The vision thing
Naso

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
the chief rabbi of the city of Efrat and
dean of Ohr Torah Institutes in Israel

“And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons saying so shall you bless the children of Israel; say to them, may the Lord bless you and keep you…’” (Numbers 6:22-27)

There are very few passages of the Bible that are as well-known as the “Priestly Benediction.” In Israel the kohanim (priests) rise to bless the congregation every single morning. In the Diaspora, however, the Ashkenazi Jews include this special benediction only on the festivals.

Nevertheless there are many life-cycle celebrations, such as circumcisions, redemptions of the first born, b’nei mitzva, and even weddings, which are punctuated by this priestly blessing. In effect, the Kohen stands as God’s representative, as the “agent of the Compassionate One,” as the spiritual leader and as the Torah teacher. In this function as teacher and guide, the priest calls upon God to bless the congregation. As Moses declares in his final blessing to the Israelites, the Priests and Levites “shall guard Your covenant, shall teach Your laws to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel…” (Deuteronomy 33:9,10)

The Talmud (in the ninth chapter of Berachot) as well as our prayer liturgy, declare, “At the time of the priestly blessings, the congregation responds, ‘Master of the Universe, I am Yours and my dreams are Yours.’” Apparently our Sages saw a profound connection between the dreams of the Congregation of Israel and the function of their priestly leaders. Exactly what is the nature of that connection?

I would suggest that first and foremost, leaders and educators must inspire their students, congregants, or nation with a lofty vision, with an exalted dream. Psalm 126, which we recite each Sabbath and festival before the Grace after meals, declares, “When the Lord returned with the restoration of Zion we were as dreamers.” After all, had the Jews not dreamed of the return to Israel throughout their long exiles, we never would have returned to our homeland.

One sees the same idea from the opposite vantage point when one realizes the cause of the great tragedy of the Book of Numbers. In Numbers, the Jewish people descends from the great heights of the revelation at Sinai to the disastrous depths of the sin of the scouts, the rebellion of Korah, the sin of Moses, and the destruction of that entire generation in the desert. What caused such a mighty fall? The Bible itself begins its account of the descent with the words, “And it happened that the nation kvetched (mitonenim) evily.” (Numbers 11:1) Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, in the19th century, explained the difficult Hebrew word mitonenim as meaning “wandering hither and thither” — aimlessly and without purpose or direction — from the Hebrew anna. Simply put, this great Torah leader was saying that the Israelites had lost the dream and the vision. At Sinai, they had cried out, “We shall do and we shall internalize.” They accepted upon themselves the divine mission of being a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In Numbers, they descended into destruction because they lost the dream.

The Hebrew word for “dream”, halom, quite literally spells out what is asked of our leaders.

With a simple switch of the letters H-M-L, it spells hamal, which means love and compassion. The priest-leaders who inspire with their dreams must first and foremost love their nation; only when the people believe themselves worthy of being loved will they believe in their ability to dream and achieve the vision. Great leaders such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion lifted their respective nations to unheard of heights because they made them believe in themselves.

Another switch of the letters in halom spells lohem, which means fighting, warring (if need be) to achieve necessary goals. A great measure of imparting a dream is to impart idealistic sacrifice on behalf of that dream.

The letters in halom also spell lehem, or “bread”: A dream must be nourished with the tactics, resources, and strategy necessary to accomplish the dream.

M-L-H spells melah, or “salt.” Salt symbolizes tears – the tears of sacrifice and commitment — as well as eternity, since salt never putrefies. Salt is therefore the symbol of our covenant with God, the covenant which guarantees Jewish eternity and ultimate redemption.

Finally, halom is linguistically tied to halon, a window, a light to the outside world. The dream with which the Kohen must inspire the Israelites is a dream which encompasses the entire world. It is a dream that “through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth.” It is the dream in which “They shall beat their saws into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

Those who believe in a God who is invisible may well dare to dream the dream which is impossible. But only those who dream the impossible will ever achieve the incredible.