I-a) As old man once said, realistically, that he doesn't fear death – but he does fear dying i.e. the event of death is not so frightening in itself as the feeling that there is nothing beyond. b) This points to the desire for immortality – of prophecy self now future לא אמות כי אחי' c) These ways: II – First way: a) children – name is carried on. b) יעקב אבינו לא מת... וכי בכדי ספדו ספדנייא וחנטו חנטייא, וקברו קברייא... מקיש הוא לזרעו, מה זרעו בחיים אף הוא בחיים (תענית צ"ה ע"ב) c) i.e. they carry his name, ∴ immortality. III. Second way a) not only children – they can perpetuate name, but not to parents'

Introd. Kohen only pronounces the ברכה. G-d effects it. Similarly, when one person blesses another, it is the medium then which G-d works. Every man with good will in his heart to his fellow – man frequently blesses them – children, family, friends. But what is a genuine blessing and what not? There are these input and laws of ברכת כהנים כה תברכו – ת"ר כה תברכו – בלשון הקודש (סוטה ל"ח). Must be in לה"ק. But actually לה"ק is more than Hebrew. Means language of holiness. It must be emanated and expressed in a pure manner.

כה תדרכו את בני ישראל אמור להם וכו׳ (1) introd. Kohen only pronounces the ברכה. g-d effects. similarly, when one person blesses another, it is the medium through which God works. (2) Every man with good will in his heart to his fellow man frequently blesses them – children, family, friends. But what is a genuine blessing and what not? There are these input and laws of ברכת כהנות. (3) (סוטה ל״חי) כה תברכו – ת״ר כה תברכו – בלשון הקודש. Must be in ל״הק, but actually לה״ק is more than Hebrew. Means language of holiness. Must be executed and impressed in a

One of the major parts of [this] sidra [is] – Birkat Kohanim. The beauty, meaningfulness and holiness of the blessings, plus their use as sacred blessing from ancient times to modern, have given them a place of honor and a cherished stature in Jewish life. It is interesting to trace the development of the history of Birkat Kohanim. Moses first relayed instructions of God to Aaron that he and his sons – i.e. all kohanim forever bless Israel with this formula. The full blessing was recited at its most dramatic moment in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, on Yom Kippur, in the Holy of Holies, by none other than the High Priest – the Kohen Gadol. The Kohen Gadol would raise his hands in the way that kohanim do when blessing – and only kohanim are permitted to do so – and softly chant the blessing while his colleague-kohanim would chant the traditional melody with him. It was a heart-warming, inspiring scene. This would be repeated after the offerings of the sacrifices and on all festivals and Sabbaths.After the Temple was destroyed, the tradition of Birkat Kohanim continued unabated. It was still recited, for a while, on every Sabbath (today, in Jerusalem, some synagogues still continue the tradition of Birkat Kohanim every Shabbat). Later, it was eliminated from the Sabbath services, [and recited] only [on] Yom Kippur and festivals.But the entire procedure, while continued, was rather different as performed in the Temple and as performed outside the Temple, both during its existence and after its destruction. There are several differences, which are mentioned by the Talmud, between mikdash and g’vulin.But one of them is most fascinating, and goes far in telling us of the distinction between mikdash and g’vulin, between holy and profane, between a place and a life which is sacred, and one which is secular. And that difference lay in the pronunciation of God’s name. As all of us who can read Hebrew know, there is one name of God – the most important – which is pronounced …

The last of the three-fold blessing of the kohanim is shalom or peace. While the first two are generalised blessings and open to a variety of interpretations, this last blessing is specific: peace. It is the climax, the final word, the “vessel that contains all other blessings.” Indeed shalom is the greatest of all blessings. That is why our Sages regarded it as one of three pillars of the world. That is why Jews greet each other and bid farewell to each other with this word on their lips. That is why the ways of the Torah are called the ways of peace and why the highest visions of all the prophets of Israel were visions of universal shalom. Yet in our day the word has become all but meaningless. “Peace” is often a mockery, the mask of hypocrites and the tool of Machiavellians. Diplomats talk of it but do not mean it. States behind the Iron Curtain are armed to the teeth and boldly call themselves “peace-loving.” In the west, the men who passionately propose peace may be suspect of communism.Why this degradation of so noble an idea? Why this fall of peace? Why is it no longer recognized as a blessing?The answer, I suggest, lies in the definition of the whole concept. As we moderns currently use the term, it is a negative, externalized, social abstraction. It means merely the absence of war and battle. It relates to the physical and military conditions between two opposing camps. It has no reality of its own, no independent existence. It speaks of a social relationship, not an inner equilibrium.However, the Jewish definition of peace is far different. In Judaism, shalom is a positive idea, it speaks of an inner state as well as an external situation. It has an existence and reality quite its own, because in its essence it is not only a social but an inner, personal phenomenon.The great Hasidic sage, the Gerrer Rebbe, saw this idea in the very formulation of the blessing of shalom in the blessing of the kohanim. The final benediction is: yissa Hashem panav elekha, ve…

The difference in mood and temperament of all our people between last Saturday and this one can best be summed up in one verse of King David’s Psalms that we recite in our Hallel: min ha-metzar karati Yah, “from the straits I called out to the Lord,” anani ba-merhav Yah, “and the Lord answered me with enlargement.” Last week we called out of our anguish, hemmed in by enemies on all sides, encircled by adversaries seeking to destroy us utterly. By this Shabbat, the Lord has given us His blessing, He has enlarged us; we are now able to breathe more safely and securely, having broken out of the ring of death that has surrounded us only a few days ago. What does this sudden deliverance mean? Of course, it is vain to attempt to see the events that have occurred to us this week in their proper perspective. This chapter in history is hardly over; we are still very much involved in its consequences. Yet, time in our days has become condensed, communications are incredibly rapid, and even wars are fought and decided in three or four days; hence, our understanding must keep pace and our evaluation must be accelerated.We do this although we appreciate how complicated our problem is – especially considering events which can be described as nothing less than nissim, miracles. Indeed, they are not the garden variety of miracles, the nissim nistarim (hidden miracles), but quite obviously they are in the category of nissim geluyim, evident and open miracles which only a blind man can fail to see and only one who is obtuse can fail to appreciate. The victory of Israel was totally unexpected by the victor, by the conqueror, or by the observers. The extent of what has happened staggers the imagination. This is the week that Jews for the first time in twenty years visited the grave of Rachel in Bethlehem, and that for the first time in the memory of any person alive today, a Jew entered the Me’arat Ha’makhpelah, the burial grounds of the patriarchs of Israel. Above all else, this is t…

My words this morning are a profession of faith and confidence, in which I hope I am not alone. For a long time now, religion and faith have been in decline in Western civilization. But like Rabbi Akiva who smiled and was happy when he beheld jackals loitering in the ruins of the Holy Temple, because now that the prophecy of doom had been realized the prophecies of consolation must follow, I believe with perfect faith that the fortunes of faith itself will change. Things will get worse before they will get better, but they will get better. Before long, בחייכון וביומיכון, in our lifetime, the disrepute into which religion has sunk in our world will lift like a fog in the morning sun, and genuine religious faith will survive its inadequate institutions now crumbling in the Western world. The last two or three years have been particularly depressing, as even religious teachers have succumbed to the pressures of agnosticism and secularism. The so-called “radical technology” has, כביכול, written the obituary of the Creator of the World and proclaimed the death of religion as it urged the secularization of religion and welcomed triumphantly the emergence of the “Secular City.” But in the last six months or year this mood of despair and dejection has vanished, and this weird secularization of religion has become obsolete. Radical theology has proved to be only a fashion, a fad that has failed. I believe that the deterioration of religion in Western civilization will end, if only because religion is a vital dimension of the human personality and an irrepressible facet of the human soul no less than the thirst for beauty or the curiosity of knowledge – and much more so. If I speak of “religion” in general, rather than focusing my attention on Judaism as such, it is because to a large extent history has proved as completely correct the contention of Rabbi Judah Ha-Hasid of 800 years ago that כמנהג הנוצרים כן מנהג היהודים, that Jews often follow Christians; and that, therefor…

The Haftorah of this morning affords us an opportunity to return and re-investigate the figure of one of the most fascinating Biblical personalities, Samson. I am intrigued by the paradox he poses: the vulnerability of an apparently invincible hero, the weakness of a man so strong, the moral frailty of a nazir – one dedicated to abstemiousness and saintliness, and all that this has to say to us about the character and pretenses of both men and nations. The Rabbis of the Talmud, the tradition of the Midrash and Bible commentators from ancient times to contemporary, are all of two minds about Samson. Some are sympathetic, despite his failings. Others are antagonistic despite his virtues. An example of the favorable attitude to Samson is a statement by the Talmud (Sotah 10a) that שמשון דן את ישראל כאביהם שבשמים, Samson ruled over Israel even as their Father in Heaven does – he was an eminently just man. Or, in the same Talmudic passage, we are told that in addition to his last words recorded in the Bible, Samson offered up a prayer before the Holy One, and said: זכור לי עשרים ושנים שנה ששפטתי את ישראל ולא אמרת לאחד מהם העבר לי מקל ממקום למקום “Remember unto me, O Lord, the twenty-two years that I ruled over Israel, and not once during this time did I say to a single one of my people: ‘move this cane for me from one place to another.’” He was considerate, compassionate, and never overbearing. He was, after all, one of the galaxy of שופטים (judges), the great leaders of Israel, during the formative period of our people’s history. However, there is also a tradition that is quite critical of Samson. The hostility to him focuses largely on his lack of moral restraint. Thus, the Midrash tells us that שמשון בן מנוח מצוי בין הנשים, Samson could usually be found amongst the women. The several chapters of the Bible that speak of him tell us of three entanglements with Philistine women. Ralbag maintains that it was foreordained that Samson be a Nazirite so that at least there be…

The quality and the character of a society can usually be measured by the kind of people it chooses to honor. A nation’s heroes are normally a good index of its mores. You can know a people by observing whether it esteems bull fighters or poets, cloak-and-dagger operatives or philosophers, politicians or musicians, men of wealth and success or spiritual personalities. With this in mind, it is instructive to inquire what kind of society Judaism envisions for us, and how successful we Jews have been, in practice, in conforming to this normative society and the ideals laid down for it by our faith. At the end of the last portion, Bamidbar, we read the commandment נשא את ראש בני קהת מתוך בני לוי, to take the census and assign duties to the family of Kehat, of the tribe of Levi. This morning’s sidra, Naso, continues with the commandments of the census: נשא את ראש בני גרשון גם הם to take the census and assign the duties to the family of Gershon. Now, it has been asked: why is Kehat given precedence over Gershon, especially since Gershon is the בכור, or first born? The Rabbis of the Midrash put it this way: אעפ״י שגרשון בכור, ומצינו בכל מקום שחלק הכתוב כבוד לבכור, לפי שהיה קהת טוען הארון ששם התורה, הקדימו הכתוב לגרשון.Although Gershon was older, Kehat received priority because his task was to carry the Ark which contained the Torah.We learn, therefore, that כבוד התורה is greater than כבוד הבכורה, that scholarship in Jewish life ranks over primogeniture.Jewish law clearly lays down the priorities of respect and honor due to different categories of persons, and this order represents the ideal hierarchy of Jewish society. In it, primacy is given to the sage, the wise man, the scholar. Unlike Plato, the Rabbis did not place at the apex of society the Jewish version of the philosopher-king. They did not identify the man of intellect with the man of political authority and civic sovereignty. Rather, they gave the highest esteem to the חכם, the Jewish equivalent of a philosopher…

Most Jews, and almost all non-Jews, were thrilled with this week's historic news: the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria. Certainly, we ought not deny ourselves a bit of consolation, or begrudge ourselves a ray of hope for the future. If only for the silencing of the guns on the Golan, we must all join in a vote of thanks to our brilliant Secretary of State whose tireless efforts have produced this unprecedented agreement. In our sidra this morning we read of the blessings bestowed upon Israel by the kohanim (priests). The blessings conclude with the significant words וישם לך שלום, “May He grant thee peace.” In a remarkable comment, the בעל הטורים informs us that the gematria (numerical value) of the word shalom (peace) is 376, which is also the numerical value of the name עשו (Esau!) – ללמדך להקדים שלום לכל אדם: this remarkable coincidence of “peace” and “Esau,” comes to teach us that it is our duty to initiate peace with every individual, even an Esau.And so, we, this week, have seen the beginnings of disengagement – which, even if it is very far from true peace, at least brings with it the remote promise of shalom – with Syria, the veritable “Esau” amongst our enemies.And yet, two points must be made, and if they tend to moderate our enthusiasm and induce in us a bit of skepticism, it is worth the pain now if it will spare us frustration later.First, it would be a tragic mistake if we were to overestimate what has been done and allow ourselves to be swept up in euphoria. We must not relax our vigilance. We must not ignore the dangers and booby-traps that lie in the way of the State of Israel and therefore world Jewry.After all has been said and done, we have not yet had the first signal of real intentions for peace by any of the Arabs. For every dovish statement that they make to the world, they make two which are twice as hawkish to their own people. More and more, one begins to feel apprehensive, suspecting that the Arabs may be merely indulging …