receive their blessings from the לב השמים, the heart of the heaven. Another concept alluded to not only in the spelling of the word אמור but in the choice of that word instead of תאמרו, or something similar, is that the Torah insists by using this word in the spelling we have as an impersonal word, an infinitive. This is a hint that the spelling out audibly of G’d’s Ineffable Name may be at the discretion of the priests when too many people in the audience are scoffers, non-believers, non-observant and the like. At such times and places it is better for the priests to “swallow” these words so that they are not heard by the audience evoking the reverse of the “peace” which is the purpose of the blessing. In fact we read in Kidushin 31 that as of the time when the פריצים, deniers of the faith, became numerous, the priests made it a practice to swallow the name of G’d inaudibly. The priests based themselves on the dual command here. On the one hand, the Torah writes כה תברכו, “(only) thus shall you bless,” and on the other hand, the Torah deliberately leaves aspects of the blessing indeterminate by adding the words אמור להם, “saying to them.” The meaning is that the people deserving of the blessing would find it effective, the others would not. Had the Torah written the word in an imperative such as תאמרו, the inescapable conclusion would have been that even non-deserving people would be bound to become beneficiaries of that blessing. [When Yitzchak took a great chance of mortally offending his father in order to prevent the indiscriminate power to bless or to curse to be given to Esau these were precisely the thoughts that motivated him. Ed.] I have already mentioned in my commentary on Exodus 17,12 that when the priest extends his ten fingers heavenward he signals to G’d that he desires to sanctify himself with all the sanctities embodied in the ten emanations, asking for the abundance of G’d’s goodness to be channeled toward his creatures on earth by means of the conduits G’d has available for that purpose, including all the disembodied spirits. The word את in the sequence כה תברכו את בני ישראל includes the angels in this directive. The words אמור להם is sort of a repetition to make certain all these disembodied angels both above and below certain layers of the heavens are included. Another lesson to be derived from the extra letter ו in the word אמור is that the chazzan is to call upon the priests to intone the blessing by pronouncing the word כהנים and to pronounce each word separately before the priests repeat it in chorus. The fact that the word אמור is singular followed by the plural להם suggests that a single individual is to call upon the priests (pl.) to proceed in such a fashion. This is also why when there is only one priest in the congregation the call כהנים is omitted and is not substituted for by the word כהן in the singular. The very fact that halachah deems it necessary to “brief” the priests word for word reflects that this is the practice in the celestial regions where the angels who act as priests in the celestial Sanctuary are following the same routine. This is the mystical dimension of Sotah 38 that כל כהן המברך מתברך, that every priest performing the commandments of blessing the people is himself the subject of a blessing. The Talmud means that the priest ministering on earth will in turn become the recipient of blessings from the source, the essence of Mercy in the heavenly regions; this is the meaning of what G’d promised Avraham in Genesis 12,3: “I will bless those who bless you.” In other words, the priests down here are patterning themselves after known role models in the celestial regions. Here on earth the sequence is as follows: The blessing is channeled to the congregation through the chazzan wearing a white talit through the priests pronouncing the blessing facing the congregation. Still another meaning embodied in the words אמור להם, is that the priests are to bless the people when the people tell them to, i.e. להם. This is why Onkelos translates the words as כד יימרון להון “when they say to them.” Once the priests have been asked by the congregation to intone the blessing and they fail to do so they violate a positive Biblical commandment (Sotah 38). As long as they have not been asked to intone the blessing they are not guilty of such a violation. Concerning this subject we find in the Jerusalem Talmud Berachot 8,5 that when Rabbi Shimon ben Pazzi felt weak he hid behind a pillar so that he would not be perceived as not complying with the congregation’s invitation to intone the blessing on the plaform. Rabbi Eleazar, on the other hand, preferred to leave the Synagogue altogether if he felt he could not perform the ceremony. Both Rabbis were too frail to raise their arms in the prescribed manner. [Apparently at that time individual invitations were issued to the priests to ready themselves to perform the blessing. Ed.] According to Rabbi Yitzchak the elder, a Tossaphist, any priest who is not married is not to ascend the platform and raise his hands in pronouncing this blessing. I believe there is a sound basis for his opinion. The reason is that man is not complete without a wife, he lives a joyless existence and the blessing to be effective must emanate from someone filled with joy. As an incomplete human being [by choice? Ed.] he is neither the recipient of blessings nor a suitable dispenser of such. This [voluntary state of being single, Ed.] was enough reason for the sons of Aaron Nadav and Avihu to be deserving of the penalty they incurred. By not marrying they caused thousands of girls to remain unmarried, each one hoping they would be chosen as a wife for them and meanwhile refusing other offers of marriage. By the time Nadav and Avihu died these girls were too old to attract suitors so that they remained spinsters for the remainder of their lives. I have already mentioned in my commentary on Leviticus 15,33 that this is one of the six opinions offered by the sages who elaborated on the nature of these two priests’s sins. This is also what lies behind the words of Psalms 78,63: “fire consumed their young men and their maidens remained unwed.” The reason that the young men were burned by fire was that on their account so many girls remained unwed. According to that particular view Nadav and Avihu were killed by heavenly fire as they were not worthy to pronounce the blessing over the Jewish people having themselves remained remiss in the performance of such a basic commandment. When a priest conveys the kind of blessings which include the principle of enjoying married life with a spouse, how could he be suitable to do this unless he himself had set a suitable example?