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Activity: Blessing of the Kohanim
This is the way Kohanim hold their hands when giving the priestly blessing – the fingers form a Shin to represent Shaddai (God’s name.) Can you hold your hands this way? Look up the blessing Bamidbar 6:23–27.
Image from: http://ggorelik.narod.ru/LeHaim_W/LeHaim_W1.htm
Image by Kleuske – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20497346
Download the exercise here: Word PDF
Discussion Plan: Different Meanings of “Lech L’cha”
Read the sentence on the left – which kind of “Go Forth!” do you think is invoked here? You can mark more than one, but make sure you can explain what you mean in each case. If you mark more than one, explain what it would mean to ‘go’ for each one you marked (eg: going camping might be ‘go forth’ because going to camp means you are moving geographically, but it also may be ‘go to yourself’ because when you are camping you discover you are now capable of doing things that you never would have thought you could do).
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Go! Leave where you are for somewhere else |
Go for yourself! For your own benefit — (eg: financial or physical benefit) |
Go to yourself! Go to greater self-understanding (to understand who you are now better) |
Go to the person you will become! The person you will one day be — fulfilling your destiny, or becoming a better person |
| Kate: “I’m going to miss you when you leave, but I know the job in Boston pays a higher salary.” | ||||
| Eli: “I went on this retreat to get in touch with the ‘real me’ – it was very cool. I learned lots about myself.” | ||||
| Zaitlan: “Going to summer camp last year was really important – I really became more self-confident and independent.” | ||||
| Esti: “We are moving to Israel – I don’t want to go, but my parents say it is the only place we can truly grow up to be ourselves. But I think I am my best self right here.” | ||||
| David: “Getting up early for basketball training is not fun, but I know that I’ll appreciate the fact that I made this effort when I make it to the championships.” | ||||
| Sam: “Once a week after school I go with my mum to the home where my grandparents live. I help them to go down to the dining room and sometimes I sing for them because they like that.” |
Go back to the Biblical text – if we view Avram’s journey through each of these lenses, how might we understand the meaning and significance of his journey?
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Activity: Blessing the Children
This custom is a nice way of bringing gratitude and spirituality into your family on Shabbat and at other special occasions. There are different customs as to when the blessing is recited. Some families bless their children immediately before or after Kiddush. Others prefer to bless just after lighting the Shabbat candles. Usually the person giving the blessing places one or both hands on the child’s head. Some parents bless each child in succession, others bless all of the girls together, and all of the boys together, while other families have developed their own rituals around this practice.
In Pairs, take it in turns to give the blessing one to another – do it with Kavanah (focused intentionality). What did it feel like to give the blessing? What did it feel like to receive the blessing? (Physically, how did you experience it? How did the relationship with the other person feel during this experience?)
The words of the blessing are taken from the priestly blessing (Bamidbar 6:24-26) and traditionally the introduction is constructed differently according to the gender of the person being blessed. Some people like to ‘mix this up’ and include both male and female figures in blessing their child.
For males:
יְשִׂימְךָ אֱלהיִם כְּאֶפְרַיְם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה
May you be like Ephraim and Menashe.
For females:
יְשִׂימֵךְ אֱלהיִם כְּשָׂרָה רִבְקָה רָחֵל וְלֵאָה
May you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.
For both genders, the rest of the blessing is:
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלום
May God bless you and guard you.
May God show you favor and be gracious to you.
May God show you kindness and grant you peace.
Download the leading idea description here: PDF
Leading Idea: Different Meanings of Lech L’cha
‘Lech l’cha’ is generally taken as an expression meaning “Go forth”. But this isn’t the only way of reading it. While Lech l’cha on its own is a command (like sit! or stop!), lech on its own means ‘go’ and l’cha’ on its own generally means ‘to you’. What might these mean when put together?
In this unit we explore the following different readings of the phrase ‘Lechl’cha’.
Each of these offers a different understanding of Avram’s journey. The resources here both provide voices from within our tradition that speak to these interpretations and resources for students to apply the distinctions in their own lives and thus to come to internalize the different meanings as resources for making sense of different kinds of ‘Lech!’ in their own lives.
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Intertextual Resource: Divine and Human Blessings
Which of these blessings are asked for and which given without asking? Do you think this makes a difference? Who or what are the blessings directed toward – how does it change the thing being blessed?
Divine Blessings
Does the blessing recognize something (a quality) that is already present or does it create something new? What is the meaning of the blessing? What is intended by the blessing?
| God blesses Avram – Bereshit 24:1 |
וְאַבְרָהָם זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים וַיהֹוָה בֵּרַךְ אֶת אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּל. |
| Yaakov demands a blessing from the man-angel – Bereshit 32:25-27 |
וַיֹּאמֶר שַׁלְּחֵנִי כִּי עָלָה הַשָּׁחַר וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא אֲשַׁלֵּחֲךָ כִּי אִם בֵּרַכְתָּנִי… |
| God blesses the 7th day – Bereshit 2:3 |
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ … |
Human Blessings
Does the blessing create something new or recognize something (a quality) that is already present? Is the blessing freely offered? What is intended by the blessing?
| Yitzak blessing Yaakov – Bereshit 27:30 |
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר כִּלָּה יִצְחָק לְבָרֵךְ אֶת יַעֲקֹב |
| Yakov blesses Yoseph – Bereshit 48:15 |
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֶת יוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמַר |
| The blessing we recite over food |
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהוָה אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם … |
| Parents bless their children |
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ |
Download the secondary source here: Word PDF
Secondary Source: The Meaning of Lech L’cha
Lech l’cha: lech (go, walk) involves an outward movement.
The word l’cha (for, to yourself) is an inwards movement.
Lech l’cha is a movement both outwards and inwards at the same time.
Go forth, to walk or go, the sense of separating, “taking leave of”
Can you think of journeys that are both inward and outwards?
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Discussion Plan: Being Blessed
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Discussion Plan: Giving and Receiving Blessings
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Discussion Plan: Giving and Receiving Curses
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Leading Ideas: Blessings and Curses
In this passage, God makes three kinds of claims regarding how Avram will be blessed:
What is a blessing? What does it mean ‘ to be blessed’? What might it mean to regard yourself blessed by the presence of someone else?
How might giving or receiving a blessing be different from being a blessing? Or being blessed? Whereas the activity of ‘giving or receiving blessings suggests a kind of transaction – with something being passed on from one person to another, the state of ‘being a blessing’ and ‘being blessed’ suggests some state of being – some inner active quality of a person. Here there is an interesting question – is ‘blessing’ being used transitively or intransitively? There is a difference between verbs used non-transitively (like “she is standing over there” OR “she Is crying” and transitive verbs (like “Sam was hitting the pillow”). Whereas non-transitive verbs like standing and sitting don’t have any direct object, you can only be ‘hitting’ if there is some object that directly receives your action (to hit you have to be hitting something).
A lot of verbs can be used both ways – and this seems to be the case with blessing. In this way ‘being blessed’ might grammatically be more like ‘being kind’ than ‘being happy’ – to say someone is being kind is to point to the way they interact with others and the world – it is doubtful you could be kind if you were totally alone on a desert island. (where there was no-one/nothing to be kind toward). While being happy is an inner state.
Another way of thinking about “being a blessed to others” might be the sort of thing that we might have in mind when we say of someone: “she is such a calm person, when she is here she has a calming influence on the whole room.” (or spiritual person, or agitated person – the point being their state of being has an impact on their environment). We might also think of ways that we are blessed because of the presence of other people in our lives.
How might these meanings shed light on the text?
In addition to blessing Avram, God says he will bless all who bless Avram and curse all those who curse him. This not only suggests that people (as well as God) are capable of blessing and cursing – but opens up the moral question of what it means for God to act toward others according to how others treat Avram. What are we doing when we bless and curse people? Is it just another way of wishing them something (for instance, good or bad luck?). Can the idea of giving or receiving a blessing have significance even if you don’t believe in ‘ a God who blesses or curses?
In Summary:
We might see being a blessing / being blessed as :
We might understand blessing as:
These are fine (and somewhat complex) distinctions, but getting the students to think about these ideas is guided by different discussion plans – for example, the discussion plan on “giving and receiving blessings’ explores the transitivity of ‘Blessing.’