Dear TBZ Community,
This week’s Torah portion, parashat Nasso, includes the Priestly Blessing, the ancient words the Torah commands Aaron and the priests to offer to the people of Israel. These are among the oldest and most beloved words in our tradition, words that continue to accompany the Jewish people across generations and across time. They are whispered by parents over their children at the Shabbat table, recited at moments of celebration and vulnerability, offered in sanctuaries and hospital rooms, repeated at births and before departures. At TBZ, we end many of our Shabbat services by gathering our children beneath a tallit (prayer shawl) and blessing them together; we also make sure to bless one another, no matter our age, because the need for blessing never disappears.
This week I came across a beautiful midrash (interpretation) in Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2 that deeply moved me. The rabbis imagine that although the priests are commanded to bless the people, it is ultimately God who stands with them and blesses through them:
אָמַר לָהֶם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאָמַרְתִּי לַכֹּהֲנִים שֶׁיִּהְיוּ מְבָרְכִין אֶתְכֶם, עִמָּהֶם אֲנִי עוֹמֵד וּמְבָרֵךְ אֶתְכֶם
The Holy One Blessed be He said to them: “Although I said to the priests that they should bless you, with them I stand and bless you.”
עִמָּהֶם אֲנִי עוֹמֵד וּמְבָרֵךְ אֶתְכֶם
With them I stand and bless you.
The midrash turns to the imagery of Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs), imagining God peering through the spaces between the priests’ raised hands:
לְפִיכָךְ הַכֹּהֲנִים פּוֹרְשִׂים אֶת כַּפֵּיהֶם, לוֹמַר שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עוֹמֵד אַחֲרֵינוּ, וּלְכָךְ הוּא אוֹמֵר: מַשְׁגִּיחַ מִן הַחֲלֹּנוֹת, מִבֵּין כִּתְפוֹתֵיהֶם שֶׁל כֹּהֲנִים. מֵצִיץ מִן הַחֲרַכִּים, מִבֵּין אֶצְבְּעוֹתֵיהֶם שֶׁל כֹּהֲנִים
That is why the priests spread out their hands, to say that the Holy One Blessed stands behind us, and thus it says: “Watching from the windows” — from between the priests’ shoulders; “peering through the cracks” (Song of Songs 2:9) — from between the priests’ fingers.
This image has stayed with me all week. The notion that through the cracks of the priests’ fingers, God blesses us. That somehow blessing moves through human hands. Fragile hands. Imperfect hands. Human hands capable of tenderness and healing, but also capable of violence, destruction, cruelty, and indifference. Human hands that build and break worlds every single day.
And yet the midrash insists that God still chooses to move through us.
I keep returning to that image and wondering what it means to hold that possibility in our own hands. As I write these words, I find myself looking down at my fingers and asking: what does it even mean for God to peer through them? I do not know that I have an answer. Maybe the point is not certainty. Maybe the point is the invitation itself.
An invitation to pause long enough to notice our hands. To notice what they create, what they carry, what they touch, whom they comfort, whom they ignore, what they repair, and what they are still capable of becoming.
So I want to offer all of us a small spiritual practice for this Shabbat:
Take a moment this weekend to simply look at your hands. Hold them open for a few moments. And imagine, in whatever way speaks to your soul, God peering through them. Imagine holiness trying to move through your life, through your actions, through your presence in the world. Ask yourself gently: what is the next thing I want to do with these hands? How do I want to show up in the world? What blessing might I still offer someone else? What healing, what tenderness, what courage, what justice, what love?
Perhaps blessing is not something distant or abstract. Perhaps blessing begins in the very human choice to use our hands to protect rather than harm, to accompany rather than abandon, to build rather than destroy, to reach toward one another even in a world so filled with pain and fracture.
And perhaps that is why the Torah concludes the Priestly Blessing not simply with words of protection or grace, but with the reminder that through these blessings, God’s name itself becomes linked with the people:
וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
GOD spoke to Moses:
דַּבֵּר אֶל־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶל־בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר כֹּה תְבָרְכוּ אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָמוֹר לָהֶם
Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them:
יְבָרֶכְךָ ה׳ וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
GOD bless you and protect you!
יָאֵר ה׳ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
GOD deal kindly and graciously with you!
יִשָּׂא ה׳ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם
GOD bestow favor upon you and grant you peace!
וְשָׂמוּ אֶת־שְׁמִי עַל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַאֲנִי אֲבָרְכֵם
“Thus they shall link My name with the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
May we become people through whom blessing can flow.
May our hands bring comfort to those who are hurting, strength to those who are afraid, nourishment to those who are hungry, and companionship to those who feel alone.
May we remember that even through our cracks, through all that is unfinished and imperfect within us, holiness can still shine through.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia