A

t 176 verses, Naso 
is the longest of 
the parshiyot. Yet 
one of its most moving 
passages, and the one that 
has had the greatest impact 
over the course 
of history, is 
very short 
indeed and 
is known by 
almost every 
Jew, namely 
the priestly 
blessings:
The Lord said to Moses: 
“Tell Aaron and his sons, 
‘Thus shall you bless the 
Israelites. Say to them, ‘May 
the Lord bless you and 
protect you; May the Lord 
make His face shine on you 
and be gracious to you; 
May the Lord turn His face 
toward you and give you 
peace.’ Let them set My name 
on the Israelites, and I will 
bless them.” Num. 6:23–27
This is among the oldest 
of all prayer texts. It was 
used by the priests in the 
Temple. It is said today by 
the Kohanim in the reader’s 
repetition of the Amidah, 

in Israel every day, in most 
of the diaspora only on fes-
tivals. It is used by parents 
as they bless their children 
on Friday night. It is often 
said to the bride and groom 
under the chuppah. It is the 
simplest and most beautiful 
of all blessings.
It also appears in the old-
est of all biblical texts that 
have physically survived till 
today. In 1979, the archae-
ologist Gabriel Barkay was 
examining ancient burial 
caves at Ketef Hinnom, out-
side the walls of Jerusalem in 
the area now occupied by the 
Menachem Begin Heritage 
Center. A 13-year-old boy 
who was assisting Barkay 
discovered that beneath the 
floor of one of the caves 
was a hidden chamber. 
There the group discovered 
almost 1,000 ancient artifacts 
including two tiny silver 
scrolls no more than an inch 
long.
They were so fragile that 
it took three years to work 
out a way of unrolling them 
without causing them to 
disintegrate. Eventually 

the scrolls turned out to 
be kemayot, amulets, con-
taining, among other texts, 
the priestly blessings. 
Scientifically dated to the 
sixth century BCE, the age 
of Jeremiah and the last days 
of the First Temple, they are 
four centuries older than the 
most ancient of biblical texts 
known hitherto, the Dead 
Sea Scrolls. Today, the amu-
lets can be seen in the Israel 
Museum, testimony to the 
ancient connection of Jews to 
the land and the continuity 
of Jewish faith itself.
What gives the priest-
ly blessings their power is 
their simplicity and beauty. 
They have a strong rhythmic 
structure. The lines contain 
three, five and seven words, 
respectively. In each, the 
second word is “the Lord.” In 
all three verses the first part 
refers to an activity on the 
part of God — “bless”, “make 
His face shine” and “turn 
His face toward.” The second 
part describes the effect of 
the blessing on us, giving us 
protection, grace and peace.
They also travel inward, as 

it were. The first verse, “May 
the Lord bless you and pro-
tect you” refers, as the com-
mentators note, to material 
blessings: sustenance, phys-
ical health and so on. The 
second, “May the Lord make 
His face shine on you and 
be gracious to you” refers to 
moral blessing. Chen, grace, 
is what we show to other 
people and they to us. It is 
interpersonal. 
Here we are asking God 
to give some of His grace 
to us and others so that we 
can live together without the 
strife and envy that can so 
easily poison relationships.
The third is the most 
inward of all. There is a 
lovely story about a crowd 
of people who have gathered 
on a hill by the sea to watch 
a great ship pass by. A young 
child is waving vigorously. 
One of the men in the crowd 
asks him why. He says, “I am 
waving so the captain of the 
ship can see me and wave 
back.” “But,” said the man, 
“the ship is far away, and 
there is a crowd of us here. 
What makes you think that 
the captain can see you?” 
“Because,” said the boy, “the 
captain of the ship is my 
father. He will be looking for 
me among the crowd.”
That is roughly what we 
mean when we say, “May the 
Lord turn His face toward 
you.” There are over seven 
billion people now living 
on this Earth. What makes 
any of us more than a face 
in the crowd, a wave in the 
ocean, a grain of sand on 
the seashore? The fact that 
we are God’s children. He is 
our parent. He turns His face 
toward us. He cares.

 The 
Blessing 
 of Love

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

36 | JUNE 13 • 2024