Nasso

פרשת נשא וענייני ברכה

This week’s Parsha contains the commandment for the Kohanim to bless the Jewish people each and every day. This beloved commandment is one of the times in which Hashem gets to display His vast affection for us on a daily basis. After the verses which make up the contents of this special blessing, Hashem assures the Jewish people that He will place His name upon them. I would like to attempt to explain what this strange assurance refers to.

The Akeidas Yitzchak attempts to deal with this issue, and he explains that in order to receive the bounty of Hashem, one has to prepare himself for that blessing. One of the primary preparations which must be done is what King David said in Tehilim (33). “The eye of Hashem is upon those that fear Him, and those that long for His blessing”. A person who fosters a sincere longing for Hashem’s blessing, and who comes to the realization that essentially, all blessing originates from Him, will ultimately merit in seeing that blessing come into fruition. Perhaps it is for this reason that all three of the Kohen’s blessing point to Hashem as the ultimate source of blessing. “May Hashem bless you and keep you. May Hashem shine His favor upon you. May Hashem lift his face up to you and bless you with peace”. These three blessings focus our attention on who is really responsible for all goodness in order to help a person come to the realization which will be most effective in bringing about those very blessings that he seeks. Only by recognizing that Hashem is the source of all blessing will a person merit to receive that bounty. Indeed the verse goes on to say that if in fact a person comes to this realization, he is guaranteed that Hashem will carry through on His side of the bargain, and the blessing will come true. This is why the verses which describe the Kohen’s blessing end with the strange assurance that Hashem will “place His name upon the Jewish people”. This was done in order to demonstrate that the sole purpose of the blessing was to cause the Jewish people to recognize that Hashem is the source of all blessing. Parenthetically R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch used to point out that this is the reason why the Chazan must call out to the Kohanim in order for them to begin the blessing, and then he must read every word before the Kohanim can say it. This is in order to exhibit that blessing doesn’t originate from the Kohanim, rather it belongs to the congregation, (who are represented by the Chazan), and the Kohanim’s sole job is to encourage the congregation to do what is necessary in order to receive their rightful blessing.

Perhaps another very effective catalyst to bring about blessing into our lives can be found in the Gemorah in Berachos (20b). The Gemorah says that when the angels read the blessing of the Kohanim in the Torah, and they got to the part in which Hashem says that He will shine his countenance upon us, they became very upset. They proclaimed to Hashem that He contradicted himself. In another verse in the Torah, He had already written that He would never show favoritism, and He will never take a bribe. This blessing seems to be a clear example of His showing favoritism to the Jewish people! Hashem responded, “What can I do? Should I not show favoritism to the nation who showed favor to me? In the Torah, I only commanded them to perform the Grace after meals when they eat until satiety, but they were stringent upon themselves and instituted that they would even recite that blessing after eating only a small amount of food! Should I not show favor to such a wonderful people?” From this Gemorah it is clear that another very effective way to earn Hashem’s blessing is by being careful about His word as the Mishnah in Avos says, “Make your will into His will, in order that He should make His will your will.

I believe that this understanding of the Akeidas Yitzchak which we opened with can be compared to a country lad who visits the city for the first time. When he arrives, he is literally standing there with his mouth agape when he sees the technological advantages that the city enjoys over the country lifestyle. The first time that he sees indoor plumbing, he is so shocked that he needs to hold on to something to prevent himself from falling over. So he decides to go buy a few faucets and bring them back to his fellow townsfolk so they too can enjoy the benefits of not having to schlep the water from the local river anymore. When he arrives home, he dutifully goes over to the wall, and installs the faucet onto the wall. However, to his utter dismay, when he turns on the faucet, nothing happens. In between guffaws of laughter, they explain to this simple boy that the faucets only work if there are pipes connecting those faucets to some water source. Without this crucial factor, the faucets are useless. This analogy explains exactly the mechanics of a blessing from the Kohanim, or a blessing from any righteous person for that matter. A blessing needs to allow us to reconnect with our creator who is the source of all blessing. Without this necessary factor, the blessing is completely ineffective, much the same way a faucet without a water source is ineffective. A blessing must serve to allow us to refocus our attention on God as our sole provider, and to the extent that it does that, this is the extent of its efficacy. This understanding is in direct opposition to those who believe a blessing to be some kind of magic potion which will make all their problems go away.

There is another response to difficult times which I believe also needs to be uprooted from the Jewish psyche. When people are faced with very complicated challenges, they often fall into despair and depression. (We are not referring to a chemical imbalance). This reaction stems from a fundamental lack of belief in God as the All-mighty being who is personally responsible for every event in our lives. As we have explained, this belief is essential in order to receive any abundance from the All-mighty. When a person finds himself in this state, he is obligated to recalibrate his relationship with Hashem by contemplating who put him in this situation in the first place, and how easy it would be to extract him from those circumstances. When a person does this, and he inevitably comes to the conclusion that the Master of the World, who is the source of all blessing, has no problem redeeming him, he will in fact merit the very thing that he wanted and he will most probably find himself extricated from his uncomfortable predicament without too much delay.

May we all merit to see Hashem as the source of all blessing and enjoy His bounty!