Parashat Naso

This weeks Torah portion is one of the longest ones of the year. Many items are covered, but the one I wanted to talk about was the instructions for the ‘Priestly Blessing”.

To this day, the Kohanim (who are the descendants of Aaron) say a special blessing over the people. The origins of this blessing are found in this Parashat.

We read that G-d tells Moses to tell Aaron to bless the people. The blessing that Aaron is to give the people is essentially “May G-d overlook your mistakes and be merciful.” This raises a basic question; if G-d wants to be merciful, why does he need to tell Aaron to bless the people, why can’t G-d just be merciful?

Now, I could write an entire thesis on this one question, but I’ll try to keep it short.

The basic issue is the relationship between our actions and G-d’s response. Kabbalah tells us of the strings between man and the fingers of G-d. The picture we get is of G-d controlling us like marionettes. But that pictures doesn’t mesh with the notion that we have free will. Kabbalah explains that the relationship is the other way, it’s our actions that control the hand of G-d. In other words how G-d treats us is directly related to how we act.

There is a passage in the Talmud, which states that if a man eats an apple without saying a blessing, it is as if he has stolen from G-d and the entire Jewish people. The Talmud then goes on to ask, what is it that you would be stealing? The obvious answer is that you would be stealing an apple, since we are not allowed to eat an apple without first thanking G-d. But the Talmud says that what we are stealing is the blessing. One lost apple will hardly affect G-d’s accounting; but by not making the blessing, we are limiting the amount of spirituality in the world, and that is something that can never e replaced.

Now let’s relate this back to our original issue. G-d wants to be merciful and show his love for us, but if limit the amount of spirituality in the world, it’s as if we are holding back G-d from showing us his love. G-d treats us in the same way we treat each other. If we all live spiritual lives, showing mercy to our fellow man, then G-d will have ample opportunity to show his mercy. If we instead treat each other by the strict letter of the law, then G-d will do the same to us.

So what the Priestly Blessing is really saying is “May you all live your lives in such a way that will allow god to overlook your mistakes and show mercy on you.”

So next time a friend or loved one makes a mistake, before you decide how to react think about how you would want G-d to react, according to the letter of the law, or with mercy.

Shabbat Shalom