Adina Roth – Head of Jewish Life

Dr Spock and the Priestly Blessing

Between sanctions and censorship, South African’s entertainment choices were somewhat limited in the eighties. One of the shows lucky enough to get through both of these was Star Trek, which told the tales of a set of inter-galactic characters traveling through space and encountering all kinds of adventures. A beloved character of the show was Mr Spock – famous for his greeting when he would raise his hand and say ‘May the Force be with You.’

Nemoy recalls being in shule as a child on the holidays when the Kohanim would be called to the bimah or stage to give their priestly blessing to the community. He remembers how people averted their eyes from looking at the Priests as they uttered a cacophony of wails, converging on a loud Yevarechacha, may you be blessed. Once, despite being warned not to look, he decided to peek from under the tallit. What he saw became imprinted on his young mind; the kohanim were on the bimah, swaying from side to side, eyes closed in blessing concentration… their hands pointed towards the community, two fingers to the right, two fingers to the left creating a V shape down the middle. Little Nemoy was taken by this image.

Years later while working on the Star Trek set, Nemoy needed to find some way of greeting his people that would be ‘signature Vulcan.’ The gesture of the kohanim came to mind. After he used it as a Vulcan greeting, popular culture took to it light wildfire. Very soon, people waved to him on the street using the greeting. The hand gesture was accompanied by a re-work of the traditional Priestly blessing, ‘Live long and prosper.’

We will be reading the Priestly blessing in this week’s Torah portion, Naso. Nemoy’s sense that the Kohanim were onto something powerful is reinforced by thoughts from the Kedushat Levi, a Hassidic master of the 19th century. The Kedushat Levi identifies two kinds of prayer postures which he links to our hands. He says that when a person prays for himself and wants to receive something from God, it is as if their hands are turned upwards, palms facing towards the heavens, in a gesture of petition. Sometimes when we pray, we feel in a ‘begging like’ state, asking God for generosity or sustenance. There is something childlike and dependent about this state of prayer- and we all know it, sometimes. However, the Kedushat Levi identifies another approach to prayer which he links to the Priestly Blessing. He said, if prayer is not about getting but rather about entering into a relationship with God and a connection to God, a person can become a channel for God’s flow and is called a mashpia. This is translated as an influencer. Not an influencer in the Tik Tok sense, but rather in a sense that I am not a passive recipient in prayer, but rather I am praying to connect to God and, in this way, to become an empowered channel for the Divine flow in the world. The Kedushat Levi links this to the hands of the Kohanim, fingers split open and palms facing down; Nemoy’s power pose. In this second position, we are not asking merely to be recipients of God’s compassion but in some ways we ask God for the strength to help ourselves and the world around us. We become not dependent recipients, but channelers of Divinity and influencers of our reality.

I am not sure if Leonard Nemoy knew the Kedushat Levi, but, intuitively, he picked up that the hand gesture for the priestly blessing was powerful. Similarly, when we bless our children, we seek to take the force of love and Divinity and to transpose this goodness to our beloveds. Even in our highly scientific and rational world, we intuitively know that there is something powerful about blessing. Wishing and praying for someone to receive good is to tap into the abundant flow of the Universe and channel goodness towards ourselves and our world. On Friday nights, it is a beautiful opportunity to put your hands on your children’s heads and bless your children with the Birkat Kohanim: May God bless you and protect you, may God deal kindly and graciously with you, may God give you Divine favour and grant you peace.   

And if find yourselves pressed for time, you are welcome to adopt Nemoy’s shortened version, a clear and concise adaptation of the original: Live, long and prosper!

Shabbat Shalom!

I am sharing a transliteration of the Birkat Kohanim for your use:

Yevare’che’cha Adonai Ve’yish’me’re’cha
Ya’er Adonai Panav Eilecha Vikunekha
Yisah Adonai Panav Eilecha, Ve’yasem L’cha Shalom