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Friday

י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Friday
י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

Mitzvah 378) The daily priestly blessing

Parshas Noso

“Thus shall you bless the children of Yisrael; Say to them!” (Bamidbar 6:23)

It is a positive commandment that the priests are commanded to bless Klal Yisrael every day, as it says “Thus shall you bless the children of Yisrael; Say to them!”.

Amongst the roots of this commandment is that Hashem, in his great kindness, wished to bless his people through the servants who are permanently camped in the house of Hashem, and whose entire thoughts are devoted to His service, and through their merits the blessing should take effect, and all of their deeds will be blessed, and the favor of Hashem will be upon them. Do not wonder why, if Hashem would want Klal Yisrael to be blessed, he did not bless them himself? This is not a question, for since the blessing takes effect only with the power of correcting our own ways, and the hand of Hashem is permanently open to any seeker when he is fitting and capable of receiving goodness, and all this is because Hashem chose us over all the other nations and wanted us to merit His goodness, he commanded us to prepare our deeds and refine our bodies with His commandments to be fitting to accept the goodness, so too He commanded us in His great kindness to ask Him for blessing, and that the request should be sent through the pure servants, as all of this will add to the merits of our souls, and through all this we will merit His goodness.

Amongst the laws of this commandment is that which Chazal said that the priests can only bless when there is a quorum, of which the priests themselves can be counted. Before they turn their faces towards the people to bless them, they make a blessing “Blessed are you, Hashem our G-d, king of the world who sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon and commanded us to bless His people Yisrael with love!”

This commandment applies in all places and at all times, to priests for it is their obligation to bless Yisrael. The obligation is to bless in the morning, afternoon and sunset services. On a normal day, however, the priestly blessing is not performed at the afternoon services, as they have already eaten, and we are worried that they have drunk wine, and a drunk may not raise his hands to bless.