Being a Cohen or priest in the family tradition of the sons of Yisrael, or what is commonly referred to as Judaism, blessings are a favorite topic of mine. Back when I lived in Jerusalem, orthodox Jews, when they found out I was a Cohen, would ask my to bless them. Also, every day, during the morning prayers, the Cohanim would bless the congregation. And at the Kotel (the western wall), during the week of Pesach (Passover) and Succot, hundreds of Cohanim gather and bless the tens of thousands of people there. It is an amazing sight and an amazing feeling.
So, what makes a blessing so great? In Hebrew, the word for blessing a bracha written with a bet, a raysh, and a chof. One of my teachers, Avraham Sutton, said that when you make a blessing, you are thanking haShem (god).
The three letters that make up the word bracha, also spell the verb to bend the knee. Rabbi Marsha Praeger teaches that this is because a blessing comes from the heart. And in order to see a blessing, you need to bend your knees until you eyes are at heart level.
What should a blessing feel like? The three letters also spell the word braycha which means a pool of water. R. Praeger described the feeling of a blessing like this: Imagine you have been in a desert for 3 days without food or water. Off in the distance you see an oasis… or is it a mirage. You don’t know, but it is your only hope, so you go towards it. It turns out to really be an oasis. Soon, you find yourself walking amongst the trees until you come to a pool of sparkling blue water. You bend your knees and dip your hands in the cool water, and you lift your hands to take a drink of this life-saving elixir. At that moment, just before you take that sip, what are you feeling? Gratitude? Loved? Thankful? Joyful? Relieved? Blessed? All the feelings you are feeling, are what this work bracha means.
So, when you start a blessing by saying, “Baruch,” a passive form of the word bracha, what you are saying is that this feeling which we just felt at the oasis, this feeling, is the aspect of god we are connecting to and thanking for what we are about to receive.
One last thought. In Judaism, there is something called gematria. It is a form of numerology based on the fact that every Hebrew letter is also a number. Alef is 1, bet is 2, etc. raysh is 200. Chof is 20. So, the 3 letters that make up the word baruch, bet, raysh, chof, are the numeric equivalent of 222. How interesting is that? I don’t recall who taught me this, but somebody explained that what this is teaching us is that two people are required in order to give a blessing: the blessor and the blessee. In other words, I cannot give you a blessing if you don’t want it. What this means is that the one receiving the blessings is also giving a blessing to the one doing the blessing. Blessings are about relationships and relating to each other. They are about sharing. You can’t get a blessings without giving a blessing.
To sum up this amazing concept is that a blessing is where two people (or a person and god) give each other (by receiving from each other) this amazing feeling of gratitude and thankfulness and joy and love being loved that we have when we were at the oasis, about to put some cool, life-saving water into our parched mouths.
May you all be blessed with blessing from loved ones, friends, strangers, enemies, and the whole world. And have a great shabbat!
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.