במדבר 6:24-26: יברכך ה' וישמרך. יאר ה' פניו אליך ויחנך. ישא ה' פניו אליך וישם לך שלום.
Bemidbar 6:24-26 record the birkat cohanim, the priestly blessings. These blessings are pronounced every day in the land of Israel, and on the festivals in the Diaspora. What is the meaning of these blessings?
The priestly blessings consist of three verses, and each verse has two parts or two blessings. It would seem logical that the two parts/ blessings in each verse are related to each other. Also, the number of words in each verse increase from three words, 6:24, to five words, 6:25, and then to seven words, 6:26, which suggests that the blessings build upon each other. To understand how the two parts/ blessings in each verse connect to each other and how the blessings in the verses expand on the previous blessing, we need to understand the blessings.
N. Leibowitz (1982, pp. 65-73) explains that the blessing in the beginning of the first verse, 6:24, refers to material blessings, and the blessing in the end of the verse, shamor, is either that G-d should ensure that the material goods are not stolen (Rashi on 6:24) or that the material goods do not make a person arrogant (Netziv on 6:24).
The Bekhor Shor writes that there are many possible blessings that can be the reference to the blessing in the beginning of 6:24, such as having children, good health and long life, and the blessing of shamor in the end of 6:24 is that G-d should protect bad things from occurring to the person. These bad things would remove the blessings from the beginning of the verse, and sometimes it is worse to have been blessed and lose the blessings, then never to have been blessed in the first place. These ideas follow the understanding that the word shamor means to protect, as maybe occurs in Bereshit 41:35 and Shemot 22:6,9.
Yet, as we discuss on Devarim 4:6, “The definition of the word shamor in Moshe’s speeches in the book of Devarim - To remember,” the real meaning of the word shamor in the Torah is to remember. Thus, the end of 6:24 means that the priest is blessing the people that G-d should remember the blessings in the beginning of the verse that the blessings should endure.
The blessings given to the patriarchs in the book of Bereshit support the idea that 6:24 refers to physical blessings. The first word in 6:24 invokes the word berakhah. This word figures prominently by G-d’s blessings to Avraham and Yitzhak, Bereshit 12:2, 22:17, 24:35 and 26:3, and these were physical blessings of wealth, land, children and to have a good reputation. The last word in 6:24 shamor also appears by the blessings to Yaakov when he was running away from Esav, Bereshit 28:15. In this case, the blessing to Yaakov was that G-d would remember him, namely protect him, in his journeys.
The first part of the second verse, 6:25, is that G-d will “light up His face towards you.” This phrase is difficult to understand. The Sifrei (41) quote five explanations for this phrase. One (and five) is that G-d will answer your prayers (or give you without you even asking), and this is Ibn Ezra’s (on 6:25) explanation of the verse. A second explanation in the Sifrei is that G-d will make you likeable that people will treat you nicely, which is based on the blessing in the end of the verse. The third and fourth explanations in the Sifrei is that G-d will grant you wisdom either in general or specifically to understand the Torah. Rashi (on 6:25) suggests a sixth explanation that the phrase means that G-d will show you a smiling face. What can this mean? This is a literal interpretation of the beginning of 6:25, but does G-d have a face? Can a person see G-d’s face?
The second part of the second verse, 6:25, is that G-d should grant you grace. What does this mean? Does it mean that the priest is blessing the person that G-d should give him/ her friends?
The first part of the third verse, 6:26, is that “G-d should lift up His face towards you.” Rashi (on 6:26) writes that this phrase means that G-d will suppress His anger to you. With this approach, the third blessing is a worse blessing than the second blessing, but as mentioned above, the blessings seem to increase. Alter (2004, p. 714) writes that both the first phrase of the second blessing and the first phrase of the third blessing are that G-d should show favor or affection to the person. What is this favor? The physical blessing of 6:24? Why would the priest repeat the blessing of 6:24? Why are the blessings of the first part of 6:25 and 6:26 so similar?
The second part of the third verse is that G-d should grant the person peace. Is this the same idea as the end of the first verse that G-d should remember or protect the person? How does this blessing of peace relate to the beginning of the third verse that “G-d should lift up His face towards you?”
To understand the second and third verses of the priestly blessings it is necessary to understand the term G-d’s face which appears in the beginning of both 6:25 and 6:26. During the conversation between G-d and Moshe after the people sinned by the golden calf, Moshe asked to see G-d’s glory, Shemot 33:18. Shemot 33:20 records that G-d responded that Moshe could not see His face. This response shows that G-d’s face is the glory of G-d.
Accordingly, the blessing in the first part of the second verse, 6:25, is that the priest is blessing the people that G-d’s glory should project light towards the people. This light is the fire that is within the glory of G-d, see Shemot 24:17. The blessing in the second half of 6:25 is that G-d should grant the people grace. This grace is crucial if the person is to see the glory of G-d since seeing the light from the glory of G-d could be a positive or negative experience. It was positive after the Decalogue in Shemot 24:17, but in Bemidbar 14:10, the light from the glory of G-d was quite ominous. Thus, the blessing in the second half of 6:25 is that G-d should grant the person grace in order that seeing the light of G-d’s glory, the blessing in the first part of 6:25, would be a positive experience. Note that the blessing in 6:25 is not that the person will see the glory of G-d, which cannot occur, Shemot 33:20, but that the person should see the light that emanates from the glory of G-d.
The first part of the third verse, 6:26, records that “G-d would lift up His face towards the people.” This phrase again refers to G-d’s glory that it would be lifted up towards the people. This is different than the second blessing where a person would see the light of G-d’s glory from a distance, while here the blessing is for a person to be relatively close to G-d’s glory. This is what Moshe asked for when he asked to see G-d’s glory in his conversation with G-d after the sin of the golden calf, Shemot 33:18. Moshe has previously seen G-d’s glory (Shemot 16:10), but he wanted to get closer to G-d’s glory, see our discussion on Shemot 33:18-34:7, “As close as it gets.” The blessing in the second half of 6:26, the blessing of peace, is crucial for the fulfillment of the blessing in the first part of the verse. Even if a person has G-d’s grace, as Moshe did, Shemot 33:17, still Moshe needed special protection to be able to get close to G-d’s glory, Shemot 33:22. Thus, the blessing of peace in the end of 6:26 is that G-d should protect the person if the person is blessed to get close to G-d’s glory, the first part of 6:26.
After speaking on this topic in my synagogue, my son Dror pointed out that with this approach, in each verse, the blessing in the second half of the verse it to ensure that the blessing of the first part of the verse ensues.
We see that the blessings in the three verses are in ascending order just like the number of words in each blessing. The blessing in the first verse, 6:24, is that the person should receive material blessings, the blessing in the second verse, 6:25, is that the person should see the glory of G-d, an unbelievable religious experience, and the blessing in the third verse, 6:26, is that person should be able to get close to the glory of G-d, which is the closest any person can come to G-d and is even more unbelievable than seeing the glory of G-d from a distance. This last blessing marks the highest level a human being can achieve, which. as far is known, was only attained by Moshe.
Alter, Robert, 2004, The five books of Moses: A translation and commentary, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Leibowitz, Nehama, 1982, Studies in Bemidbar, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.
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