Birchat Kohanim, Who Does the Blessing?
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5774
I mean no disrespect to our kohanim when I ask: who are you to bless us? Are you better, more special? Am I really meant to believe that you have the power to bless another human being? Isn’t that God’s domain?
There is a tension in the text regarding the priestly blessing that seems to demand that we ask these very questions.
The section detailing the priestly blessing is comprised of 6 vers
Initially (6/23) Moshe is commanded to tell Aaron and his sons – כֹּ֥ה תְבָרֲכ֖וּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אָמ֖וֹר לָהֶֽם, Thus you shall bless the children of Israel – say to them.
We then have the 3 verses that comprise the blessing. The section concludes:
כז) וְשָׂמ֥וּ אֶת־שְׁמִ֖י עַל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַאֲנִ֖י אֲבָרֲכֵֽם – You shall place my name of the people of Israel and I (God) will bless them!
We begin with the kohanim blessing the people and end with God blessing them. Who is actually doing the blessing? Is it God or the Kohanim?
There are three basic approaches to answer the question:
1. The Kohanim are actually doing the blessing. Rabeinu Bechaya quotes the Midrash Tanchuma (9) that explains that God gave the power to bless to the Kohen as a gift. It is their blessing and there is power to it. What then do you do with the end “and I God will bless them”? Rashi explains that this is simply God agreeing to the Kohen’s blessing, giving the divine seal of approval as it were. Or Rashi suggests that the end refers to God blessing the Kohanim. The Kohanim bless the Jews and God blesses the Kohanim.
2. Both are doing the blessing. It is a tag team affair. The Malbim suggests that according to some the Tzaddik, or here the Kohen simply opens the valve for divine overflow and then God takes care of the rest. To be brutally honest there is something in both of these approaches that makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I am unsure why God would give a human being the power to bless, or if that is theologically plausible. Valves and spigots and divine overflow are not concepts that are in my wheelhouse and here as well I am not terribly comfortable with a human being having the power to control divine overflow.
3. That leaves the third approach – it is God doing the blessing and not the Kohanim – as my preferred approach.
I think that one can build a very strong case for this approach. There might even be a hint to it in the first verse, the one that seems to suggest that it is the kohanim who actually give the blessing.
Hashem says to Moshe – tell the kohanim – this is how you should bless the people, אָמ֖וֹר לָהֶֽם, say to them. Those two words seem to be totally extra and unnecessary. The Torah should simply write this is how you should bless the people. Yevarechecha etc. It should be wildly obvious that the words should be spoken.
What then do these words teach us?
Most commentator refer to the Halacha that the kohanim must be called to the duchan before they can offer the blessing. While the Halacha is correct, it is very hard to read that into the verse. According to this the wordsאָמ֖וֹר לָהֶֽם refer to the people telling the kohanim to bless.
The verse would read as follows:
Moshe says to the kohanim, this is how you should bless the people and then the people will call out – please bless us. It simply is not pshat, the literal reading.
I would suggest that the words אָמ֖וֹר לָהֶֽם actually come to limit or counter the first half of the verse. While it may sound like they are blessing the people, in actuality they are simply speaking to the people.
Further support can be found in two fantastic pieces in the commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.
First he notes that this is not a blessing as we think about getting from a rebbe. Rashbam notes that the Kohanim cannot choose the blessing. They can’t bless someone with wealth or health. They can simply tell the people or bless them with the exact words that God provides. They have no personal input.
Hirsch adds that not only is the verbiage limited, but time and place are limited as well. This can only be done as part of the service. It is not a spontaneous blessing; rather a formal part of the temple service.
ברכת כהנים אין לה כח מאגי, הנובע מן הכהן ומן הנוסחה – the priestly blessing does not have magic powers that derive from the kohen or the words.
He is even more explicit commenting on וְשָׂמ֥וּ אֶת־שְׁמִ֖י עַל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַאֲנִ֖י אֲבָרֲכֵֽם.
He writes: It is not the Kohanim are blessing the people, the words leaving the Kohen’s mouth do not have the power of blessing in any place. Rather there task it to place the name of God onto the Jewish people…. It is incumbent upon the kohanim to express that the Jews look only to Hashem for all of their blessing and peace etc.
How do you read כֹּ֥ה תְבָרֲכ֖וּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל according to Hirsch?
It either means, this is how you can help the Jews receive their divine blessing or the blessing is that they should focus on God.
I know that neither is perfect but it is the reading that I prefer.
That reading maintains that there is only one source of blessing and one being with the ability to bless.
The job of the kohanim is simply to direct our attention to that source of blessing.
