In Parshat Nasso (Numbers 4:21-7:89), the High Priests (Kohanim) receive instructions to recite what some consider to be one of the most holy Jewish blessings: the Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim). In Torah Queeries, we will explore and create ways to bless people queerly. What blessings can queer people and allies uniquely bestow upon people?

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.

1. Think of or imagine a moment when you received words of affirmation, praise, or recognition from someone you admire. What did or would you feel? How might it be different to receiving these words from someone else?

2. What words of praise or recognition might be especially powerful coming from a queer person? Why?

The Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim) is the oldest surviving benediction for which there is archeological evidence. When the Temples were still standing, the High Priests (Kohanim) would offer this blessing. Today, some communities have descendants from the High Priests recite this blessing at different times of the year while others, like the Reform movement, have minimized, adapted, or removed the Priestly Blessing from liturgy because of objections to the caste system. This blessing may also be used by parents to bless children on Shabbat and at certain life cycle events.

Questions to consider: What is this blessing specifically offering? Why might God ask that it only be offered by only the High Priests?

A sensational archaeological find by Gabriel Barkay in 1979 demonstrates the antiquity of this blessing at least as far back as the 7th century BCE. At the site of Ketef Hinnom (southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem), two tiny silver scrolls with different versions of this birkat hakohanim were discovered....They were rolled up in a way that indicated that they had been worn by ancient Israelites more than 2600 years ago as amulets. Not only does this archaeological discovery tell us that the benediction was in use at a time before we have any hard evidence for the existence of a written Torah; it also tells us something about how the ancients understood and used the benediction as a form of protection.

Blessings Are a Form of Magic

We think of a blessing as a nice thing to do, whether in response to a sneeze, or as a part of a ritual designed to bestow positive divine attention. In the ancient world though, blessings were often perceived as magical rituals—blessings and curses were understood to have real power to effect change in the human realm.

From an impersonal blessing, to the Lord looking kindly from afar, the last line of the blessing asks that the Shekhinah, God’s presence, be up and close and bring about a situation of shalom, the wholeness that we often refer to as peace. We are all different, some more different than others, but no two of us human beings are alike. And we are all, according to our tradition, created in the image of God. We are all, at least in theory, if not always in practice, able to be a receptacle for the Shekhinah, to bring it into our own lives and into the lives of others. But peace—in Hebrew shalom, meaning wholeness, comes when we realize that as different parts of humanity, we not only complement, but complete each other and create that wholeness.

What blessing do you feel empowered to give to other people?

Feel free to play around with sentence structure and different names for God!

May God (verb) and (verb).

May God cause Their face to (verb + adverb) and (adverb) with you!

May God cause Their face to (verb) upon you and (verb + noun) upon you.