Naso | The Power of Speech

 

[Note: since in Israel we are reading Parashat Naso this week, - in Chutz La-aretz this Shabbat is Yom Tov Sheni shel Shavuot - we are already mailing the sicha for Naso.  In several weeks we will all return to reading the same parasha; until then, we will be mailing sichot for the parasha to be read in Israel.  Those outside of Israel will thus get the sicha a week early, and those in Israel will get it in time.]

 

     A recent discovery in the study of genetics reveals that a large majority of men claiming to be Kohanim - members of Israel's ancient priestly class - share a common set of markers on their Y chromosome.  For some people, this represents scientific proof of a Jewish tradition of heritage.  One of the duties of the Kohanim that continues to this day is the Priestly Blessing - the subject of this week's essay.

 

     "The Lord spoke to Moses: 'Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel.  Say to them: May the Lord bless you and protect you! May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you! May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and grant you peace! Thus they shall link My name with the people of Israel, and I will bless them.'" (Numbers 6:22-27)

 

     In a synagogue practice performed daily in Israel, and on festivals outside of Israel, Kohanim face the congregation and repeat the original Hebrew text of these blessings in the belief that their words will somehow bestow goodness on the people.  What are the dynamics of such blessings?  Do Kohanim, by virtue of descent, possess some magical or mystical power to somehow affect the lives of the rest of us merely by speaking?  To be sure, the ceremony of the Kohanim is not the only instance in our culture where the speech of one person is felt to hold some influence over another.  Some parents (whether the family are Kohanim or not) bless their children on Friday night by repeating the text of Numbers 6.  Participants at a brit mila bless the baby by exclaiming "Just as he has entered into the covenant, so may he enter into the Torah, the marriage canopy, and good deeds."  How does such a statement guarantee success for the child?  Will I live long and prosper because some Kohen says I should?  In short, what is the power of a blessing between people?

 

     Let us turn to a curious episode recounted in Numbers 22-24, the story of Bilaam appearing in Parashat Balak.  In the tale, Bilaam the prophet or wizard, is hired by Balak, King of Moav to curse the nation of Israel.  Initially Bilaam is reluctant to take on the job sensing that wishing ill on the people opposes God's desires.  He says, "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, big or little, contrary to the command of the Lord my God" (22:18).  Eventually Bilaam is persuaded to give the cursing a shot and sets out on his mission.  On the road he gets into an argument with his donkey to whom God remarkably grants the power of speech.  An angel appears who warns him to "say nothing except what I tell you" (22:35).  And then the drama starts.  Three times Bilaam attempts to damn Israel but each time God's words fill his mouth and blessings issue instead: "No harm is in sight for Jacob, No woe in view for Israel" (23:21). "How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!" (24:5). Balak is naturally upset at Bilaam's defiance, but in his defense Bilaam claims "How can I damn who God has not damned, How doom when the Lord has not doomed?" (23:8)

 

     Several lessons emerge from this story.  Firstly, that Bilaam possessed some sort of force is not challenged.  Were he merely some insignificant desert nomad, Balak would not have enlisted him, God would have paid him no heed, and the entire thing would have been ignored by the Torah.  Rabbinic tradition contrasts Bilaam with the patriarch Abraham, the former representing evil, the latter the paradigm of good (Pirkei Avot 5:22).  Consequently, we must conclude that effectiveness of curses or blessings uttered by people is linked to the character of the speaker.

 

     The second moral of the Bilaam tale is that while the one who blesses is important, ultimately God Himself is the source of all blessings.  As the Torah makes clear in the  struggles between Bilaam and Balak, what people want is really secondary or even irrelevant in the face of God's intentions.  The power of the speaker can at any time be overshadowed by the fact that his message is either congruous with the desires of God or not.  Thus it seems that when people bless or curse other people, the spoken words do not directly determine the fate of the beneficiary or victim, they merely suggest to God a course of action.  Put another way, a blessing is a prayer to God on behalf of somebody else; a curse is a plea to God to strike one's enemy.  It is not the speech itself that does the trick, but God's response to man's requests.

 

     Combining the two lessons it seems that, although God's own decisions can override any human desires, God is reluctant to ignore the claims of a powerful or persuasive man.  Indeed, why does God tell Bilaam not to curse Israel? Would the Torah's point not have been made had Bilaam been allowed to say what he wanted, followed by God declaring his words meaningless? Maybe Bilaam possesses some power to sway God which might be why God preempts his curses.  On the other hand, the fact that God takes over Bilaam's voice is a dramatic way of illustrating that His will reigns supreme - the faculty of speech is worthless unless God gives it worth, an idea underlined by the miracle of the talking donkey.

 

     How do we adapt these ideas to the Birkat Kohanim - the blessings of the priests? Firstly, the Torah instructs the holiest class of people to pray on behalf of the Jews.  The Kohanim are holy because they were chosen to serve in the Tabernacle.  Their lifestyle demands they follow more restrictions than the rest of the nation, and that they maintain a higher level of spiritual purity.  Designated the teachers of the nation, Kohanim are required to devote most of their lives to Torah.  It would seem, therefore, that their heightened holiness allows them greater access to God, giving their prayers a better chance of being heard.  This would explain why the Torah gives them the job of blessing the people.

 

(In modern times, when Kohanim no longer serve in the Temple, we might well ask what elevates them above the common folk.  The explanation I have offered suggests we might be better off having scholars or other holy people bless the people.  But, besides being a break from tradition, such a change in procedure would inevitably lead to arguments about who is worthy to bless and who is not).  Nevertheless, I believe that from the Torah's perspective the utterances of the Kohanim only hold indirect power to affect the lives of those they bless.

 

     Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir 12th century) explains Numbers 6 as follows:

 

"Thus shall you bless the people of Israel: Do not bless them with your own words, as someone blessing a friend would say 'may such and such be granted to so and so;' rather, pray to Me that I shall bless them as it says 'May the Lord bless you and protect you.' I will then heed your words as it says 'and I will bless Israel.' And it says 'Thus they shall link My name with the people of Israel' meaning that when the Kohanim bless Israel in My name - and not in their names, I will in turn bless Israel."

 

     The obvious question related to this whole issue is, if blessing people is really an appeal to God to treat another person well, why does God tell the Kohanim to ask Him to be good to Israel?  Why not just lavish goodness on us without using an intermediary?  This paradox is posed by the Sefer Ha-Chinukh (Rabbi Aharon HaLevi 13th century) in his interpretation to our passage (see Mitzva #378) who explains that God opens His hand to whoever turns to Him.  This, of course explains the institution of prayer, the philosophy of which seems to be that recognition of the existence of God and of His power and willingness to act in this world, are prerequisites to God's intervention.  As Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman 13th century) writes, the power of prayer is that God listens when we speak to Him, but complaints must be formulated in order to be answered.  The story of Bilaam is significant to the Torah precisely because it shows that God cares or is somehow influenced by what man wants.  Bilaam's strength was such that had he cursed Israel, his wishes would have been difficult to dismiss.

 

     In contrast to my theory of the limited power of human speech, it is possible to understand our topic in simpler, more direct terms.  When a person speaks, the words, once uttered, have the potency to alter another's life.  Bilaam was dangerous because a curse passing his lips would bypass the will of God and unleash terrible damage on Israel.  The goodness brought by words of a Kohen perhaps parallel the promise offered in an earlier Biblical tale.  When Joseph favorably interprets the wine steward's dream in Genesis 40:16, the baker is impressed and eagerly tells the Hebrew his own dream.  Did Joseph's cellmates believe in the power of Joseph's words to bring good or ill fortune?  The Talmud states that "all dreams follow the mouth (interpretation)" (Berakhot 56a) and suggests the opinion that "a dream that is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read" (ibid.  55a).

 

     But, I will stand by my interpretation and offer two more stories as support.  In an episode representing a turning point in Jacob's life, he struggles with an angel who during the course of the encounter renames the patriarch - Israel.  "Then he (the angel) said 'Let me go, for dawn is breaking.' But he answered, 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.' Said the other 'What is your name?' He replied, 'Jacob.' Said he, 'Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.' Jacob asked 'Pray tell me your name.' But he said 'You must not ask me my name!' And he blessed him there." (Genesis 32:25-30) What blessing did the angel confer on Jacob? Was the name change itself the blessing? Do the words of an angel hold any meaning?

 

     Based on our interpretation of blessings, we must say that the angel was only asking God to bless Jacob, which in this case means changing his name.  And lo and behold! Three chapters later, God confirms the name change in His own blessing: "God appeared again to Jacob on his arrival from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.  God said to him 'You whose name is Jacob, You shall be called Jacob no more, But Israel shall be your name.' Thus He named him Israel." (35:9-10) Thus, the angel's speech was a prayer, a request to God, the source of all blessings to bless Jacob.

 

     At the end of his life, it is Jacob's turn to bless his children and grandchildren and he appeals to the angel once again. 

 

"And he blessed Joseph, saying, 'The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day, The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm - bless the lads.  In them may my name be recalled, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth.'"

 

     The Netziv (Rabbi Naphtali Zvi Yehudah Berlin 19th century) is puzzled about why the Hebrew verb "bless" is in the singular form - YEVAREkH, although Jacob asks both God and the angel to bless his grandchildren.  The commentator's resolution fits our theory nicely: although the angel may offer his own blessing, an angel's will is subordinate to that of God's and has no affect unless God heeds it.

 

     In conclusion, I would like to mention two halakhic details related to the practice of the priestly blessing.  The first is that the three verses comprising the prayer must be recited in the original Hebrew.  Although nearly every part of the traditional services can be translated and read in any language (including the Shema and Amida prayers) Birkat Kohanim must be repeated exactly as it appears in Numbers 6.  The Talmud explains that this rule is learned from the Torah's instruction of "Thus shall you bless the people of Israel" (Sotah 38a).  Secondly, in discussing the prohibition of adding new details to the Torah's commandments (BAL TOSIF), the Talmud brings Birkat Kohanim as an illustration.  "Rabbi Shaman bar Abba said: Whence do we learn that a priest who mounts the platform should not say 'Because the Torah has given me permission to bless Israel, I will add a blessing of my own, as for instance: The Lord, the God of your fathers, add unto you? Because it says, 'You shall not add unto the word'" (Deuteronomy 4:2).

 

     Both these clauses in the performance of the mitzva point to the same understanding of the nature of the blessing.  At its root the priestly benediction is God's blessing to the nation.  It must be recited exactly as God formulated it in the Torah - no creativity or deviation from the text is allowed because it is not the Kohen's message to the people, but God's.  The Kohanim serve merely as conduits, pronouncing the goodness that God wants to bring to His people.