The Serenity Prayer and the Priestly Blessing - Commentary on Parashat Naso

Weekly Torah reflections from Matthew Schultz, a rabbinical student at Hebrew College.

Lately, in times of stress or sorrow, I have started saying the serenity prayer.

The serenity prayer, popularized by its use in Alcoholics Anonymous, goes like this:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

It’s simple, powerful, and has the remarkable ability to instantly restore my sense of calm and perspective.

I thought of this as I read Parashat Naso, which contains the priestly blessing.

יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ יְהֹוָ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ        

יָאֵ֨ר יְהֹוָ֧ה ׀ פָּנָ֛יו אֵלֶ֖יךָ וִֽיחֻנֶּֽךָּ        

יִשָּׂ֨א יְהֹוָ֤ה ׀ פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם

Translated by Everett Fox as:

May YHWH bless you and watch over you!

May YHWH shine his face toward you and favor you!

May YHWH lift up his face toward you and grant you shalom!

If anything in our liturgy rivals the serenity prayer’s concision and ability to comfort, it is this. But still, it is not quite something that one would say in a moment of distress. After all, it is in the second-person singular. It is something that one says to others, not to oneself.

For this reason, it has become the most intimate Jewish prayer. It is what parents say to their children on Friday evenings, and in synagogues, as we take shelter under our tallitot, the Kohenim—the descendants of the priests—bless us with this formula.

In Jewish prayer, we speak as a plural entity. We speak to God, the eternal Thou, as a people, not as individuals. We say “return us to your Torah” or “pardon us our sins” or “heal us.”

When God speaks back in the priestly blessing, however, he addresses each of us individually as a singular You. Perhaps this is part of the blessing’s enduring appeal and forcefulness.

After the blessing is commanded, God states “And they shall put my name upon the children of Yisra᾽el; and I will bless them.” In other words, though it is the priests who say the blessing, the blessing comes from God Himself.

So why bother with the middle man?

Perhaps because God knew we needed to hear this word, “You,” and perhaps also because God wanted us to say “You” to one another.

In the meantime, we might still say the serenity prayer when the waters of life feel high.

But when we want someone to know that they are blessed, that the light of God is upon them, that peace is at hand—we can bless them with the words handed down from God to Aaron:

May YHWH bless you and watch over you!

May YHWH shine his face toward you and favor you!

May YHWH lift up his face toward you and grant you shalom!