The Oldest Prayer

shabbat shalom this morning you can take a breath you're good for a while this morning we heard arbat Mitzvah Elana chant one of the oldest Jewish prayers for the Priestly blessing or in Hebrew beat takan and as she also shared in her darar Torah this this prayer has the distinction of being the oldest copy of a Biblical text that we have the blessing is inscribed on two silver amulets dating to the 6th Century BCE some this is 500 years before the Dead Sea Scrolls I first saw these prized amulets in person at the isra Museum in Jerusalem when I was 12 years old this was a trip uh my parents took us the year before my bat mitzvah and on later trips I always returned to this Museum to search for them and I still remember the way if they haven't changed it you first you turn left into the archaeology Wing if you've been here maybe uh some of you will remember this you turn left and then you're in the section for the Israelite and Persian periods and these forboding sarcophagy guard the entrance some of you are nodding maybe you remember they guard the entrance with what I imagine our pretty terrifying nightmarish mummies inside you have to be brave to get through them and then in the corner in one of those galleries there is a small display play which does not command nearly the same attention as those tall sarcophagy there lie these understated Treasures two miniature amulets that seem to levitate in the air and they're propped up by a nearly Invisible Thread that holds them and they're positioned exactly behind a simple magnifying glass so it it looks the whole thing looks like it could be a child's science experiment the amulets behind the magnifying glass the accompanying plaque reads the amulets inscribed with ancient Hebrew script were found in a burial cave in Jerusalem they were in sized with a sharp thin stylus no thicker than a hair's breath and thus deciphering the inscription was difficult and I always laugh a little at that last line because it seems like the museum is um patting itself on the back a little bit this was really hard but we figured it out we did it imagine someone a very long time ago etching these words into silver just a few centimeters High they're very small and carrying that amulet around a world much more dangerous and unpredictable than ours and for a lifespan much shorter than ours eventually to be buried together with this little amulet in a cave this precious Hebrew letter lettered metal protecting them even after death whenever I visit the amulets I like to tell myself stories about the life of their owners this takes some stretching because this was about 8,000 years ago what did they fear what did they worry about what did they dream about and did the Priestly blessing ease some of those fears did did it quiet some of their worries and did it somehow brighten some of their dreams the ancient Hebrew script it doesn't look like the script we have today modern Hebrew script the ancient Hebrew script is from Numbers bamidbar Chapter 6 which we read today three lines God bless you and watch over you shine God's face toward you and Grant you favor Shalom lift up God's face toward you and Grant you peace so sum of this blessing is pretty simple and straightforward God should bless you and protect you and give you favor and some of it is a little more metaphorical and even a little magical God's face should light up when you enter a room God should turn towards you thrilled at your presence I love imagining that God is so excited to see us these three lines of Prayer uttered in only 15 words meant so much to our ancestors that I can't help but wonder how are these words still so present in our lives today as Jews our Bat Mitzvah Elana shared in her Dart Tor that her parents bless her and her brother every Friday night using the Priestly blessing does anyone else bless children or receive a blessing on a Friday night oh I see some I see a lot of hands last week at our PreSchool Family Shabbat we paused for all the little ones to you know they're all sitting up in the front with their friends we pause for them to find their grown-ups and uh have a hug and a little Pat on the head maybe and then receive this blessing and looking into the future I like to wonder if some of those families will keep saying the blessing and keep doing it and even I know some families who still do it even as their children grow up and maybe they have other things to do on a Friday night I don't know what but they maybe FaceTime and their kids will pause whatever they're doing and receive a blessing oblige their parents a little bit for the for the blessing we grown-ups get blessed too we chant these three lines directly from the tourist Groll each year when we read this week's paraa which we of course we did today and when we do that we remember that Aaron the high priest blessed the Israelites now I don't know exactly what it could have felt like to be blessed by him but we do get to be blessed today sometime often khazan frin blesses us or other others of our prayer leaders every time we repeat the amida out loud we receive the Priestly blessing as a community and in some synagogues the kohanim the priests Among Us bless everyone using these hold on I can do it using these uh Dr Spock hands have you ever seen these is that yeah well before it was Dr Spock it was the Priestly blessing so Mr Spock Mr Spock okay okay uh I I there's a lot of a lot of good Star Trek uh experts in the room which is not surprising there's always an expert whatever I talk about there's always an expert in the room and actually this so not only does this hand gesture come from the Priestly blessing not actually from Star Trek but it's in the shape of a shin so if you look it's in this the three uh three stems of a the Hebrew letter of a shin for one of the names of God sh die prayers and symbols can be our Rock in the storm something to hold on to especially this year when we wake up to the news that we wake up to we might reach for our high or a star of David necklace or the inscription on the inside of a wedding ring or we might reach for the embroidered Atara the collar of our talit our amulets are also our rocks in the storm when we experience loss and grief I am officiating at an unveiling tomorrow and so at an unveiling where we will reveal the engraved Stone of the burial marker traditionally this has of course names and dates sometimes it has other symbols like a Jewish star sometimes it even has the um Mr Spock hands if the person was a Cohan sometimes a few words of prayer we will read the words that this family chose to keep forever close to their loved one and I hope that will bring some comfort what words are so powerful that you would scratch them into stone or silver and keep them with you what words so capture your life that you would even ask to be buried with them take the time to pick your blessing make it into a real or a figurative amulet and if you choose the Priestly blessing you'll share a prayer with this 6th Century owner of my favorite artifact at the Israel Museum may we keep our most sacred blessings close and know that our oldest prayers are still relevant and still powerful worth a trip to the museum to squint through a magnifying glass worth a few reflective moments at sh worth a few words and a hug before Shabbat dinner God bless you and watch over you shine God's face toward you and show you favor lift up God's face to you and Grant you peace amen shabbat shalom shom

Channel: Congregation Beth El Bethesda Maryland

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Id: C7Qf31wH5uI

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 18 2024