Haftarat Parshat Shemini: Who May Bless?

‘How can it be,’ David Hamelech asks in our Haftarah, ‘that I live in a palace of cedar wood, while the Aron Kodesh resides in a tent’? (II Samuel 7:2). With his kingdom in a stable position following years of warfare, David feels it is time to build the Beit Hamikdash, a permanent home for the Shechina (the presence of God) constructed in glory and splendor.

But as the Haftarah continues, David learns that this vision cannot be realized through his own hands. Though initially supportive, Natan haNavi receives instruction from God to convey to David that Shlomo, his son and successor, will be the one to build the Beit Hamikdash.

While the verses from our Haftarah are somewhat opaque regarding why this task is passed on to Shlomo, David himself clarifies to his son why God did not approve of his original plan. “But the word of the Lord came to me, saying,‘You have shed much blood and fought great battles; you shall not build a House for My name, for you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.” (I Chronicles 22:8).

On first reading, it would seem that the reason David is unable to build the Beit Hamikdash is that having engaged in warfare, he is unfit to build a house for the Almighty.

This same concern is cited in the context of a different halacha, rooted in the Gemara (Brachot 32b) and codified by the Rambam (Tefilah 16:3) and Shulchan Aruch (128:35): a Kohen who has killed another person is precluded from performing Birkat Kohanim. Having taken the life of another person, they are no longer fit to bless the Jewish people with well-being and peace. God, whose ways are peaceful and whose compassion extends to all living things, demands that His sacred servants and rituals be completely untainted by the taking of human lives.

In modern times, halakhic authorities have questioned whether this rule extends to soldiers serving in the IDF. If a Kohen kills in the line of duty, is he still permitted to bless the people?

After the 1982 Lebanon war, Rav She’ar Yashuv Cohen wrote an exhaustive article on this subject, concluding that the normative halakhic position is to permit a Kohen who justifiably killed someone in the context of army service to recite Birkat Kohanim. Rav Cohen cites multiple halakhic sources including Rav Ovadia Yosef (Yechaveh Daat 2:14), who brings the example of David Hamelech to distinguish between justified and unjustified bloodshed.

David, Rav Ovadia notes, was not punished for the obligatory wars he waged – those aligned with God’s will. What made David Hamelech unfit to build the Beit Hamikdash were the wars he chose to wage to expand territory beyond Israel’s defined borders before completing the conquest of the land inside of Israel.

This misaligned military priority rendered some of David’s campaigns as “Kibbush Yachid” (optional conquests (cf. Tosfot Gittin 8a, s.v. Kibbush Yachid). Such unsanctioned wars caused unwarranted death, spiritually disqualifying David from building the Beit Hamikdash. This was the blood that David recounts to his son, echoing God’s message through Natan in our Haftarah:

Further, say thus to My servant David…Moreover, I have given you [David] a great name like that of the greatest men on earth. I established a home for My people Israel [namely they are living in the land] and planted them firm, that they may dwell in a place of their own and be troubled no more… I [told you, David] that I will give you safety from all your enemies, and The LORD declares to you that He, the LORD, will establish a house for you. [At that point when you, David, had a palace you should have conquered the rest of Jerusalem and built the Beit Hamikdash. That was the halakhic priority. However you focused on other wars, optional wars. You spilled blood inappropriately. Therefore …] When your days are done and you lie with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own issue, and I will establish his kingship. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. (II Samuel 7:8-14)

There is a parallel today for a Kohen who kills someone fighting in an optional war; in such a case, he may be disqualified from passing on God’s blessing of well-being and peace. However, in a war which is necessary for self-defense – which are all the wars that Israel has fought – halakha permits Kohanim to continue blessing Am Israel.

This was also true during the Holocaust when Jews who fought in the resistance or in the armed forces were not banned from being able to oleh laduchan, to bless the people. And the same also applied to the Hasmonean Kohanim at the center of the Chanukah story, who waged war to protect Jewish sovereignty and served in the Beit Hamikdash.

We yearn for the day – just as David did – when God will grant us respite from our enemies. This yearning is especially poignant at this moment, a year and a half into this war and in the days between Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron.

But until such a time of complete peace comes, we continue to grapple with the weighty questions of war: how to defend ourselves without losing our moral compass; how to preserve both our body and our soul. Certainly, when necessary, we are forced to take up arms, but that is not done lightly, and never without justification. We must remain a holy nation, worthy of our Kohanim’s continued blessings. With God’s help, there are Solomonic days on the horizon, when God will bless and protect us, and give us peace.