Numbers 6:22-7:89 Chavurah Shalom Satuday 10/28/17 Our Parashah for this week begins with the Aaronic Benediction, the blessing with which the Priests were to bless the people of Israel. This was one of the chief du- ties of the priest, Deuteronomy 10:8; 21:5. We understand that by the time of Yeshua, this would be the normal means of closing out the twice daily sacrifices, any of the major festivals at Temple, and the Saturday services at the Synagogue. From Psalm 118:26, the priests would pronounce a welcome upon the worshipper as he entered into the Temple, and then upon finishing the days services, the priest would then bless with this Aaronic Benediction as they prepared to depart from the Temple. It is believed that this was the blessing pronounced when the Mishkan was set up and become operational, Leviticus 9:22. In some Jewish groups today, only a priest is permitted to speak the Aaronic Bene- diction, and only after the ceremonial hand washing is performed. If there is a Le- vite present, he would assist the priest in the washing, and then the priest would of- ficiate the Benediction. If however, no Levite is present, the priest would wash his own hands, and perform the Benediction. The structure of the blessing is carefully developed: the first line has 3 words, the second line has 5 words, and the last line 7 words, giving a crescendo throughout the blessing. The number of consonants increase as you go from 15 to 20 to 25. The Divine Name is the 2nd word of each line. This 3-fold use of the Divine Name emphasizes the real source of the blessing - it is not the priests, but God alone who blesses His people. The last phrase "give you peace" is strongly remi- niscent of the ending of Psalm 29:11.--JPS Torah Commentary, p. 51. The last line of the passage indicates that the priests were responsible for invoking the Name of God upon the people, "let them place My Name upon them," but the final refrain once again indicates the true source, "and I will bless them." Even the sages understood that the priests were simply the conduit through whom God's blessings would be pronounced upon His people. This repeated emphasis on the divine source of the blessing is projected into even bolder relief when it is con- trasted with the formula of welcome pronounced upon the worshiper (by the priest?) as he entered the Temple: “We bless you from the House of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26).--JPS Torah Commentary, p. 51. Thus it was both a privilege and a duty to the people of God. - 1 - The Sages further interpreted the blessing: the first line refers to material blessing, the second line to spiritual blessings of Torah knowledge and inspiration, and the third line to God's compassion above and beyond what one deserves, as expressed in the forgiveness of sins and the giving of peace. We have thought on this briefly as we thought of the Haftarah of Jeremiah 31. This prayer is included in the daily Shacharit prayers found in the Complete Artscroll Siddur. Thus it is expected that the men are to pray this prayer every morning as part of the morning blessings, which are uttered prior to the actual study of the Torah. It is interesting to note that there is both a corporate nature and an individual nature to the blessing. The YOU in the blessing is singular, and thus is bound up in the one-to-one relationship which He desires with all of His people. However, there is also a basis in the larger, corporate nature of God’s family. The framework of the blessing is corporate, as verses 23 & 27 reflect, that the sons of Aharon shall bless the children of Israel. He could have given this blessing to the individual, to the individual household, to Abba, but He gave it to the Priest. The priests represented God to the people and the people to God as he offered up the sacrifices. God’s blessings coming through the mediatorial work of the priests point to the ultimate Priest and Mediator of the Blessings of God, Yeshua our Messiah. V. 23 - Thus you shall bless the Children of Israel. This means that ADONAI is the one who wrote this prayer to be prayed over the people on a regular basis. Use this formula as you pray, rather than come up with your own. This is very close to the same idea found in Matthew 6:5-15. When we were at Capernaum, K'phar .next to the synagogue, there was the ruins of an old house ,כְּפַ ר נָ חוּם ,Nachum There were several small rooms that could be pointed out, and Rabbi Ben Alpert did a brief teaching on "going into your closet" to pray, based upon the Matthew passage. While many make close association of this Model Prayer with the Ami- dah, we will in this case make a close association with the Aaronic Benediction. So, when you as the spiritual leaders of Israel pray over Israel, pray this prayer! The rabbis identify this formula with the blessing recited by Aaron at the conclu- sion of the first public service in the newly consecrated Tabernacle (Lev. 9:22), thereby deducing that it should be recited by the priests while they are standing, with hands raised, in Hebrew.--JPS Torah Commentary, p. 51. The First Blessing: Bless, Keep You - 2 - ,בֶּרֶך ,and is a term related to the noun berech ,בָּרַך ,The word for "bless" is barach "knee," and thus can mean "to adore on bended knee," or "to bless someone or something." There is a form of this word at the beginning of most Hebrew bless- ings, Baruch ata Adonai Eloheynu Melech ha Olam, Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the Universe. Our Creator deserves our adoration and praise. To have God bless motral man is surely an outpouring of His grace, for no one ever deserves such blessing. God does and has and will bless His people with posterity (Gen. 28:3), prosperity (Gen. 24:35), land (Gen. 35:12), health and victory (Deut. 7:12-16), children (Ps. 127:3), and peace (Psalm 29:11). The greatest blessing of all is His very own presence as Shield and Savior (Deut. 33:29).--Hegg, The Priestly Blessing, p. 4. The blessing of God is summed up in His keeping power. May Adonai Bless you and Keep you. The word Keep is a common Hebrew term, shamar, which means to guard, to protect, to be in charge of. We are commanded to keep His commandments by doing them. God Himself keeps us from evil so that we might be able to keep His commandments. We are prone to do wrong, and we have to struggle to do that which is right. We are pulled by the presence of evil around us. It is a very seductive thing. Psalm 91:1, Psalm 121, The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:11-20. God is the one who can guard us from all evil. How does He do that? As we keep His commandments, we are keeping ourselves towards God and away from all evil. We should note that in the Model Prayer, Matthew 6:13, the definite article appears in the Greek text before the word for Evil, thus rendering it, "The Evil One." In the Model Prayer, then, we ask our Father in heaven to keep us from HaSatan. This idea of keeping from Evil is then well attested in the Model prayer of Yeshua. Our God is able to Keep Us. That is, He is able to Guard us, Protect us. 2 Peter 2:7-9 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, Psalm 19:12-14 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. 13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; - 3 - Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. In both of these passages, the instruction is similar - our God is able to keep us from falling, from stumbling, from sin. We may add Jude 24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, Our God admonishes us to Keep His Commandments, by guarding them and by doing them. Yet we must be kept from evil, for we are unable to keep ourselves free without His Divine Intervention. The Second Blessing: Shining Face, Gracious This blessing is not so straightforward. What does it mean to have one’s face ,which means to shed light ,אוֹר ,shine? The Hebrew word is the word for light illuminate, or become light. Perhaps we can understand it best by understanding the opposite as it is used in the Scripture. There are several times the phrase “to hide the face” is used.