Self-Sacrifice Removes the Barrier: Hashem Himself Blesses

1“They shall place My Name upon Bnei Yisrael, and I will bless them.”¹ What does it mean to place the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, upon Bnei Yisrael? We must also ask: the Torah commanded the Kohanim to bless, so why does the verse end “and I will bless them,” saying that it is Hashem Who blesses and not the Kohanim?

2The Midrash says: “From where did Israel earn the Priestly Blessing? R' Nechemiah said: From Yitzchak, as it says, ‘I and the lad will go yonder, ad koh.’ Therefore the Omnipresent said, ‘Koh, so, shall you bless Bnei Yisrael.’”² But what is the connection between the binding of Yitzchak and the Priestly Blessing?

3Let us first cite the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “If you will walk in My statutes and guard My mitzvos and do them.”³ The Midrash expounds this verse: “If you guard the Torah, I account it to you as if you had made yourselves.”⁴ My holy father explained that this is in the spirit of Israel's declaration na'aseh venishma, “we will do and we will hear.”⁵ Na'aseh, “we will do,” refers to the body, with which a person does deeds. Bnei Yisrael undertook to make the body serve the Creator's honor, so that it would “hear,” nishma, and obey the Torah. That is what the Midrash means by “as if you had made yourselves”: you yourselves, your whole body, will become Torah. That is the gist of his words.

4We can explain all this as follows. Chazal said: “From the day the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, a barrier of iron came down between Israel and its Father in Heaven.”⁶ The way to break through this barrier is to serve Hashem with mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life. My holy father explained why it is called mesirus nefesh, “giving over the soul,” and not mesirus haguf, “giving over the body.” When a person gives his soul over to Hashem, he is privileged to have his physical matter turned into spiritual form and his body become soul, like the ministering angels. So Chazal said of Bnei Yisrael, who gave their souls over and said na'aseh venishma, that this is the language the ministering angels use.⁷ That is why giving over the body counts as mesirus nefesh, giving over the soul. And this by itself removes the barrier between Hashem and Israel. As the holy Zohar says, this is the cleaving of “spirit with spirit.”⁸ Then a person can be privileged to receive blessing of every kind, material and spiritual, with no accusation against him in Heaven.

5This explains the connection between the binding of Yitzchak and the Priestly Blessing. Through the power of their mesirus nefesh at the Akeidah, Avraham and Yitzchak reached a great level of deveikus, cleaving to Hashem. They became a chariot for the Shechinah, with no barrier at all, and by this power every flow of blessing came down from Heaven unhindered. This is what Chazal meant by their question, “From where did Israel earn the Priestly Blessing,” which includes all the blessings stated in the Torah. Their answer is “From Yitzchak, as it says, ‘I and the lad will go yonder.’” By giving himself over to be bound on the altar, Yitzchak earned abundance for Israel for all time, forever and ever.

6The Kedushas Levi writes in the same vein on the verse “Hashem appeared to him.”⁹ Notice the wording: why does the verse not say “Hashem appeared to Avraham”? Why does it not mention his name? He answers that the flow of blessing reaches every person in contracted form, through tzimtzum. But one who serves Hashem with mesirus nefesh attaches himself to the flow before it has been contracted. Avraham Avinu circumcised himself in his old age and served the Creator with mesirus nefesh. Through this he stripped himself of his own letters, the letters of his name, and so he is not called by his name at all. So far his words. In other words, by the power of his mesirus nefesh at his circumcision, Avraham removed from himself every screen that hides Hashem's light, along with the foreskin of the body, its coarse covering, and purified his body to become soul. That is why the verse says of him, “Hashem appeared to him”: after the circumcision the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to him with no barrier at all.

7This explains what is said in the Priestly Blessing, “They shall place My Name.” As is well known, every Jew has within him “a portion of God from Above,”¹⁰ but he must guard it so as not to blemish it, Heaven forbid. The Kohen's task is to place Hashem's Name upon Israel: to reveal the portion of God from Above that is in every one of Bnei Yisrael. This is the meaning of “They shall place My Name”: that the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, be revealed in them, and then they will be privileged to receive the blessings as a matter of course. It is also the meaning of “and I will bless them.” Once no barrier separates Israel from its Father in Heaven, Hashem Himself blesses Bnei Yisrael, and they receive the blessings from His holy dwelling.¹¹

8May the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us, in the merit of the mitzvah of circumcision and the merit of the Priestly Blessing, that we draw close to Him, so that no screen separates us any longer. May we be privileged to be in His presence,¹² to receive the Torah with joy and gladness of heart, and to see the coming of the Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.