The Priestly Benediction: Radiance and Convergence

This week’s parsha, Naso, includes the Priestly Benediction.
Hebrew:
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָ
יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם
English:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

Sound familiar?
You might remember it from the Duchanen, the Priestly blessing ritual where Kohanim recite the benediction over the congregation, that is part of the Amidah service that is the core of the Jewish prayer service. In the Sephardic and now Israeli version, it is included every day. In Sephardic and Israeli synagogues, the Birkat Kohanim is recited daily by the Kohanim during the morning (Shacharit) and additional (Mussaf) services, with the priests standing before the congregation, covered by prayer shawls, blessing the community. In the Ashkenazi service, it is recited on certain holidays – including this past week’s Sukkot.

Or you might remember it from the Bob Dylan song, Forever Young – including perhaps the more melodic cover version by Rod Stewart. Dylan quotes directly from it and then expands on it. Forever Young is not only the blessing to the child in the song, but conveys a sense of how this biblical passage is renewed so often in Jewish prayer and popular culture.

If you follow the Christian Billboard Chart, it peaked at No. 2 in 2020. The Priestly Benediction inspired the 2020 song The Blessing by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Christian Airplay chart, adapting the benediction’s text into a worship anthem. The prayer had centuries earlier been incorporated into the liturgy of many Protestant denominations.

The first run of Fiddler on the Roof became the longest running musical until that time, with almost three thousand performances. The songs there include an exquisitely simple and moving choral version of the Priestly Benediction, delivered on a Friday night in a family home.

Islam has been called an essentially Jewish religion – including its monotheism, its identification of a greatest prophet, its version of a Holy Book (which paraphrases much of the Jewish bible), its daily prayers, its identification of a Holy city and Holy of Holies, its take on the Kosher rules. There are Islamic greetings and prayers that contain aspects of the Priestly Benediction, but it’s not clear that this is the product of any direct and specific influence, rather than the two religions sharing wider elements in common.

The hymn book of ancient Israelite times, the book of Psalms, includes one – Psalm 67 that incorporates the Priestly Benediction. Psalm 67 echoes the benediction’s themes, particularly in verse 1: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us” (NIV), invoking divine favor and peace.

Radiance is part of the Religion: a word, a few lines, can be the pulsing source in many dimensions – liturgical, musical, literary, spiritual – through millennia.
So is convergence. Points of radiance may have a prehistory; some moment of convergence where that point is incorporated into the Tradition in a way that assures its ongoing attention and vitality. A concept, a phrase, might be incorporated into some holy book that is endlessly studied – such as the Jewish bible, the Mishna, the Shulchan Aruch (a codification of Jewish law).
Where did the Priestly Benediction originally come from?

The blessing was found in the “Silver Scrolls”, two amulets discovered in a burial cave in 1979, confirmed at Ketef Hinnom, Jerusalem. The scrolls are dated to circa 600 BCE. They might have been a prayer or blessing that was part of Israelite culture even before the book of Numbers was compiled (perhaps about 2500 years ago). Numbers likely drew on a variety of sources – manuals the Priests used in carrying out the Temple services, oral histories of the Israelite people, or in the case of the Priestly Benediction, an ancient part of the spiritual culture.

A radiant point in the Tradition is preserved in a sacred text because of its spiritual or literary power. The Priestly Benediction “earned” its way into the bible because of its magnificent content and supremely artful expression.

The content is unusual in some ways. Much of the Jewish prayer service for millennia has been told in the first person plural; we, the congregation, pray. Some prayers, like the 23rd psalm, however, are cast in the individual voice – in that case, an individual who feels the world can be alienating or menacing, but finds hope and reassurance in the idea of a Creator who cares about individuals and protects them.

The Priestly Benediction has an extraordinary flow. The blessing does not come from the priest. The priest is an instrument to convey the hope or confidence that the Creator will grant to the individual – to the person blessed, using the second person singular – prosperity, grace and peace.

The form of the blessing is a supreme example of the highest literary art in the bible: a form in which a world, a universe of meaning, is conveyed in the most compact package imaginable, and with superb literary skill. The word count of the three lines is 15 Hebrew words (3, 5, 7 words per line). There are successive prime numbers; these appeal to the ear because they are foundational, not decomposable into integral parts. The number of words and the thought builds. Biblical poetry often consists of two lines, in which the second develops on the first. Here there are three – just as the most inspiring book of the Talmud, Pirkei Avot, deploys three-part expressions.
The sound of the Priestly Benediction conveys peace and soothing. The peaceful vowel sound “ah” is repeated over and over. The last line is full of “s” and “sh” sounds…like a whispered lullaby. Is there a word whose music could possibly evoke the Jewish conception of peace more than shalom? The soft start (“sh” and “ah”) and the full and mellifluous concluding sounds of “oh” and “m”. The culminating thought is peace; shalom, the achievement of complete order, in which different parts are harmonized, and reinforce each other rather than remain in unresolved conflict.