Nassau, the blessing of love. I confess to a thrill every time I read these words.

Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites, say to them,

may the Lord bless you and protect you, may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious

to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and grant you peace. Let them put my

name on the Israelites and I will bless them. These are among the oldest continuously used words

of blessing ever. We recite them daily at the beginning of the morning service. Some say them

last thing at night. We use them to bless our

children on Friday nights. They're often used to bless the bride and groom at weddings. They're

widely used by non-Jews also. Their simplicity, their cumulative, three-word, five-word,

seven-word structure. They're ascending movement from protection to grace to peace,

or make them a miniature gem of prayer whose radiance has not diminished in the more than

three thousand years since their formulation. In previous years, I've written about the meaning

of the blessings.

This time, I asked three different questions.

First, why priests?

Why not prophets, kings, sages, or saints?

Second, why the unique form of the Birkata Mitzvah, the blessing made by the priest over the commandment to bless the people?

The blessing is Sheikhishanubik commandment to bless the people. The blessing is,

our sheikhishishanubik do shato of Aron,

and tivano will have arrake et al-israel,

be a-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

God has sanctified us with the sanctity of Aaron

...