This verse introduces the obligation on the priests to bless the people every day. The content of the blessing is well-known: “May God bless and protect you; May God deal kindly and graciously with you; May God turn His favour towards you and grant you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).
The medieval rabbis are keen to ensure that these blessings are not seen as a magic recipe for success. Instead, they stress the need for human action. The Akedat Yitzchak (Isaac ben Moses Arama, 1455-1495), for example, associates the first blessing with matters of the heart and mind, the second blessing with material comfort, and the third blessing with the peace that results from perfecting the heart, mind, and matter.
The Sefer Hachinuch (written in the latter half of the 13th century) too suggests that the human element is essential. Its anonymous author writes “God warned us and commanded us to prepare our deeds and refine our bodies with His commandments, so that we will be fit [to receive] the good.” Again, nothing comes without hard work.
Nowadays, there is much interest among contemporary spiritual seekers in manifesting, the idea that one can bring about a desired outcome simply by wishing it. The priestly blessing is a Jewish version of the idea, but with an ethical-theological twist.
The Chasidic leader, Reb Levi of Berditchev (c1772-c1798) associates the word ko (thus), as in “Thus (Ko) shall you bless the people of Israel” with shadow. He explains that “A shadow always follows precisely what the owner of the shadow is doing. Similarly, what God does reflects exactly what man has done previously.”
When the priests therefore are asked to raise their palms over the people in blessing, they are in essence reflecting the light given off by the people back on themselves.
I have an image here of the priests’ lifted hands, not as made of flesh and blood but as concave mirrors directing the refracted illumination back down to earth. As opposed to the contemporary obsession with self-realisation, that light is created not by thought alone, but by religious striving and acts of kindness towards others.
Image: Blessing of the priests in Jerusalem (photo: Getty Images)
