“Koh”: Making Israel a Vessel for Blessing

1“So shall you bless Bnei Yisrael; say to them.”¹ Rashi explains: “Amor lahem, ‘say to them,’ is like zachor and shamor.”² Just as zachor, “remember,” is a form that speaks of the present and means to remember always, so here amor means to say the blessing always. Rashi says the same in Parshas Pinchas.³ But this is difficult. The halachah is that once a Kohen has gone up to bless one time in a day, he no longer transgresses the positive mitzvah of “say to them” that day; by Torah law he has no further obligation to bless.⁴ If so, in what sense is amor lahem a present-tense form, a constant obligation?

2On the words Koh tevarchu, “So shall you bless,” the Baal HaTurim, R' Yaakov ben Asher, writes in his commentary on the Torah that they recall the merit of “I and the lad will go yonder, ad koh,”⁵ Avraham's words on the way to the Akeidah, and of “Koh shall your offspring be.”⁶ We need to explain how these verses connect with the Priestly Blessing. At the receiving of the Torah, too, we find the word koh, as it says, “Koh shall you say to the House of Yaakov.”⁷ Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, begin His words to Bnei Yisrael before the giving of the Torah with koh?

3We can explain all this as follows. The purpose of Torah study is to reach yiras Shamayim, the fear of Heaven. As Chazal said, “The goal of Torah is teshuvah and good deeds,”⁸ and as it says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem.”⁹ Torah without yiras Shamayim counts for nothing, as the Gemara discusses at length in Tractate Shabbos.¹⁰ Moreover, the holy Rebbe R' Yechezkel of Kuzmir, zt"l, is quoted as explaining a line of the Rosh Hashanah prayer. In it we say, “And in Your Torah it is written, saying: ‘Hear, O Israel …’”¹¹ In Torah study, he said, there is no difference between learning the Mishnah “Two are holding a garment,”¹² which deals with monetary law, and learning Pirkei Avos or Gemara Berachos, where the subject is yiras Shamayim. Every single piece of Torah learning must bring a person to yiras Shamayim, for that is the purpose of Torah study, as Chazal's words on the goal of Torah show. This is “And in Your Torah it is written, saying”: the whole Torah must lead to “Hear, O Israel” and to accepting the yoke of His kingship.

4This lets us explain the word koh said before the giving of the Torah. The Baal HaTurim writes on our verse that koh, whose letters have the numerical value twenty-five, alludes to the twenty-five letters of the verse “Hear, O Israel.”¹³ That is why Hashem began the whole Torah and the Ten Commandments with the words “Koh shall you say …”: to teach that the aim of Torah study must be to reach yiras Shamayim through it.

5aThis also explains the koh here, in the Priestly Blessing. The Kohanim are the ones who teach the people the word of Hashem, as it is written, “For the lips of the Kohen guard knowledge, and they seek Torah from his mouth.”¹⁴ It is their duty to see to it that the quality of koh takes root in Bnei Yisrael: that all the words of Torah be learned with yiras Shamayim and acceptance of His kingship, which is the aim and purpose of studying the entire Torah.

5bThis is also the aim of the mitzvah of the Priestly Blessing. Its main point is not to bestow an abundance of blessing, for that comes from the Holy One, blessed be He, alone, as it says, “and I will bless them.”¹⁵ Rather, the Kohanim's main task is to make Bnei Yisrael a vessel ready to receive the blessings. They do this by instilling the fear of His Name in Klal Yisrael. Through that fear Bnei Yisrael will be able to keep the Torah and the mitzvos, and so they will be a vessel ready to receive the abundance. Then all the blessings that Hashem bestows will naturally rest on them. This is the meaning of “Koh shall you bless”: by instilling in them the yiras Shamayim alluded to in the word koh, “you shall bless Bnei Yisrael,” that is, you will make them blessed, a vessel that holds blessing.

6This also lets us explain the link to “I and the lad will go yonder, ad koh,” the connection the Baal HaTurim draws from the Masorah, the traditional record of where words recur in Scripture. Avraham Avinu raised his children on this foundation: that the purpose of everything should be yiras Shamayim. That is the meaning of “we will go ad koh”: all our going and all we attain in Torah should be in the spirit of “And in Your Torah it is written, saying: ‘Hear, O Israel.’” This is also what the Holy One, blessed be He, told him: “Koh shall your offspring be.” Hashem promised him that it would indeed be so: the generations to come would also live by the quality of koh.

7With this, Rashi's words are well explained: “amor is like zachor,” a present-tense form meaning always. The verse teaches that the Kohanim's task is to place the Name of Hashem upon Bnei Yisrael¹⁶ and to instill His fear in them in the spirit of koh. Then all their learning, all they attain and all their conduct will come from yiras Shamayim and from accepting the yoke of His kingship. And that applies always, at every time and every hour, for it is the beginning and the purpose of all Torah study, the foundation on which everything turns. This answers the question we began with.

8May Hashem grant that we be privileged to reach the quality of koh, learning and keeping the Torah with yiras Shamayim, and in this merit receive all the blessings, until the coming of the righteous Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.