Parashat Naso I: The Blessing of Satisfaction

“More! More! I want more!” say the children. More toys, more beautiful dresses, more treats. It is never enough. For them, and sometimes, for us. How does one learn to feel satisfied, to feel the peace of not wanting? Consider the parsha’s perspective.

This week’s parsha, parashat Naso, includes the classic priestly blessing, “May the Lord bless you and protect you . . .” (Num 6:23-27). This is the same blessing the kohanim (priests) recite in the synagogue on holidays and that many parents use to bless their children on Friday nights.

Concerning this priestly blessing, the midrash (Numbers Rabbah 11.7) tells the following story. A large family sits down to a very meager meal, some small bits of bread. Now the Torah says, “And you shall eat, and you shall be satisfied, and you shall bless [here meaning thank] the Lord your God” (Deut 8:10). This is the biblical source for benching, the saying of grace after meals. What do the members of the midrash’s family do after eating their decidedly unsatisfactory meal? They bench anyway; they thank God despite not being full. According to the midrash, it is this action, this lifting of one’s face toward God in blessing and thanksgiving (brachah) which leads God to lift His face toward us in blessing (brachah), and to bestow upon us the favors of the priestly blessing. It is like we tell our children: “If you say thank you, they’ll invite you back.” The first step in receiving the blessing involves appreciating that we already have been blessed. And thus begins the cycle; our appreciation, our brachah, leads to His further brachah which leads to our brachah of thanks and so on.

Note that the midrash’s family begins the cycle by feeling blessed and save’a, “satisfied,” in the face of small amounts. This sense of satisfaction, of fullness, no matter what the quantity, is the kind of perspective which is the beginning of religious experience; it is a perspective which opens the heart to seeing, really seeing God’s gifts and blessings in all their tiny minutiae – the single moment of a child’s laughter (even amidst a day full of tears), the moment when a group’s voices merge in Shabbat song, or the sweet taste of one small piece of juicy melon. The goal is to look at these small things and to feel full, to be able to say: If that is all the good that comes of today, that is enough.

The Hasidic commentator Sefat Emet suggests that the last part of the priestly blessing, “And He will grant you peace” refers not only to shalom, “peace,” but also to shleymut, “wholeness,” to precisely this feeling of fullness. This perspective is then both the beginning and the end of the cycle. We must begin with a heart that is full and blessed, but it is also such a heart that we pray for; such a heart is also the blessing itself. We ask God to help us become people who do not constantly want more, but feel a sense of wholeness and satisfaction in small things.