Summary: Moses continues with the census of the people that had already begun. The focus shifts to the duties of the Levites in the Tabernacle. The Parsha also teaches about the laws relating to unclean people and how they should be distanced from the camp. We learn about the Nazarites who took special vows and then finally we read the Priestly Benediction.
Lesson:
When I was a student rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York, our rabbi emeritus (retired rabbi) would appear on the bimah at the end of every service to bless the congregation. He was a tall, distinguished man who wore black robes. He would stand on the edge of the bimah, his robes flowing with the slight breeze, raise his arms high over the congregation and in his rich voice offer up a blessing. I felt such a deep sense of awe. It was as if the rabbi with his sonorous words brought the presence of God into the gorgeous sanctuary, and in a deeper sense, into my heart and my soul. Only later, after I’d left the sanctuary and returned to my apartment, would I begin to wonder: Does a rabbi in black robes with a deep and resonant voice really have the power to bless me?
And that leads me to wonder. When the rabbi stands in front of the synagogue and recites a blessing, does she or he really have the power to bless us? Commentators on our Torah portion have been puzzled by the apparent power of the priests to bless the people: "Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel" (Numbers 6:23). In the Talmud, Rabbi Ishmael suggests: "The priests bless Israel and the Holy One, blesses the priest". However, the idea that humans— even if they are biblical priests or tall rabbis in dark robes - have the power to bless in God’s name has been overwhelmingly rejected throughout our tradition. Our commentators interpret the Biblical verse as "The priests (they) shall link My name with the people of Israel and I ('the Eternal') will bless the people (them)." The power of the priest, or the rabbi, is simply to connect God with the people. Connecting God with humanity - that is the power of blessing.
Yet we often do ask for a blessing from others; receiving the blessing of a person we respect or admire--often our parents or our rabbi -- can have immense power and significance for us. After witnessing one person bless another, the poet Dan Bellm wrote: "I thought about this scene for a long time afterward, wondering, 'What is a blessing?' and really wanting one. Was this only an exchange between two people, or was something more present-something else, something deeper? When people meet closely and truly, when a person blesses another, is God present? What is a blessing?"
The blessings we offer are indeed powerful, but they are not magical. We do not have the power by uttering simple words to bring about even our deepest hopes. Nor do we have the power to demand that God respond to a specific request, even through words of blessing. No, like our other prayers, blessings are aspirational; we express in word and gesture our deepest yearnings. As my friend and colleague, Rabbi Yoel Kahn taught me, a blessing is an expression of hope.
Even though I am a convinced rationalist, I continue to be moved by the power and meaning of blessing, whether I am the recipient as I was at Central Synagogue or the deliverer of the blessing as I often am at Beth Shalom. The performative speech of blessing, as Vaclav Havel states in his book, “Hope” "is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons."
We learn elsewhere in the Torah (Exodus 19:6) that we are meant to be a kingdom of priests, each of us with the power to bring blessing. When we speak our words of blessing, we are God's messengers, our own words and gestures becoming the means by which, "I shall bless the people".
Chag Sameach!
Rabbi Goor