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 Encyclopedia
Judaica 2nd Edition
An essential source of information on
Jewish life, culture, history, and
religion.
In 1972, the Encyclopaedia Judaica
fulfilled the longstanding dream of
capturing the full richness of Jewish
culture in a single authoritative
publication, heralded in the scholarly
community as one of the best reference
works ever compiled.
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BLESSING,
PRIESTLY / Birat Kohanim By : Kaufmann
Kohler David Philipson Francis L. Cohen
ARTICLE HEADINGS:
In Temple and Synagogue
Restrictions and Regulations
Its Place in the Liturgy
Music:
The Spanish Chant
"The Chant of the Dead"
The Polish Melody
One of the most impressive and
characteristic features of the service
both in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the
synagogue, having its origin in the
blessing pronounced by the Aaronites in
accordance with the command and the
formula ordained in Num. vi. 22-27: "And
God spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto
Aaron and unto his sons, saying,
On this wise shall ye bless the children
of Israel, saying unto them: The Lord
bless thee and keep thee: the Lord make
his face shine upon thee and be gracious
unto thee: the Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee
peace! And they shall put my name upon the
children of Israel; and I will bless
them." Thrice in the Pentateuch the
priestly blessing is mentioned: once in
speaking of
Aaron (Lev. ix. 22; compare Sifra,
Shemini, and Sotah 38a), and twice in
referring to the priests (Deut. x. 8, xxi.
5). In the historical books of the Bible
there are two references to the blessing
of the people by the priests (Josh. viii.
33; II Chron. xxx. 27). |
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In Temple and Synagogue
Many rules were observed by the priests
when pronouncing the blessing. These
rules made some distinctions between the
service in the Temple of Jerusalem and
the services elsewhere. Thus, in the
Temple the blessing was spoken after the
sacrifice of the daily offering (Sotah
vii. 6; Tamid v. 1, vii. 2; Meg. 18a);
elsewhere it was pronounced during the
daily morning service and on Sabbath and
holidays at every service, with the
exception of that in the afternoon,
because this followed shortly after the
midday meal, at which the priests were
permitted to drink wine; and it was
feared that this might unfit them to
perform the function properly. On
fast-days, however, the blessing was
pronounced also at the afternoon service
(Ta'anit 26a, b; Maimonides, "Yad,"
Tefillah, xiv. 14; Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah.
hayyim, 39, 1). In the Temple the
priests used the Tetragrammaton, Yhwh,
pronouncing it distinctly in uttering
the blessing; elsewhere the
pronunciation Adonai was substituted (Sotah,
38a; Num. R. xi. 4; Sifre, Naso, 39;
"Yad," l.c. 10). According to one
report, the priests discontinued using
the Tetragrammaton, even in the Temple,
after the death of Simon the Just, in
order that no man who was not respected
and worthy might learn it (Yoma 39b). In
the Temple the three portions of the
blessing were spoken without pause, and
at the close the people responded:
"Blessed be the Lord God, the God of
Israel from eternity to eternity" (see
Doxology). Elsewhere the priests paused
after each sentence, and the people
responded with an "Amen."
Restrictions and Regulations
The blessing was given with uplifted
hands. In the Temple service the priests
raised their hands above their heads,
while in other places they lifted them
only to their shoulders. Any Aaronite
who had attained manhood's estate was
enjoined to perform the function; there
were, however, certain disqualifications
due to physical, moral, or ritualistic
defects (Meg. 24b; Ber. 32b; "Yad,"
Tefillah, xv. 1-6; Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah.
hayyim, 128, 30-41; see Blemish); viz.,
if a priest had ever killed a human
being (even though unintentionally),
committed idolatry, violated any of the
Levitical purity or marriage laws
pertaining to the priests, committed any
crime without having repented, or had
indulged unduly in drinking wine (this
is based upon the juxtaposition of the
chapter on the Nazarite, Num. vi. 1-21,
and the priestly blessing, Ta'anit 26b,
22-27); if he were crippled, a
hunchback, or blind even in one eye, or
had any defect on his hands, or if his
speech were not distinct; and, finally,
without ablution of the hands, he was
disqualified. (Compare Blemish.) Should
any priests who were thus incapacitated,
or who considered themselves unworthy,
be present at the service, they were
compelled to leave before the reader in
his prayer gave the signal to the
priests; for otherwise they would
violate the command, "Thus shall ye
bless the children of Israel."
The blessing was to be spoken standing,
as were the blessings in Deut. xxvii. (Sotah
38a; Sifre, l.c.; Num. R. l.c.). The
priests faced the congregation out of
respect for the people; but the latter
were not allowed to look at the priests
while the blessing was spoken, lest
their attention should be distracted and
their devotions disturbed ("Yad," l.c.
xiv. 7). In all motions connected with
the blessing, such as advancing to the
platform, or turning toward the Ark or
the congregation, the priest was always
to go to the right ("Yad," l.c. xiv. 13
after Sotah 15b).
The blessing was to be spoken in Hebrew
because of the command "thus"; that is,
only in the prescribed words and
language. It was to be pronounced in a
loud voice so that all the congregation
could hear. The priests were required to
discard their leather foot-wear
(sandals) when they ascended the
platform to pronounce the blessing (Sotah
40a). They were required to wash their
hands before proceeding to the
performance of the function (Sotah 39a).
Its Place in the Liturgy
Originally the priestly blessing was a
function performed every morning at the
regular service, provided the necessary
number of ten persons were present (Shulhan
'Aruk, Orah. hayyim, 128, 1). But in the
course of time, as the daily business
became too pressing to allow the people
to spend so much time on their devotion,
the blessing was merely recited by the
reader and introduced by a brief prayer
such as is inserted in the common daily
ritual; and the priestly blessing was
reserved for Sabbath and holy days (K.ol
Bo, 128). Finally, in view of the fact
that on the festival days people are
better disposed, both in body and in
soul, for the reception of the divine
blessing, owing to the purifying
ablutions of the previous day and to
their greater cheerfulness of spirit,
the festival day alone was retained for
the imparting of the priestly blessing,
and not the "Shaharit," but the "Musaf"
service was selected, on which occasion
the attendance is large (see Bet Josef,
T.ur Orah. hayyim, l.c.; Moses Isserles,
to Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah. hayyim, i. 44,
and the commentators; also Magen
Abraham, for the reason why the blessing
is not imparted when the holy day falls
on the Sabbath). In Amsterdam and other
places the blessing is recited every
Sabbath.
The main idea pervading the whole
function of the priestly blessing rests
upon the Name of God (Shem ha-Meforash),
which is to be "put upon the children of
Israel." While originally every greeting
or blessing was accompanied by the
pronunciation of the Name to make it
efficient (see Ber. ix. 4; compare Ps.
cxviii. 26), it became later only the
privilege of the priests to use the Name
in blessing the people; and the
reverential sanctity attached to the
Name lent to the priestly function a
mystical and almost magical power. Hence
the belief prevailed that during the
lifting up of the hands by the priests,
the Shekinah was hovering over their
heads and its rays streamed through
their open fingers, the people not being
allowed to look on lest, like those who
gazed at the sacred Ark in ancient
times, they might be hurt, struck with
dimness of the eyes and other
misfortunes (hag. 16a; Sotah 39b; Yer.
Meg. iv. 75c; Cant. R. ii. 9; Num. R.
xi.; "'Aruk," s.v. ; see, however, Tosef.,
hag. 16a; and Yer. Meg. l.c., for more
rationalistic views regarding the time
when the Name was no longer pronounced).
That great magical powers were long
afterward ascribed to the priestly
blessing may be learned from the advice
given in the time of Rab Ashi to those
troubled by bad dreams; viz., to offer a
prayer that God might turn every curse
into blessing (Ber. 55b)—a prayer which
has been embodied in the common ritual,
and is still recited during the singing
of the blessing; the medieval mystics
having added strange, fantastic, angelic
conjurations to make it still more
efficacious.
Another opinion (Cant. R. on iii. 7;
Num. R. xi. 9) is that the mere
listening to the priestly blessing is a
charm against every malign influence,
the sixty letters of the blessing being
"the threescore valiant men, each his
sword upon his thigh because of the fear
in the night" (Song of Songs iii. 8).
Even the haggadic comments and the
Scripture parallels given in Sotah
39b-40a, Sifre and Num. R. l.c., to the
priestly blessing have been embodied in
the ritual; and they are, partly on the
recommendation and partly with the
disapproval of the Rabbis, recited
during the singing of the blessing by
the priests (see Tos. Sotah 40a; K.ol
Bo, l.c., and Abudarham).
After the "Modim," the reader introduces
the priestly blessing with the words:
"Our God and God of our fathers, bless
us with the threefold blessing which is
in the Torah, written by Moses, Thy
servant, spoken by
Aaron and his sons, the priests,
Thy holy people." Then the Aaronites
proceed to the platform and offer the
following invocation silently: "May it
be Thy will, O Eternal our God, that
this blessing wherewith Thou hast
commanded us to bless Thy people Israel
may be a perfect blessing; may it be
imparted without stumbling and error now
and ever" (Sotah 39a). The benediction
is also prescribed which the priests
recite before giving the blessing.
In the Reform ritual the priestly
blessing is usually recited by the rabbi
at the close of each service before the
dismissal of the congregation; the
assumption being that the Aaronites have
ceased to possess special claims and
obligations as priests, since with the
destruction of the Temple the people of
Israel became the priest-nation (see
Conferences Rabbinical,).
The great danger in all blessings by
priests lies in the possibility that the
people may believe such blessings to
have mediatorial power. This idea has
always been foreign to the spirit of
Judaism. The priest is not a mediator.
The blessing which he utters has no
magical power for good or ill. It is
merely a portion of the prescribed
ritual. Not the priest, but God, blesses
(see Sifre, l.c.): "I (God) will bless
them." These words are used so that the
Israelites may not say that their
welfare depends upon the blessing by the
priests; God alone can bless.
Furthermore, these words are used that
the priests may not say, "We will bless
Israel." From God alone do blessings
flow: no man has power to bestow them (Sifre,
l.c.; H.ul. 49a, where, in opposition to
R. Ishmael (the priest), R. Akiba
interprets the words "And I will bless
them" as referring to Israel and not to
the priests, since these could merely
pronounce the blessing, while the real
blessing comes from God).
Each word of the priestly blessing was a
fruitful theme of comment and
interpretation.
"May God bless thee" with wealth, and
"keep thee" in health.
"May He let His countenance shine toward
thee"; i.e., "May He give thee the light
of the eyes"; or, according to Rabbi
Nathan, "the light of the Shekinah."
"May He be gracious to thee" with
knowledge and understanding, with
learning, instruction, and wisdom.
"May He lift up His countenance toward
thee"; i.e., "May His anger pass away
from thee."
"May He grant thee peace" in thy going
out and in thy coming in, with all men,
in thy house, and without end.
"Great is peace, for through it alone is
blessing secured."
"Great is peace, because it seals all
the blessings" (Num. R. xi. 7; Sifre,
Naso, 40-42).K. D. P. K.
Music:
The ceremony of pronouncing the
benediction is termed in the Talmud (H.ul.
132b; Meg. 24b et passim) "nesiat
kappayim" (raising of the hands), from
Lev. ix. 22. It is also familiarly
called "dukan" (platform), from the
position of the priests during the
ceremony. These stand on a dais or
platform, such as that upon which the
Levitical choir in the Temple was
placed. Hence the Judæo-German verb in
common usage, "duchanen."
The hands as upraised during the
priestly blessing, with the thumb and
first finger and the middle and
ring-fingers so separated as to form
little spaces through which the rays of
the Shekinah streamed upon the assembled
worshipers, in accordance with Cant. ii.
9 (see Sotah 39b; Num. R. xi.; 'Aruk,
s.v. ), were adopted as the family badge
of a Cohen. It is found thus on
gravestones, objects of ecclesiastical
art, imprints of books, etc., and is
still so used, being frequently
surmounted by a crown ("keter kehunah")
(see Cohen). The fear that the people
might gaze at the priest during the
blessing, which was regarded as a
perilous irreverence, gave rise to the
custom of covering the head (and usually
the hands as well) with the tallit
during the recital of the benedictions.
As the reader commences to intone the
first of the three passages which form
the conclusion of every "'Amidah," those
Aaronites who desire to be released from
the performance of the Biblical command
withdraw from the synagogue, in order
that they may not hear the reader call
upon the Kohanim to carry out their
duty. With them withdraw any Aaronites
who may be mourners, or under the age of
puberty, defective in person or speech,
accidental manslayers, or married to
divorced women—all these being excluded
from participation. Those remaining
remove their leather boots, after which
water is poured over their hands by the
Levites. The priests then assemble on
the steps of the Ark with their faces
toward it, each covering his head with
his tallit; and when, during the
service, the reader calls out to them,
"Kohanim," they face right about, spread
their hands horizontally above their
heads, palms downward, in the manner
indicated, and chant together: "Blessed
be Thou, Lord our God, king of the
universe, who hast sanctified us with
the holiness appertaining to
Aaron, and commanded us to bless
Thy people Israel in love." Word by word
the three verses are then dictated by
the reader, the priests swinging north
and south at suitable words in order to
include the congregants standing right
and left as well as those in front of
them. At the close of each verse the
response "amen" is given; and after the
third verse they face about again,
remaining before the Ark until the
reader concludes the 'Amidah with the
next paragraph.
The Spanish Chant BIRKAT KOHANIM
From the first the benedictions appear
to have been uttered with the singing
rather than the speaking voice (compare
Maimonides, "Yad," Tefillah, xiv. 14).
Even in Talmudical times the singing
seems to have been so protracted that
Biblical texts suitable to each word
were suggested to the congregation to
meditate upon during the chanting. But
the recital of these verses by the
worshipers, or the introduction of more
than one melody by the Kohanim, was
rather deprecated by the Rabbis. The
tunes of the chanting on each of the
holy days differfrom one another, some
appearing to be of very ancient origin.
One of these is preserved in the
traditions of the Sephardim, to which
each of the fifteen words of the
benediction is sung at length; and this
has been seriously claimed to be the
identical melody sung by the priests in
the Temple. But while obviously antique,
being practically melismatic psalmody in
the sixth ecclesiastical mode, yet its
structure, particularly its coda, is so
close a reproduction of many another
strain in the music of the southern
Jews, of acknowledged peninsular origin
by them, that no claim could be allowed
to an origin more remote than Moresque
Spain, even were not the resemblance to
some of the later Mozarabic intonations
so unmistakable. (See p. 246.)
"The Chant of the Dead"
The Ashkenazim have a large number of
melodies to which the words of the
benediction are sung. Almost every
congregation, indeed every family of
Kohanim, has its own tradition. Often,
however, these airs are but distinctive
melodies of a particular festival, or
echoes of seventeenth-and
eighteenth-century German folk-song.
Only two have any claim to antiquity
like that of the Spanish chant. The
older is a medieval German melody, which
exists in several variants, and is in
most instances reserved for the
concluding days of the festivals ("Hazkarat
Neshamot, Matnat Yad"), when departed
relatives are called to mind. From this
it has come to be widely known as "Niggun
Metim" or "The Chant of the Dead." Its
recent history is of particular
interest. Developed with insight and
feeling by Cantor Naumbourg of Paris, an
instrumental arrangement was published
in E. Pauer and F. L. Cohen's
"Traditional Hebrew Melodies," London,
1896, which attracted the attention of
the late Queen Victoria, and was played
as the introductory voluntary at several
memorial services of the British royal
family. In its original simple form this
chant is as follows:BIRKAT KOHANIM
(see image)
The Polish Melody
The other old northern chant is of
Polish origin, probably of the
seventeenth century, and is perhaps even
more extensively known. At once
beautiful in itself and very
characteristic, it is to many lovers of
music a typical example of Hebrew
melody. In most British synagogues the
whole ceremony is performed to its
melodious phrases.BIRKAT KOHANIM |
The priestly benediction,
expressed in three Scriptural verses and
chanted at the end of the Amidah prayer,
was part of the daily Temple service.
Every morning and evening the priests
raised their hands up and pronounced the
birkat kohanim (priestly blessing) from
a special platform.
In Yisrael, Kohanim chant it daily in
the synagogues; in the Galut (Diaspora),
it is chanted only on festivals. Those
of priestly descent remove their shoes,
wash their hands, and ascend the
platform in front of the Ark. Then they
face the congregation and, with fingers
stretched in a symbolic arrangement
underneath the tallit covering their
face, they repeat the priestly blessing
word for word after the chazzan.
The worshipers refrain from looking at
the kohanim during the repetition of the
fifteen majestic words of which the
priestly benediction is composed, to
indicate that they emanate from the
highest spheres. This priestly service
is termed "duchenen" from duchan
(platform). Taken from BaMidbar 6:24-26,
the benediction reads: May Hashem bless
you and safeguard you. May Hashem
illuminate His countenance for you and
be gracious to you. May Hashem lift His
countenance to you and establish shalom
for you." The text of Birkat Kohanim is
often regarded as the "pearl" of the
Written Torah. |
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