Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Sermons

On Jennifer H’s. Bat Mitzvah by Harold M. Schulweis

Jennifer asked me an important question in the course of her study of the biblical text which she is chanting. She thought it was unseemly that the Levites appeared to be so privileged, held apart, and elevated as guardians of the Tabernacle. She sensed that here were the inklings of a caste system. And I thank her for formulating the question for my talk.

I need no intermediaries. I want no intermediaries. I stand alone before God, and before God I offer confessions, from God I seek atonement, and from God I seek blessings.

No one stands between me and God. Neither king nor prince nor priest. And yet we read in I Samuel 8:5 that the people come to Samuel the prophet making a demand:

"Give us a king to judge over us like all other nations." And the request for a king over the Jews displeased Samuel. He argued with them. "Why do you need a king over you? Do you not know that he will take your sons and make them run before his chariots, that he will take your sons into the army to serve him and his interests and his powers? Do you not know that he will take your daughters and make of them cooks and bakers? Do you not understand that the king will take the tenth of your seed? You will see and you shall cry out in the day because of your king which you have chosen. And the Lord will not hear you in that day." But the people insisted. They refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said insistently. "Make us a king over us."

And God says (verse 9) to Samuel, "Samuel, listen to the voice of the people. For they have not rejected thee Samuel, but Me that I shall not reign over them." So the elevation of the king in his authority was a condescension. Because God understands human nature. People want visible, tangible, palpable evidence of power. They want princes, kings, generals. They want angels, they want priests because they are not ready yet to engage in personal relationship without intermediaries.

The rabbinic tradition is sensitive to this. They recognized the need for priests to raise their hands and bless the people.  I would like you to turn to page 594, verse 23 in the Bible, to see the critical verse of the threefold blessing of the priests. The rabbis sensed that something is wrong here and that uneasiness is expressed in dozens of commentaries and Midrashim. They worried very much about the deification of man, about the charismatic personality, about the man of flesh and blood who is given sovereign powers.

A typical commentary comes from Isaac Arama, a Spanish Jewish philosopher of the 15^th century, in his book Akedat Yitzchak. He asks "Who is the priest to bless us? What is to be gained from his blessing or from his refraining from blessing?" We find further discussion of this question in Midrash Tanchumah:

The congregation of Israel said to God, "Master of the Universe, why do You give the power to bless us to priests? We do not need their blessings only Your blessings. As it is said, 'Look down from Your citadel of holiness and bless Your people.'" Then God comforted them and assured them, "Even though they, the priests, stand before you it is I who stand before you and it is I who bless you." Note the last line after the blessing. It concludes with the words, "And I will bless them.”

Still, there is apprehension that the intermediary is raised to be a virtual surrogate for God. And so the tradition developed customs and laws which made clear that it is not the priests who had the power to bless, that there is nothing intrinsic in the way in which they held their hands or split their fingers that gave them the power of blessing. Note, they said, the very structure of the blessing. Note that the very opening blessing, is comprised of fifteen letters and fifteen is the name of God.

Note, as well, that every blessing contains in it the name of God.

Note the number of words in these blessings, three words followed by five words, followed by seven words adding up to fifteen–the name of God. If you turn in the prayer book to page 100, you will see that it is the congregation who has the power to enable the priest to bless the people. Who is it that calls the priest to the Bimah to duchan? It is the sh'liach tzibur, the lay representative of the congregation. They do not institute the blessing. They can only answer the blessing after the representative of the people recites it. Note as well that after each of the blessings there is a pause. The congregation has to answer, "So may it be Thy will God.”

Note as well that when the priests bless the people, they do not turn their back upon the people and face the Ark. They must face the people out of respect for the people and out of recognition that the power of blessing stems from them.

Note as well that on the eve of the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest was to enter into the Holy of Holies to offer blessings and atonement for the people, it is the rabbis who stay up with him all night teaching him what to do, what to say, and keeping him awake by flicking their fingers against the soles of his feet.

And note as well where the priestly benedictions were placed. They were placed before the prayer, the Chatimah, on page 101 which ends “..blesses Thy people with peace."

It seems to me that the skepticism is apparent. The rabbis wanted to insist that the Jewish priest is flesh and blood, that he has no sacramental power, that he has no infallibility, no special powers, no access to God that is cut off from the lay person. Note that even the Jewish messiah is fallible, errant, mortal, finite. Note that the Jewish priest is a functionary and that he is all too human. For the priest and the High Priest as well are not exempt from temptation. We read that the priest must bring sacrifices on Yom Kippur, not only for the people but for himself, for his household, for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting, for the other priests. Page 484, verse 33: Why the priest? Why the vestments? Why the accoutrements? These are all concessions to a people who need to have intermediary figures, who need angelic forces because the God within them is lacking. But over and again the tradition tells us it is God who blesses us. And here there is a further recognition in the rabbinic tradition as expressed in Talmud Shabbat 89a:

When Moses went up to the mountain, he found God looking at the Torah reading and the letters of the Torah. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Moses, do you not greet people in your city? How come you have come and you stand silent and watch?" And Moses answered "Master of the Universe, shall a slave say ‘Shalom’ to a master? Shall a slave bless a master?" And the Holy One, blessed be He, said "Even so help Me. I need your blessings." And so it is that when we pray, we say "Baurch atah Adonai -- blessed art Thou O Lord.”  It is we who give blessing to God. And it is God who has given us the power and the dignity to bless sanctity.

Jennifer, you cannot bless anyone. You can only bless someone who has within herself the potentiality and the gift for that blessing. To bless someone without understanding who it is that is being blessed is an act of magic. You can only bless someone who is worthy of blessing, those who have within them the capacity, and the talents that should be brought out.

Jennifer, you are a blessing. You have mind and heart and I know where you get it. You get it from your school, but most importantly, from your parents. The first blessing of the three blessings, as you know is "May God bless you and keep you.”  What does it mean to say "keep you"? Rashi, the great commentator says "May God keep you from the blessing that may dominate you." All of us want the blessing of wealth, power and fame. But power, wealth, fame and intelligence can turn into a curse. It can consume us with pride, arrogance, hubris. So we pray that God will keep you from abusing the talents of your blessing.

We are the instruments of God's blessing. We are the witnesses of God and His representatives of earth. If God is to illuminate our lives, it means that we in turn must illuminate the lives of others. If God is to shine His face upon us, it means that we must come face-to-face with other human beings to enlighten them, to take away their doubts and fears.

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