Naso

What is the deeper level of the priestly blessing?

Reflection by OHL teacher Mira Neshama Weil:

"In this week’s parasha, we read one of the most beautiful blessings of the Jewish liturgy: the birkat Cohanim - the priestly blessing.

The blessing is as simple as powerful 

כדיְבָֽרֶכְךָ֥ יְהוָֹ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ

 כהיָאֵ֨ר יְהוָֹ֧ה | פָּנָ֛יו אֵלֶ֖יךָ וִֽיחֻנֶּֽךָּ

 כויִשָּׂ֨א יְהוָֹ֤ה | פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם

May the Lord bless you and watch over you.

May the Lord cause His countenance to shine to you and favor you.

May the Lord raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace.

In three short psukim (verses), the Cohanim bless us that we may be blessed, protected, enlightened, forgiven, supported, and at peace.

While this blessing appears as one of the most solemn of the Jewish liturgy, it is also one of the most ordinary:

We may have a representation of the blessings of the birkat Cohanim, uttered and received as the Cohanim go on the bima, hide in their tallit and bless the congregation. Yet these words are also none other than the excerpt of the Torah reading which we are invited to read at the beginning of our morning prayers, each day.  

So, the birkat Cohanim is not just a ritual device by which Israel gets blessed, receiving vicariously the bounty coming from others avodah, divine service. On a deeper level, it is the task of each of us, to internalize these blessings, day after day.

One of the most powerful effects of mindfulness practice comes from repetition. In mindfulness practice, we do not wait for peak experiences, nor for the spiritual power of others, to bring us to a state of enlightenment, grace and peace.

We understand that such forms of inner openings happen through our own practice, too: when we patiently repeat intentions day after day, learning to show up with presence and kindness to the moment, we can also foster by ourselves deep transformational change in our lives."

Shabbat Shalom from Or HaLev