Parashat Naso- "And I Will Bless Them"

Yevare’ch’cha A-donai v’yish’m’recha. Ya’eir A-donai panav eilecha vikhunecha. Yisa A-donai eilecha v’yaseim lecha shalom.

V’samu et shmi al b’nei Yisrael va’ani avarcheim.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord raise His countenance to you and grant you peace.

And they will place My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. (B’midbar 6:24-27)

Birkat Kohanim, the Priestly Blessing, used in the Amidah, as the parents’ blessing, and sometimes under the huppah, comes from this week’s parasha. As Rabbi Hertz points out in his commentary, “The text consists of three short verses, of three, five, and seven words respectively.” The poetic verse “mounts by gradual stages from the petition for material blessing and protection to that for Divine favour as a spiritual blessing, and in beautiful climax culminates in the petition for God’s most consummate gift, shalom, peace.” But the text goes beyond words.  It is said that the Torah is black fire written on white fire. Not only are the words important- the choice of words, their meaning, and even their shape- but so too the white space, the white fire around the words. The spaces in Torah text lead us to further knowledge beyond the written text. Openings and closings, spaces between books, columns and lattice, all these are present in the Torah. In the calligraphy of Birkat Kohanim the words are written in such a way that the white space creates a second handprint surrounding the hand-shaped verse. God’s unseen hand embraces and directs the blessing.

The blessing is delivered by the kohanim, the priests in Judaism. However, we have a tradition that each among us has the potential to hear God. We have no hierarchy that requires a priest to act as our conduit to speak to, or hear from, God. The Talmud teaches that the Israelites were upset, saying, “We want God’s blessing.” Therefore, in case we missed the hidden message of God’s hand holding the hand of the Kohein in His, the text tells us that God replies, “V’samu et shmi al b’nei Yisrael va’ani avarcheim.” “And they will place My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” God tells us that the blessing does not come from the priests, but from God.  But there is also a lesson in this reminder.  We must be sure to look beyond the obvious to see the hidden beauty and message beyond that which can be observed.