Spirituality

TC RAH PORTIO

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our Children
And Be Blessed

Shabbat Naso: Numbers 4:21-7:89;
Judges 13:2-25.

Ann Arbor

divine blessing on our children or
we may feel that we are stressing to
he words of Birkat
our children our faith in God and
Kohanim, the blessing of
asking God to protect them. Or, we
the priests, are among the
may say the blessing as an expres-
most familiar in the entire Torah.
sion of ritual or tradition without
Whether we recognize them from
thinking very deeply about what we
the synagogue service or from the
are, in fact, saying to them.
blessing for our children
Whichever way we
on Shabbat, the blessing
understand this bless-
— which begins, "May
ing, one thing is clear:
God bless you and keep
We believe that when we
you" and continues to
perform this ritual of
express the hope that God
blessing, we connect our
will be gracious and grant
children with something
peace — is inspiring and
greater than themselves.
memorable.
As we bless them, we
The words of Birkat
are working towards ful-
Kohanim are found in this
filling God's expectation
Rabbi Robert
week's Torah portion and
of us that we bring our
Dobrusin
are followed with an inter-
children closer to our
Special to the
esting phrase. God says,
tradition and closer to the
Jewish News
"Thus, they (the priests)
divine.
shall link My name with
And, while clearly our
the people of Israel and I will bless
children will make their own deci-
them."
sions about faith and their connec-
The final phrase "and I will bless
tion with our tradition as they grow,
them" can be understood in many
we can take comfort from that bless-
different ways. One commentary
ing as well, knowing that we are on
stresses that the importance of
the path to being worthy of God's
this phrase is to remind us that the
blessing since we are doing our part
priests are only the vehicle to the
in passing on the beauty of our tra-
blessing of the people, but that the
dition to the next generation.
true blessing can come only from
It will take a lot more than a brief
God.
blessing on Friday evening to fulfill
However, other commentaries take our responsibility to raise our chil-
this verse in a different way and
dren properly. But that one quiet
point out that when God says "and I
moment on erev Shabbat, when we
will bless them;' that is referring not place our hands on our children's
to the entire people of Israel as the
heads and say this blessing, is a step
kohanim have already blessed them.
in that direction. And any parent
Rather it is referring to the kohanim who does so can't help but feel that
themselves. According to this expla-
God is blessing them as they link
nation, the priests receive God's
God's name with their children. ❑
blessing because they have fulfilled
their responsibility of blessing the
Robert Dobrusin is rabbi of Beth Israel
people. As they bring blessing on the
people of Israel, God will, in turn,
bless them.
Conversations
What do we hope to accomplish
What associations do you
when we use these words of Birkat
have with the words of Birkat
Kohanim to bless our children on
Kohanim? What exactly do you
erev Shabbat? Depending on our
hope these words mean to your
own view of prayer, we may consider
children?
that we are actually conferring a

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June 4 2009

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