And Aaron Blessed the People

D’var Torah 4/9/18

שבת שלום

Once again, we have a parasha with a whole lot of content. Today we read שְּׁמִינִ֔י, which is Lev 9:1 – 11:47. Continuing from last week’s parasha, Aaron and his sons are being initiated into the priesthood by Moses. They make the prescribed offerings, and then Aaron raises his hands and blesses the people. Then he and Moses go into the Ohel Moed and come out and bless the people together. God appears before all of the people once more as he did at Sinai and his fire consumes the offerings on the altar. Two of Aaron’s sons come in offering “strange fire”, and the fire of God consumes the sons. Aaron and his remaining sons have been anointed and are still in their initiation period, so they are not permitted to leave the Ohel or mourn these two sons. Moses asks Aaron if he and his sons have eaten the sin offering as instructed, but Aaron tells him that they had burned it instead. Moses chastises Aaron, who replies that in view of what had happened to his sons, he was not sure if it would be pleasing to God for the remainder of the family to have eaten this meat, and Moses concurs. We then get the rules of kashrut – which animals can be eaten – as well as the rules of cleanliness when touching a carcass.

So many major stories jump out at us from this portion that we are in danger of overlooking some threads that might seem less dramatic. My own attention was drawn to Aaron’s blessing of the people, starting in Lev 9:22. We read:

וַיִּשָּׂ֨א אַֽהֲרֹ֧ן אֶת־יָדָ֛יו אֶל־הָעָ֖ם וַיְבָֽרֲכֵ֑ם

[And Aaron lifted up his hands to the people and he blessed them.]

Rashi believed that what Aaron gave was the Kohanic blessing [give a few words], although the actual words of that blessing aren’t mentioned explicitly in the Torah until Numbers 6:22-27.

Aaron and Moses then go into the Ohel for a few minutes, come out again, and together bless the people. At this point, because Moses is included (he is a Levite but not a Kohan, an honor reserved only for Aaron and his line), Rashi determines that the blessing they use is from Psalm 90, the only psalm that is attributed to Moses. After the blessing, the glory of God once more appears in front of the people and a fire comes out from it and consumes all of the offerings on the altar. Lev 9:24 ends with

וַיַּ֤רְא כָּל־הָעָם֙ וַיָּרֹ֔נּוּ וַיִּפְּל֖וּ עַל־פְּנֵיהֶֽם

[and the whole nation saw and sang and fell on their faces]

Does anybody here remember seeing the blessing of the Kohanim in your own synagogue? I was brought up Orthodox as a child, but we moved to a Conservative synagogue when I was 10 so that I could be educated and eventually have a Bat Mitzvah. So my memories are from early life and rather hazy, but I remember all these old men with huge tallitot shuffling up onto the bima. They would cover their entire heads and faces with their tallitot and turn and face the congregation. The congregation was all standing and was supposed to have their faces covered, too, so as not to be blinded by the glory of God, but of course as a child, I would peek. Not that there was much to see. The blessing was the same one that our rabbi always used as a final benediction on Shabbat, but louder and much more disorganized. Just as Aaron did 3500 years ago, the Kohanim are asking God to bless the people. You just can’t help but be moved by this.

This ritual is still carried out today in many synagogues right here in the United States on the festivals. You could have seen it during Passover. I am so awed by ritual, especially with long historic roots. I believe that’s why it’s done. So direct blood descendants of Aaron come forward and ask God’s blessing upon us. One inscription of this prayer in a burial tomb that is 2700 years old was discovered almost 40 years ago. For generation after generation, we have stood in this same place and had the Kohanim call God’s blessing upon us. I cast my imagination back to the occasion in our parasha, when Moses and Aaron together blessed the people. Of all of the special words, special actions, special rituals carried out by Moses and Aaron in anointing Aaron and his sons as priests, by far the most significant part to me is the part where the entire congregation is blessed by these two great leaders. I would feel awed and humbled at the same time. May we too be blessed as the Children of Israel were blessed all those years ago in this week’s parasha.

כן ׳ה׳ רצון