Q&A: Priestly Blessing
Priestly Blessing
Question
In light of your well-known approach on the subject of prayers (which I assume is all the more relevant to blessings), how do you understand the Priestly Blessing?
This is a Torah-level commandment: that the priests recite a formula of prayer asking that the Holy One, blessed be He, intervene in the world and do good for those being blessed. I am deliberately not asking about the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because that is the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), from which Heaven forbid one may not draw conclusions that were not already in our possession beforehand; but the Priestly Blessing is Jewish law. If blessings have no meaning, then why bless?
Answer
Indeed, exactly the same questions arise here.
Discussion on Answer
Correct. Except that, of course, that is not the Jewish law as ruled.
Perhaps it can be explained that the command was said specifically to Aaron and his sons, and not for future generations. Alternatively, one could explain that this is not a command but a permission—meaning that if the priests bless the Jewish people, they should bless in this way and not in another way (in My name and not in theirs).