This week’s parsha, Naso, includes a great deal of work by the Kohanim: the process of the Nazirite, the Sota ritual, and the blessings of the Kohanim. So why isn’t this parsha with the other services of the Kohanim in Vayikra? 

There is an interesting change at the end of the parsha that is instructive. Instead of the inauguration of the Mishkan being led by the Kohanim and by Moshe, as in Vayikra, it is done through the Nesi’im, the princes of the tribes, and does not include the Kohanim or the tribe of Levi. 

The book of Bamidbar is fundamentally different from Vayikra. Bamidbar is about the formation of the nation and the march toward the Land of Israel. In this way, it is in a sense more political, more national, whereas Vayikra was focused on the Kohanim and the Tabernacle. 

Which leaves us with the question regarding the elements in our parsha: are they Levitical as they appear to be or national as their placement in the book of Bamidbar would indicate?

Though at first glance they are Levitical and they involve the Kohanim and the Mishkan, they are in reality a voluntary service provided on behalf of individuals. These two procedures are precisely the points at which the societal—the individual Israelite’s familial and personal needs—and the religious—the Tabernacle—intersect. 

But why is Birkat Kohanim here in Bamidbar when it seems like a mitzvah akin to a tabernacle service, entirely religious, entirely Mishkan-oriented?

The Talmud in tractate Rosh Hashanah states: 

Rav Shemen bar Abba asked: From where is it derived that a priest who went up to the platform to recite the Priestly Blessing should not say, “Since the Torah granted me permission to bless the Jewish people, I will add a blessing of my own, which is not part of the Priestly Blessing stated in the Torah, for example: “May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times as many as you are” (Deuteronomy 1:11)? It is derived from the verse that states, “You shall not add to the word which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2).

The language is interesting: “Since the Torah gave me permission to bless…” Isn’t the blessing of the Kohanim an obligation? 

Actually, it seems in Jewish law that it is indeed more a permission than an obligation. 

In Jewish law, a Kohen does not have to go to shul to bless the people. If he is there and the chazzan calls him, then he has to. But if he does not want to bless the people, he can walk out. This explains why outside Israel, in the lands of Ashkenazim, we went from the Priestly Blessing every day to only on Yom Tov and why the custom is to take care to say “yashar koach” loudly to the Kohanim after the blessing, since we are indebted to them for choosing to bless us.

Birkat Kohanim cannot just be an obligation because it has to come from love. As the blessing states, “To bless the people of Israel with love.”

The blessing is not a talisman or a formula. If it is to be a real blessing, it must come from a place of love. Thus, Birkat Kohanim by definition cannot be in Vayikra, since it is not a Temple service obligation to God like the sacrifices. It is an interpersonal act between the Kohen and the Jewish people. It is God’s blessing—but to be the conduit for that blessing takes love, so it has to be voluntary and in their hands, about them and us.

This also has a halachic implication: a Kohen who bears animosity toward the people, or the people toward him, cannot bless them. This is a lesson and paradigm for how we should serve the Jewish people—a synergy of the political and the religious, and it must be out of love. Only then can we be a conduit for God’s blessing.