Rabbi's Drash

Naso

(  )

5769

Bamidbar 4:21-7:89
 

This portion introduces a very special blessing Birkat Cohanim, the Aaronic benediction. Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people 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 people of Israel, and I will bless them. (Numbers 6:23-27, ESV) It was given by G-d to Moses to tell Aharon that this is the prayer that Aaron would say for G-d to bless the children of Israel. Our sages have spent many long hours trying to understand and learn more about this blessing. jmsyv yy jkrby jnxyv jyla vynp yy ray ovls jl osyv jyla vynp yy asy Yevarekhekha A-donai ve-yishmerekha - The Lord bless you and protect you. Ya'er A-donai panav eleikha ve-yehuneka - The Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. Yissa A-donai panav eleikha ve-yasem lekha shalom - The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and grant you peace. The form reflects a gradation in the content of the blessing. There are 3 words in the first line, 5 words in the second and 7 words in the third. There are 15 letters in the Hebrew of the 1st line, 20 letters in the 2nd and 25 in the 3rd. Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno comments: "[May the Lord] bless you" - with wealth and possessions, for "without flour there is no Torah"; "and protect you" - from robbers. "Ya'er [shine]" - may He open your eyes to the light of His countenance, to behold the wonders of His Teaching and His deeds, having satisfied your needs through His blessing. "May the Lord lift up His countenance to you" - for eternity... "and grant you peace," eternal peace, Eternity without any admixture of punishment, as befits all who are whole, for the World to Come. The verses carry a special message to Israel. In all the phrases Adonai is in the middle. According to our sages, this prayer speaks of three types of blessings: the first line represents G-d blessing for man physical provision. The middle line represents the spiritual blessing for man and the third blessing is the Olam habah, for the World to come The word blessing "brakhah" has the same root as barak - bend the knee. You are lowering or humbling yourself to receive a blessing. According to the Mishna it is written "where there is no flour, there is no Torah." This means if we are not blessed by G-d with provision, it is very difficult to study Torah. G-d created us for having a true relationship with Him and He will provide everything we need to be in fellowship with Him. Have you ever truly paused -as when the Scriptures say 'selah', to digest what this truly means? The word yishmerekha comes from the root 'shomer" meaning 'guard". He will guard us. Ya'er comes from ohr which means light and from here illuminate. He is a light to guide our path. The idea is Him blessing us, not the opposite…we do not bless Him. We need Him not vice versa. It depicts an attitude of surrender in order to receive His blessings. Panav is a Hebraism expressing His face. No can look upon the face of G-d and live. Yeshua said "If you have seen me you have seen the Father. It represents the illumination of spiritual awareness; the Presence of G-d in us where we can open our eyes and see who He is, not according to doctrine but through pure revelation of G-d in us. Do you have any idea how fortunate we are; how blessed that G-d has come down to us to reveal who He is to us? The first level of this prayer - He will bless you and keep you represents the physical realm. He is saying that we are part of His team and He will provide for us. The second level-you will see His countenance and He'll be gracious to us. Grace is saying thank you (in Spanish- thank you is gracias). We will be able to see a level that is greater than we can understand; even if we don't understand it, we receive a special participation with Him. He extends an invitation to be in His Presence. He satisfies our basic needs physically and spiritually. Yissa means to "raise" up. The Lord raises His position before you and gives you His peace. Rav Shaul said similar words when he said to the Philippians' congregation "…. …and the peace of G-d will surpass all human understanding." When we are under a lot of pressure it is a good time to remember that this life is temporary. There's an eternal dwelling waiting for us. In this last portion of the blessing, G-d is assuring us that if we are called by Him, no one can separate us from Him for eternity. We can be like a small bird singing peacefully in a tree swaying in a terrible storm. In this simple blessing, the whole of Israel is blessed. The rest of the world needs to understand that the only way to be blessed as well is to be under Israel whose G-d is the true G-d. This has and continues to cause jealousy and the ensuing anti-Semitism. Being Jewish is not a race separating a people because they are better. It is a calling by G-d bringing with it a lot of responsibility. It is humbling rather that a matter of pride. There is an old Jewish proverb that says…the more that is given, the more is required from you…more responsibility-more suffering… This blessing is an unconditional blessing. It is the only time G-d says "I will bless Israel with these words. It is not Aaron or the High Priest blessing. It is G-d who is blessing. Why is this so important? When G-d gave us the Torah, there were blessings and curses which came along with it. If we obeyed, we would be blessed. If we disobeyed, we would bear the consequences of our disobedience, the tochecha-the curses. Is there a contradiction here? One minute we are being told that the only way we can be blessed is if we obey and here it is simply because He wants to. The simply way to understand this is when G-d handed down Torah, they were His advice, his teachings as a loving reminder to us on how to live in harmony with each other. Does G-d need us to keep His Torah? It is not that G-d is waiting and watching for the first chance to punish us, heaven forbid. It is the natural order of things. If your mother warns you not to touch the stove because it is hot, she is not doing that because she hates you and wants to punish you. She is warning you because of her love for you and her desire to protect you. That is the essence of Torah-G-d's loving instructions to His people to protect and guard them from harm. This blessing is an unconditional one. The people of Israel are considered worthy of the blessing simply by virtue of their being His people. He will never reject or abandon His children no matter what. Did Yeshua reject Shimon Kefas (Peter) after he denied Him three times? In the same way we are humbled; we are a broken people with broken hearts. When He comes to us, He makes us alive again. It may be difficult to leave behind who we were but whether Jew or Gentile, when He calls us, He blesses us and gives us a new life. We become one people, all blessed as the true Israel.    May G-d add blessings to His Word!      Rabbi Percy Johnson      Netanel ben Yochanan      [nxy [b lantn      © 2008 Use by Permission      Kehilat She’ar Yashuv

If there is Hebrew writing above, and you can't see
it properly, you can click here to download the font.