Naso | The Priestly Blessing

 

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to Aharon and to his sons, saying: So you shall bless the children of Israel; you shall say to them: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. (Bemidbar 6:22-27) 

I. The Location of the Section Dealing with the Priestly Blessing 

The section dealing with the priestly blessing appears to be connected to the section relating to the dedication of the Mishkan that immediately follows it. It is included among the sections of the Torah that were taught on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan: 

That day took ten crowns: First for the creation of the world, first for the priesthood, first for the princes, first for the Shekhina… first for the service, first for the priestly blessing, first for Rosh Chodesh, first for the prohibition of a bama, first for the eating of sacrificial meat, first for the descent of the fire. (Bemidbar Rabba 13:6)[1]

Proof for this may be adduced from what is stated at the dedication of the Mishkan in the book of Vayikra: 

And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings. (Vayikra 9:22) 

According to the simple understanding, Aharon lifted up his hands and blessed the people with the priestly blessing spelled out in our parasha, and therefore the passage containing the blessing immediately precedes the passage describing the day on which Moshe concluded the setting up the Mishkan, which was the day of the dedication of the Mishkan. 

It is also possible that the Torah pushed off recording the content of the priestly blessing to our parasha in the book of Bemidbar so that it would be adjacent to the section dealing with the sota, a woman whose husband suspects her of having committed adultery. The section dealing with a sota mentions that a priest pronounces a curse upon the woman if indeed she strayed and committed adultery. There seems to be a need to remove the curse from her if it turns out that she is innocent (for the curse of a sage, even if it is pronounced conditionally, will be fulfilled),[2]  and the priest must therefore bless her. It seems that Chazal were referring to such a blessing from the priest when they said the following about a woman who was suspected of having committed adultery, but then proven innocent:  

If she had been barren, she now bears children; these are the words of R. Akiva. R. Yishmael said to him:… If she formerly bore children in pain she will now bear with ease; if formerly girls, she will now give birth to boys; if formerly short, she will now bear tall children; if formerly dark, she will now have fair children. (Sota 26a) 

This matter is reflected in the conversation between Chana and Eli the priest: 

Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said to her: “How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you!” And Chana answered and said: “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not your handmaid for a wicked woman: for out of the abundance of my complaint and my vexation have I spoken until now.” Then Eli answered and said: “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” (I Shemuel 1:13-17) 

There was good reason to identify a drunken woman with an adulterous one. Eli rebuked Chana, and perhaps had in mind to curse her with the curse that the priest pronounces upon a sota. When Chana's innocence became clear, Eli blessed her, in accordance with the view of R. Akiva, that she should be cured of her barrenness.[3] 

It is further possible that the content of the priestly blessing alludes to the problem faced by an innocent woman who was suspected by her husband and brought by him to a priest. The priest says to her, in accordance with the wording of the priestly blessing, that God will bless her rather than curse her, and keep her from her husband's rage and suspicions. God will give her a shining countenance and grace in the eyes of her husband, and he will love her. God will rest peace between them in place of the quarreling that had characterized their relationship. 

It may further that when the woman was cursed, the name of God was blotted out in the water. When she was blessed, the priests sets the name of God upon her at the time of the blessing, instead of blotting it out in the water.  

Between the section dealing with the sota and the priestly benediction we find the section dealing with a Nazirite, who is likened to a priest. Perhaps the Nazirite as well was given the power to bless one who needs a blessing. 

Let us expand on the connection between the blessing given by a priest to a woman who was unjustly suspected of adultery and the priestly blessing. 

The Acharonim extensively discussed the question of whether, in addition to the mitzva upon the priests to bless the people with the priestly blessing, there is also a mitzva upon Israel as a whole and upon each person as an individual to receive a blessing from the priests, such that each person must direct his attention to their blessing, and if he fails to do so he fails to fulfill a positive precept. Alternatively, perhaps it falls upon the priests to bless the people, and one who so desires may receive their blessing, but one who is not interested has done nothing wrong. Many authorities ruled that every person in Israel is bound by a mitzva to be blessed by the priests, to direct his attention to the blessing, and, of course, to respond with "Amen."[4] To the best of my understanding, these authorities have not adequately explained the source for this obligation. 

An obligation to direct one's attention to the words of the priest and respond with "Amen" is found in the case of a sota, who must respond to the priest's words with, "Amen, Amen." Similarly, all of Israel were obligated to respond with "Amen" at the assembly at Mount Eival after the declarations of the six tribes pronouncing the curses, and according to the mishna in Sota, they were also obligated to respond with "Amen" after the blessings of the six tribes proclaiming the blessings.    

If indeed we learn some of the details of the laws of the priestly blessing from its source, the section dealing with a sota, there is room to obligate those receiving the blessing to listen and to respond with "Amen," just as the woman who is suspected of adultery is obligated to respond with "Amen" to the curse, and as she is presumably obligated to respond to the blessing when she is found innocent. Similarly, Chana responded verbally to Eli's blessing that God should grant the request that she had asked of Him. 

II. The Three Instances in which Israel Needed a Priestly Blessing 

We dealt with the first instance above: If a woman was suspected of adultery, and a priest pronounced a conditional curse upon her before making her drink of the bitter waters, and she was then found innocent, the priest must now bless her.  

In order to understand the second instance, we must return to the blessing of the priest on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan. There are many allusions in the Torah that the dedication of the Mishkan was meant to atone for the sin of the golden calf. The strongest is the exceptional offering brought by Aharon on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan: 

And it came to pass on the eighth day that Moshe called Aharon and his sons and the elders of Israel; and he said to Aharon: Take you a bull-calf for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. (Vayikra 9:1-2) 

According to the simple understanding (and in accordance with Rashi and the Midrash), the calf sin-offering was meant to atone for Aharon for his part in the sin of the golden calf.  

Moreover, elsewhere we expanded upon the fact that the tribe of Levi was chosen due to the repair that they brought about at the time of the sin of the golden calf: 

And Moshe said: Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, for every man has been against his son and against his brother; that He may also bestow upon you a blessing this day. (Shemot 32:29) 

            The blessing that was given to them can be interpreted as the ability to bless the people. This is what is stated also in the book of Devarim following the sin of the golden calf: 

At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him, and to bless in His name, to this day. (Devarim 10:8)  

Rashi explains there that the reference is to the priests. The people of Israel, who had been cursed because of the golden calf like a sota with the words, "Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them," and had been given to drink by Moshe water in which was mixed powder from the calf,[5]  were in need of a blessing after they were purified of the sin. This was given to the tribe of Levi to give to them. At the time of the setting up of the Mishkan, Aharon blessed the people and once again placed upon them the name of God that had been removed from them at the time of the golden calf. 

Regarding Aharon's blessing at the time of the setting up of the Mishkan, it may be noted that according to what is stated there in the continuation, Moshe also seems to have participated in this blessing: 

And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings. And Moshe and Aharon went into the tent of meeting and came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. (Vayikra 9:22-23)  

During the seven days of consecration and until the eighth day, Moshe served as the High Priest,[6] and on the eighth day he handed over the High Priesthood to his brother Aharon. At the time of the handing over of the High Priesthood from Moshe to Aharon on the eighth day, the two of them blessed the people. Were their blessings identical? We will address this matter below in the section dealing with the content of the priestly blessing. 

We find a priestly blessing a third time, in the section dealing with an egla arufa, the heifer whose neck is broken to atone for a murder the perpetrator of which is unknown: 

And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near, for them the Lord your God has chosen to minister to Him, and to bless in the name of the Lord, and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be. (Devarim 21:5) 

There, too, as in the case of a sota, the elders of the nearest city, even though they are certainly not suspected of the actual bloodshed, are suspected of not having done everything possible to save the victim. When they wash their hands over the heifer whose neck is broken in the valley and proclaim that they spared no effort to save him, they are cleared of this suspicion. The role of the priests is to bless them after they have been cleared of the suspicion, just as Eli blessed Chana after she was cleared of the suspicion of drunkenness (and adultery), and just as it is the role of the priest to bless the woman who was suspected of adultery after she is cleared of suspicion by way of the bitter waters. 

It is also possible that in the case of the egla arufa, the blessing stands opposite the curse of Kayin, who killed his brother, covered his blood, and tried to deny what he had done, and thereby evade punishment. This is the way the murderer acted in the case of the egla arufa, exploiting the field to hide his offense and thus avoid punishment. The priests come to atone for the people by way of the egla arufa, and it falls upon them to bless the people, who renounce the sin, so that the curse of Kayin should not apply to them. Here too, what is primarily needed is a blessing in place of a curse – protection, illumination, and peace. 

Let us note in conclusion of this section that a blessing of the priests is needed in the case of the three grave sins and suspicions about them, where we do not know who sinned and who did not sin: in the case of the golden calf and the sin of idolatry, in the case of a sota and the sin of adultery, and in the case of the egla arufa and the sin of bloodshed. 

III. The Spreading of Hands 

The priests' blessing is not "theirs." The priests serve as God's agents, and the Torah says: "And I will bless them." God's blessing rests on those blessed by the priests, who set God's name on the people of Israel, and in that way the blessing applies to them: "So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." The midrash notes the connection between the priestly blessing in the Temple and what was stated at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, where mention was made of God's name and in the wake of that came blessing: 

An altar of earth you shall make to Me, and you shall sacrifice thereon your burnt-offerings, and your peace-offerings, your sheep, and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you. (Shemot 20:20)  

"And it came to pass on the day that Moshe made an end" (Bemidbar 7:1). R. Berakhya the Priest the son of Rabbi said that before the Mishkan was set up and Israel stood before Mount Sinai, the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to them and said: When I come to you, I come laden with blessings… Where did He allude to this at Sinai? As it is stated: "An altar of earth shall you make to Me… I will come to you and bless you." And when He came to them, He blessed them, as it is stated: "The Lord bless you." When? On the day that the Mishkan was set up, "And it came to pass on the day that Moshe had made an end." (Tanchuma, Naso 26)

The blessing is connected to the mention of God's name – or, as our parasha formulates it, to the setting of His name on the people of Israel. This might be the meaning of the spreading of hands, as if the person being blessed was standing under the hands of the person issuing the blessing, and the person blessing puts the name of God upon the person being blessed. Aharon as well raised his hands toward the people at the dedication of the Mishkan and blessed them. It should be noted, however, that in the Temple, which is the primary site of the priestly blessing, the priests raise their hands upwards, and not toward the people. Only the High Priest raises his hands toward the people, but this is because he is forbidden to raise his hands above the tzitz, the High Priest's front plate.[7] 

The gesture of spreading the hands can be seen as akin to Yaakov's action when he blessed Menashe and Efrayim and placed his hands on the heads of the two of them. He intended thereby to place his own name – Yisrael – and the name of his forefathers – Avraham and Yitzchak – on the heads of the two boys, and thus accept the two boys who were born in Egypt, outside Israel's family, into the people of Israel: 

And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Efrayim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Menashe's head… The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers, Avraham and Yitzchak; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. (Bereishit 48:14-16) 

Yaakov put his name and the name of his fathers on Menashe and Efrayim, and the priests place the name of God on the people of Israel.

God's name was placed in the Mishkan and in the Mikdash: 

But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even to His habitation shall you seek, and there you shall come. (Devarim 12:5) 

And from there it passes by way of the priests to the heads of the people of Israel.[8] 

IV. The Shem Ha-Meforash – The Explicit Name 

God's name appears three times in the passage, once in each blessing. The midrash clarifies that we are dealing with the Shem Ha-Meforash, "the explicit name," and that this name was sounded exclusively in the Temple at the time of the priestly blessing. (Outside the Temple, they would use the name "Ad-onai," as is the customary practice today). 

Another [baraita] taught: "So you shall bless the children of Israel" — with the use of the Shem Ha-Meforash. You say that it means with the Shem Ha-Meforash, but perhaps that is not so and a substituted name could be used! There is a text that proves this is not so: "So shall they put My name" — My name which is unique to Me. It is possible to think that [the Shem Ha-Meforash was also used] in places outside the Temple; but it is stated here: "So shall they put My name" and elsewhere it is stated: "To put His name there" — as in this latter passage it denotes in the Temple, so also in the former passage it denotes in the Temple. R. Yoshaya says: [This deduction] is unnecessary, for the verse states: "In every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you." Can it enter your mind that every place is intended? But the text must be transposed thus: In every place where I will come to you and bless you will I cause My name to be mentioned. And where will I come to you and bless you? In the Temple; there, in the Temple, will I cause My name to be mentioned. (Sota 38a) 

We can learn about the importance of the Shem Ha-Meforash in the priestly blessing from a comparison between the priestly blessing in our parasha and the original priestly blessing, the first one mentioned in the Torah: 

And Malkitzedek king of Shalem brought forth bread and wine; and he was priest of God the Most High. And he blessed him, and said: “Blessed be Avram of God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tenth of all. (Bereishit 14:18-20) 

Malkitzedek the priest blessed Avram, but he did not bless him with the Shem Ha-Meforash of "God Most High." The absence of the Shem Ha-Meforash is especially noticeable in light of the words of Avram that were sounded immediately afterwards to the king of Sodom: 

And Avram said to the king of Sodom: “I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-lace nor anything that is yours, lest you should say: I have made Avram rich.” (Bereishit 14:22-23)  

Avram swears to the king of Sodom in the name of God Most High, but he also uses the Shem Ha-Meforash, "the Lord, God Most High." 

In our parasha, the Torah emphasizes the continuation of Avram's path also in the priestly blessing – the mention of the Shem Ha-Meforash. 

The critical importance of God's Shem Ha-Meforash in the priestly blessing may be alluded to in another place, with respect to the second blessing: 

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. (Bemidbar 6:25) 

The request for God's shining face is mentioned three times in the psalm lamenting the destruction of the Mishkan in Shilo: 

O God, restore us; and cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved. (Tehillim 80:4) 

The psalmist does not stop here, but continues, adding the name Tzeva'ot (of hosts) to the aforementioned name. 

O God of hosts, restore us; and cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved. (Tehillim 80:5)

The third time the psalmist adds Shem Ha-Meforash, the Tetragrammaton: 

O Lord God of hosts, restore us; cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. (Tehillim 80:20) 

Once again it seems that the priestly blessing relating to God's shining face requires the placing of the Shem Ha-Meforash. 

What is the Shem Ha-Meforash? When was it uttered and when did it cease being used? There were two stages in the restriction of the use of the Shem Ha-Meforash: The first stage followed the death of R. Shimon the Righteous (about 350 years before the destruction of the second Temple): 

Our Rabbis taught: In the year in which Shimon the Righteous died, he foretold them that he would die…. After the festival [of Sukkot] he was sick for seven days and [then] died. [That year,] His brethren the priests refrained from mentioning the Shem Ha-Meforash in pronouncing the [priestly] blessing. (Yoma 39b) 

After the death of Shimon the Righteous, the Temple deteriorated in the hands of his two sons to the abyss of the personal career of the High Priesthood; at the same time, the temple of Onias was built in Egypt. Many of the miracles that took place in the Temple stopped, and the feeling was that the Shekhina was departing from it. At such a time, the priests refrained from uttering God's Shem Ha-Meforash, and they shifted in the priestly blessing to a more limited name. (Some maintain that they shifted from a name of forty-two letters to the Tetragrammaton.[9]) 

The Shem Ha-Meforash mentioned by the Geonim and the Rishonim, which was uttered by the High Priest on Yom Kippur, is a name of forty-two letters, apparently the initial letters of the forty-two word prayer of R. Nechunya ben Ha-Kaneh, Ana be-Ko'ach. At the conclusion of that prayer, we are accustomed to say, "Baruch shem kevod malkhuto le-olan va-ed," as the people would say when they heard the Shem Ha-Meforash in the confession of the High Priest on Yom Kippur and prostrated themselves. The Rosh, however, maintains that the name uttered on Yom Kippur was the Tetragrammaton.[10] 

According to some authorities, one of these two names was sounded also in the priestly blessing. The gemara in Kiddushin mentions a Shem Ha-Meforash that was used exclusively in the priestly blessing – a twelve-letter name. That name was used in the period after Shimon the Righteous and was still known to the "pious" in the days of R. Tarfon, in the generation of the destruction. At some second stage, this name appears to have been forgotten, apparently already in the days of the Second Temple, according to the testimony of R. Tarfon: 

Our Rabbis taught: At first [God's] twelve-lettered name used to be entrusted to all people. When unruly men increased, it was confided to the pious of the priesthood, and these "swallowed it" during the chanting of their brother priests. It was taught: R. Tarfon said: I once ascended the dais after my mother's brother, and inclined my ear to the High Priest, and heard him swallowing the name during the chanting of his brother priests. (Kiddushin 71a) 

According to Rashi (ad loc.), the twelve-letter name is holier than the Tetragrammaton, and only those who were unfamiliar with it used the Tetragrammaton in the priestly blessing in the Temple. The Rambam maintains the opposite – that the Tetragrammaton is holier: 

Furthermore, though they used a name having twelve letters, that name was in sanctity inferior to the name having four letters. In my opinion, the most probable supposition is that the name that had twelve letters was not one name but two or three, the sum of the letters of which came to twelve. (Guide for the Perplexed 1:62) 

In my opinion, the Rambam's reference to a name consisting of several names raises the possibility that the priests recited their blessing using the Tetragrammaton. The three instances of the Tetragrammaton in the three verses of the blessing total twelve letters. It should also be mentioned that the priestly blessing contains twelve words apart from the instances of God's name. 

V. The Content of the Blessing 

Let us compare the priestly blessing to psalm 67 in Tehillim: 

1. For the Leader; with string-music. A Psalm, a Song.
2. God be gracious to us, and bless us; may He cause His face to shine toward us; Selah.
3. That Your way may be known upon earth, Your salvation among all nations.
4. Let the peoples give thanks to You, O God; let the peoples give thanks to You, all of them.
5. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with equity, and lead the nations upon earth. Selah.
6. Let the peoples give thanks to You, O God; let the peoples give thanks to You, all of them.
7. The earth has yielded her increase; may God, our own God, bless us.
8. May God bless us; and let all the ends of the earth fear Him. (Tehillim 67) 

Verse 2 seems to be taken from the priestly blessing. It contains "The Lord bless you," "The Lord make His face to shine upon you," and "And be gracious to you." Verse 3 indicates that God's making His face to shine refers to God's salvation, as we find in Tehillim 80: "And cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved." God's blessing of us, "The Lord bless you," is mentioned again in the last two verses with the repeated words, "May God bless us." The two elements that are not mentioned in this psalm are "and keep you" and "and give you peace." Giving us peace is the best protection against others coming to attack us. The psalm refers to this in stating that God will judge all the peoples and nations, so that they will all recognize His authority and fear Him. This is God's way of setting peace among the nations and between them and us, as it is stated in the Prophets: 

And He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Yeshayahu 2:4) 

This vision may be directed at the priestly blessing. Our protection will come through peace, and peace will come by virtue of the nations' acceptance of God's judgment. The establishment of the Mishkan is the basis for the nations' acceptance of God's judgment, as we see from the vision of the end of days, in which the nations will go up to the mountain of the house of God. 

Let us add another note regarding: "The Lord make his face to shine upon you." We have already seen additional verses relating to God's shining His face. Perhaps the word "ya'er," yod-alef-resh ("make shine"), can be understood as "yera" (or "yera'eh"), yod-resh-alef ("appear"), for this is what is stated with respect to the priestly blessing sounded at the time of the setting up of the Mishkan: 

And Moshe and Aharon went into the tent of meeting and came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared (va-yera) to all the people. (Vayikra 9:23) 

By virtue of the blessing, the glory of God is seen by the people. This is also what happened in the section dealing with Avraham's circumcision (Bereishit 17-18:1); by virtue of God's blessing of Avraham, He appeared to him at Elonei Mamrei. In the section dealing with the reconciliation that was reached in the wake of the sin involving the golden calf, we find a connection between God's appearance and grace – "and be gracious to you": 

And he said: “Show me, I pray You, Your glory.” And He said: “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Shemot 33:18-19) 

There the appearance of God and the grace that came in its wake are connected to the revelation of the Shem Ha-Meforash in the thirteen attributes of mercy, perhaps paralleling the setting of God's name on the people of Israel in the priestly blessing, as if it read: "The Lord will show His face to you, and be gracious to you," paralleling the verse in Shemot following Moshe's request: "Show me, I pray you, Your glory." 

Can we impose a secondary intent on the plain meaning of the verse by inverting the letters from "ya'er" to "yera"? Perhaps this is the meaning of the double blessing of Moshe and Aharon. The people heard Aharon's blessing, "May the Lord shine." Perhaps, however, on that same occasion, Moshe said: "May the Lord appear," and then the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire congregation, after it delayed appearing at the conclusion of the preparatory service of Aharon. For future generations, we are left with blessing uttered by Aharon.