Parshat Naso: A Blessing On Your Head
Let not the blessing of a commoner be light in your eyes
-The Talmud
People love to receive blessings. I went to the Florida Panthers Eastern Conference Final Game 4 last week. I tried to buy a parking pass online before the game for $40 but my credit card would not go through. So I called and they said they were no longer taking advanced parking. “So I can just pay the $40 at the arena?” The woman said yes.
But when I got there the charge was $50. I explained to the young lady that I was told it was $40 at the arena and can she honor that and let me in for the lower cost. “Just go on in” she said with a wave of her hand. No charge. Wow! I thanked he profusely and told her that I am a Rabbi and can I give her a blessing? Without a word she immediately lowered her head and leaned toward my car. I blessed her with health, success and that God should fulfill all her wishes.
People love Blessings. And I saved 50 bucks, which was also a Blessing.
This week’s Torah portion features Birkat Kohanim – the Priestly Blessings. Not only were these blessings recited in the Temple, but they continue to be said today by the Kohanim as they bless the congregation on Jewish holidays, such as Shavuot that has just passed. In Israel, they are part of the daily service.
The Kohanim stand before the congregation, shoes off their feet, talit over their heads and fingers arranged in a special manner. Spock-like in fact and that is where Leonard Nimoy from the original Star Trek, who was a Kohen, got it from. The Kohanim respond to the leader of the service, reciting each word carefully while their outstretched arms sweep from side to side as they bless the people before them. It has become a custom for parents to recite the Priestly Blessing on Friday night when blessing the children.
The Hebrew for blessing is beracha, which is the exact same word but pronounced differently as the Hebrew word meaning a “pool”, a braycha. When we bless someone, we wish that they endlessly expand and grow for the better, the way a spring or pool of water continuously flows on and on. The very first time God communicated with Avraham He told him, “You shall be a blessing… and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you.” The definition of the Jewish people at the very outset is to be an endless source of good and blessing for all of mankind.
There are three phrases that make up the Priestly Blessing:
1. May the Lord bless you and safeguard you refers to the simple request that God should provide us with all of our needs and protect our things from harm or loss.
2. May God shine His face toward you and be gracious unto you means that God should smile upon you and show His favor and grace to you.
3. May God lift His face toward you and grant you Peace means that God will forgive your sins. Lifting ones face implies making an extra effort to look at and regard another despite the difficulty in doing so. And grant you Peace obviously means that God should give you tranquility in life.
These three blessings express three levels of our relationship to God. May the Lord bless you and safeguard you means that first and foremost, we need our material needs fulfilled. Without our basic needs in life, we cannot strive for anything higher.
The Talmud says that an extremely poor person is like a dead person. Those are harsh and seemingly insensitive words, but what the Talmud is getting at is that life is more than just having food, drink and shelter. Without these necessities, we cannot think of anything else. But if our whole life is only about such things, what is it really? It is not much higher than that of an animal and this is certainly not why we were created – to merely fend for our physical needs.
Incidentally, a “poor person” in this regard is not just the impoverished but anyone whose whole life is totally wrapped up in the material and the mundane. They too are dead-like if they live without any spirituality.
Once we reach this first stage of our needs being met, we want that God should smile upon us. The second blessing, May God shine His face toward you and be gracious unto you means that we wish for God to have an ongoing relationship with us and provide us with life’s blessings, beyond the basic ones referred to in the first blessing.
We can sense when God is smiling upon us when our accomplishments and dreams become realized and we feel that our life is greater than merely paying the bills and fulfilling our obligations. Having “God shine His face towards us” happens when we feel God’s radiance, warmth and personal connection with us when He shows us His grace. The word for grace in Hebrew is חן chayn and it means giving without any expectation of anything in return. When God’s shines His face upon us, we see the numerous and gratis gifts He showers upon us when He helps us accomplish our goals and our dreams.
The third blessing, May God lift His face toward you and grant you Peace continues from the first two. As with any relationship, when two parties get close to one another, there is the ever-present chance at hurt and disappointment. This is the natural progression of any intimate relationship. The closer you feel to someone, the greater the opportunity to hurt that individual with a wrong act or word. And let’s face it, nobody is perfect and hurtful things will always be said or done.
Because of this, we ask that God forgive any wrongdoing and recreate the bond that we originally had before the slight. We ask that “He lift His face” up towards us from His downcast look of disappointment that He may have had previously towards us.
We all know that relationships that have worked through pain, disappointment and difficulty end up having a stronger bond than before. We also know that this new connection is more long-lasting, unifying and peaceful than ever before. And that is why the three blessings end off with the word Shalom – Peace. Fixing a relationship always makes it stronger and each party is more at peace with the other.
May the Priestly Blessings continue to work their magic and may only Blessings enter our lives in one way or another. Even when they show up in the parking lot before a hockey game.
May the good Lord be with you
Down every road you roam
And may Sunshine and Happiness
Surround you when you’re far from home
May you grow to be proud
Dignified and true
And do unto others
As you’d have done to you
But whatever road you choose
I’m right behind you,
Win or lose
Forever young
-Sir Rod Stewart
