Parshat Naso: Be a Blessing

This week's parsha contains the Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing. We are all familiar with this because we recite it in services every week. It asks God to bless and keep us, shine His face upon us, be gracious to us and give us peace. But I would like to focus on the verse immediately prior to the blessing where Hashem commands the priests to do this.

Da-bayr el A-ha-ron ve-el lay-mor ko, ti-va-ra-chu et-be-nay Yis-ra-ayl a-mor la-hem
Say to Aaron and his sons, Thus shall you bless the people of Israel: saying to them...

First, notice that the kohanim are commanded to bless Israel. It is not an option for them. It is their duty. We tend to think of the priests as elevated above ordinary Israelites, and indeed they are held to a higher level of holiness. But it is only to function as servants of Israel.

Second, a midrash notices that the word "amor", saying, is spelled with a vav. One could spell it as aleph-mem-resh. But here in this verse it is spelled with an extra letter; aleph-mem-vav-resh. The midrash says that this indicates that the priests were to bless Israel with all of their hearts, to the fullest extent, with great kavannah (focus). This is why when a Kohen today blesses with people in the synagogue (something sadly we never get to see because we do not have one in our congregation), they recite a barucha beforehand "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who makes us holy with the holiness of Aaron and commanded us to bless His people Israel with love". This interpretation of the extra letter vav, gives rise to "with love". The kohanim must bless Israel with great intention and love.

Third, the midrash goes on to note that the word amor is a participle. It is translated as "saying". This denotes that the priests are to continually bless Israel.

These three things points to the Economy of Mutual Blessing that we have discussed many times. The priests are separate from Israel, but only in order to bless them. Israel in turn blesses the priests by providing their livelihood. God blesses the priests as well. For He says in Genesis 12, "I will bless those who bless you". Therefore we have this state of mutual blessing between the priests and Israel.

Just as the kohanim were priests to Israel, continually blessing them with great kavannah and love, Israel is priest to the nations of the world. We are required, commanded, to bless them with great kavannah and love. As a Jew, I am aware of this every day. And I focus on being kind, patient, and generous to those around me. I have made it my personal minhag, custom, to include in more morning davenning an awareness of moving throughout my day as a priest in the world. I pray specifically for my workplace, co-workers illnesses and troubles, for peace in the workplace, and the well being of the company, and so forth.

But Israel doesn't bless the nations from afar. God brings them into the covenant of mutual blessing through His Messiah. Another midrash states that Abraham was meant to absorb people into his family, to create a new definition of what it means to be family. The Hebrew word often translated as family is "mishpacha". But it is used in a variety of ways in the Torah. It sometimes means tribe or nation, or even a guild. In Genesis it is used to denote the different species, or families, of animals that are created. It probably best to translate it as "household", meaning a grouping of people bound by either blood relation or covenant.

This is illustrated by the story of Hagar and Sarah. The only word in the Torah that shares the same root as mishpacha, is "shifcha", which means maidservant. Initially Hagar is referred to as Shifcha; she is a member of the household. But when the trouble begins with her having Ishmael and mistreating Sarah, she is thrown out of the household. There the Bible uses the term "ama" which just means slavewoman. She is no longer part of the family.

Abraham is called upon by God to create a mishpacha of humanity. Through Messiah Yeshua, Israel is expanded to include the church; those of the nations who have joined with Israel through faith. They are now mishpacha. They are not the same but bound together with us in a covenant of mutual blessing. Genesis 12 says "Through you they shall bless themselves." The nations bless themselves by choosing Hashem and adopt His Torah.

Yeshua is the ultimate Abraham. Through him the nations are adopted. He is also our Kohen Ha-Gadol who blesses both Israel and the Church. Another midrash speaks of Israel's unhappiness with being blessed by the priests, they complained that they wanted to be blessed directly by Hashem. God replies that He is actually the one doing the blessing through the priests. The midrash uses a verse from the Song of Songs where the beloved peers through a lattice at his lover as God blessing Israel through the "lattice" of the priests hands. The priests hold their hands up making the sign made famous by Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan salute. There are 5 openings; between the middle and ring fingers of each hand, between the index finger and the thumb of each hand, and between the thumbs. Yeshua as our Great High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice lifts his hands in blessing, but his bear the marks of his sacrifice, making 7 openings in the lattice. Seven the number of perfection. He is the perfect High Priest and Sacrifice.

Just as the priests bless Israel, we bless the nations. We are their servants, commanded to continually bless them with great intention and love. I urge all of us to see ourselves in this manner. We are priests wherever we go. Let us be deliberate about this. Ask ourselves, How can we be a blessing today? In our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, even at shul. We can also ask the opposite. "How am I not being a blessing?" So that we can change and become better priests.

There are those in our movement that are tempted to look down on the Church. We are commanded to love them, bless them, respect them. And to treat them as you would say in Yiddish, "mispocha"!

May we be the blessing that we are commanded to be.
May we do it with great intention and love.
May we raise our hands in blessing like our Perfect Kohen Ha-Gadol and allow Hashem's blessing to filter though the "lattice" of our fingers.

Shabbat Shalom.