This coming Shabbat is the twenty-fourth anniversary of our daughter, Elana’s, Bat Mitzvah. Our youngest read from the Torah portion “Naso” which contains the well-known Birkat Shalom, the Blessing of Peace. “May God bless you and keep you; May God’s countenance rest upon you and be gracious to you; May God’s presence be with you and may God grant you peace.” It is a blessing initially reserved for the kohanim, the biblical priests and their descendants. In Orthodox synagogues today you can see them duchaning on certain holidays; they place their tallitot (talleisim) over their heads while standing in front of the congregation intoning the blessing. The congregation doesn’t look at them during this practice; the power of the Divine blessing would be greater without the kohen having to look at a mere mortal. Maybe they didn’t want those mortals seeing them make a mistake in the Hebrew.
Now who would make an error in so important a blessing?
First you should know that over time the Birkat Shalom has not only been recited by non-kohanim, but even by non-Jews. Many from other faiths have found it to be a moving blessing in general and especially for weddings and other rites-of-passage. Rabbis use it often as a closing benediction whether or not they are descendants of the kohanim.
The most famous use of the blessing – at least for older Reform rabbis – was at the inauguration of President Kennedy. JFK had asked Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of my alma mater, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, to offer the closing benediction. We were so proud, even I, a fourteen-year-old sitting with his parents watching this momentous event with a rabbi participating! Suddenly my eyebrows scrunched together. “Did he make a mistake?” thought I to myself and out loud to mom and dad. I called my cousin, the Baltimore rabbi. Sure enough, Dr. Glueck had indeed erred. One consequence of that moment, as my cousin told me after speaking to a number of his classmates and colleagues, was that rabbis typed the blessing – Hebrew and English – and affixed it to their pulpits. Heck, if Dr. Glueck can make a mistake on so well-known a blessing, how much the more so could they!
I remember looking back on that inauguration on the day of Elana’s Bat Mitzvah. “Hmmm,” said I to myself and later to our daughter, “a thirteen-year-old intoned it perfectly whereas the distinguished president of HUC-JIR goofed!” Then I said (again, to anyone in earshot), “Well, Elana’s tutor was obviously better than was Glueck’s!”
(Speaking of presidents and rabbis, an older gentleman, much against his will, was persuaded to attend a theological lecture. The persuader was ill and couldn’t attend. Anyway, the speaker was one of those intellectuals who expound lofty ideals and ideas couched in polysyllabic words and phrases. When the man returned home three hours later, he called the person who persuaded him who asked, “Didn’t he make you feel exalted?” “No,” said the attendee, “he made me feel dumb on one end and numb on the other.”)