spirituality >> Torah pbrtid
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A Sacred Blessing
Links Generations
Chronic Knee
and Hi p Pain?
Parshat Naso: Numbers 4:21-7:89;
Judges 13:2-13:25.
I
n my first year of rabbinical school
at the Hebrew Union College cam-
pus in Jerusalem, my favorite part
of the program was our weekly venture
out into the city for a day of learning.
We hiked up the Jerusalem hills to see
the city from Abraham's per-
spective as he approached it
for the first time. We walked
the tunnels underneath the
Western Wall, hearing the
stories about the Temples
that had stood and fallen
while sitting on the ruined
stones.
On one of these "Jerusalem
Days," my class took a trip
to an archaeological site not
far from the center of the
city. The lead archaeologist
brought out reproductions of
two tiny silver scrolls found in a burial
site in 1979 where we were now stand-
ing. He showed us pictures of the text
on the scrolls, which took three years to
unfurl to ensure their preservation.
Students recognized the text — bits
and pieces of the Priestly Blessing, found
in this week's Torah portion. The same
words that we recite to bless our children
on Shabbat, our b'nai mitzvah students
as they become Jewish young adults, our
wedding couples under the chuppah and
so on.
Y'varech'cha Adonai v'yishmarecha,
May God bless you and keep you.
Ya'er Adonai panav eilecha
v'chuneka,
May God's countenance shine upon you
and be gracious unto you.
Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v'yasem
lecha shalom.
May God lift up God's face toward you
and grant you peace.
The scrolls were dated to the 7th
century, which marks them as the old-
est piece of written scripture from the
Torah that we have. It was an incredible
moment, knowing that Jews living in
Israel more than 1,400 years ago were
using these very same words for comfort
and strength, wearing them in amulets
around their neck the same way that
many of us wear mezuzzot or Stars of
David.
For me, history can often feel like a
fairytale, particularly when it comes to
characters and stories in our
text from thousands of years
ago. But seeing this amulet,
reading those words and
standing in that place made
our past come alive for me in
a way that hadn't happened
before. The chain of tradition
became visible for a moment,
and I could see the links that
we were adding by standing
in that semi-circle at that site
together.
Naso teaches us the
importance of blessings. God
tells Moses to teach Aaron and his sons
how to bless the Israelite people with
the same words we use today. Perhaps
the intention is that each of us should
be granted graciousness and peace by a
protective God, but perhaps the real pur-
pose is that we can point to this portion,
point to these artifacts in our beautiful
homeland and know that that link is our
blessing.
The blessing of connection between
the past and the future, the blessing of
holding something so tangible and so
important in our hands and the blessing
of being able to continue God's work ...
Moses' work ... Aaron's work, by reciting
these words to our children.
❑
Jennifer Lader is a rabbi at Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield.
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