B"H
Thursday, Sivan 12, 5780 / June 4, 2020
The Torah reading for this Shabbat is different in Israel and in the Diaspora. Israel is now one Parsha ahead of us. In Israel, where only one day of Shavuot was celebrated, last Shabbat they read the regular Torah reading, Parshat Naso. But in the Diaspora, where last Shabbat we celebrated as the second day of the Shavuot holiday and the special Shavuot Torah reading was read, this Shabbat we will read Parshat Naso.
In Parshat Naso, G-d gives the Kohanim (Priests) the special mitzvah of blessing the people of Israel with the "three-fold" blessing: "May the L-rd bless you and keep you. May the L-rd make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the L-rd lift up His countenance unto you and give you peace.”
Blessings are a very important part of Judaism. The Three-fold-Blessing is a special mitzvah and special power which G-d gave to the Kohen to bless the Jewish people.
We begin each day with many blessings, thanking G-d for granting us the ability to wake up, to see, to move our limbs etc. We also end each day with a blessing, before going to sleep.
Our sages say that, just as a person must bless G-d for the good things which happen to them, so too, they should bless G-d even for the (seemingly) bad things which happen to them.
The Torah is full of blessings. The Torah begins with G-d’s blessings to Adam and Eve on the day they were created and the Torah ends with Moshe’s blessings to the Jewish people before his passing.
The first letter of the Torah is the letter “Bet” (of the word Breishis). Our sages say that the reason the Torah begins with the letter “Bet” is because “Bet” stands for the word “Beracha” which means blessing!
Also, the last Parsha of the Torah is called, “Beracha” which is blessing! This tells us that the purpose of the Torah and mitzvot is to bring blessings to us and to the world.
Shabbat is the only day, of the seven days of the week, which we find that G-d blessed that day! “And G-d blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” (Genesis 2:3).
Thus, every Friday night and Shabbat day we recite the Kiddush over the wine, blessing G-d for giving us the holy day of Shabbat and its blessings.
Q. When the Kohanim (priests) bless the congregation they raise their hands pointing upwards leaving spaces between their fingers. Why?
A. Our sages explain this custom as follows: When the people of Israel heard that G-d commanded the Kohanim to bless them, they complained, "Why should we be blessed through an intermediary. We want to be blessed directly from You!" To this G-d replied, "I will be present when the Kohanim recite the blessings and I will bless you!" The Kohanim's pointing upward and spacing their fingers apart is symbolic to the fact that these are G-d's blessings coming through them.
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY