Tefillah 073

47:
So far, among other things, we have established that it is a mitzvah for every kohen (who is not otherwise disqualified) to invoke God's blessing on the congregation, regardless of whether the kohen is mitzvah-observant or not. Before we detail some of the salient points of the ceremony we should, perhaps, note that in some congregations (presumably egalitarian in other respects) the daughters of kohanim have sought to join the sons of kohanim in this ceremony. Within the Conservative movement opinions are divided. In 1994 the Law Committee in New York passed two teshuvot [responsa], one of which permitted the daughters of kohanim to participate in the ceremony while the other disapproved of such participation. Similarly, the Va'ad Halakhah in Jerusalem (volume 3) passed two teshuvot which impinge on this matter, one directly and one indirectly; both of them do not permit the participation of women in this ceremony. Therefore it seems that the preponderance of halakhic opinion is against such participation.

48:
For what it is worth, my own opinion is also that women do not participate in this ceremony. Judaism has never had priestesses, only priests. We have had not a few prophetesses as well as prophets, so the distinction was one of 'status' not of sex. The Torah singled out "Aaron and his sons" [Numbers 6:23] for this mitzvah, to the exclusion of other Levites and all Israelites – both male and female.

49:
We have mentioned on several occasions that the kohen does not bless the congregation: he invokes the blessing of God. The biblical verse makes this very clear:

Tradition has introduced several customs regarding this ceremony which serve to remove as far as possible the individual personalities involved, so that the congregation will concentrate on the words – God's blessing – and not on the people uttering the words.

• The kohanim cover the heads with their tallit [prayer shawl], thus their faces are not seen.
• The congregation is required not to look at the kohanim as they observe the mitzvah, but to concentrate their thoughts on the words being said. (A folk custom grew up in which people turned their backs on the priests: this is to be sternly deprecated as not only ignorant but also the height of impoliteness.)
• Before they begin the ceremony the priests recite a benediction which reminds everyone that they are not acting voluntarily, but impelled by divine command.
• The priests do not recite the benediction at will but repeat it, word for word, as dictated to them by the cantor; thus, it appears that they are being told what to say.

50:
There are a couple of customs associated with this ceremony which derive from ancient procedure in the Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem two thousand and more years ago:

• As the cantor begins to recite the fifth benediction, Avodah [Shulĥan Arukh, Oraĥ Ĥayyim 128:8], the kohanim leave the synagogue and have their hands washed [Exodus 30:17-21] by any Levites present. (If there is no Levite present they should do it themselves.)
• Before they wash their hands the kohanim remove their shoes prior to performing the ceremony.

To be continued.

Al Sporer writes:

In Tefillah 070 your discussion of the repetition of the amidah omits any discussion of the "Retzei" prayer at the transition from the Avodah section to the Hodayah section. In Conservative siddurim the words, "..ishei yisrael…" is omitted. What is the background for the decision to omit that phrase from the Conservative siddurim?

I respond:

I am always the first to admit both my sins of comission and my sins of omission; but in this case I have not sinned! Please read what I wrote in Tefillah 062, paragraphs 87 – 94 (eight paragraphs!) At the very end of the section that dealt with the Retzé benediction I wrote:

God willing, I shall keep that promise.

In Tefillah 072 we discussed some of the disabilities that prevent a kohen from participating in the dukhan ceremony. Yaier Lehrer writes:

What is the halacha regarding a Kohain who is tameh [ritually impure] by virtue of having been in the vicinity of a corpse or cemetery. Is that Kohain still required and/or permitted to give the blessing?

I respond:

I am not sure that I am entirely happy with the exact wording of Yaier's question, because it is not the kohen who gives the blessing; he only invokes it. But, the short answer to the actual question is 'yes', the kohanim are required to perform this ceremony even if they are ritually impure. We can say that for almost two thousand years now every single kohen – indeed, every Jew! – is ritually impure. There is no spot on earth where we can be certain that there is no contaminating substance below ground and there is no ritual mechanism any more for the repurification of a priest who is ritually impure. It is customary nowadays for kohanim to avoid stepping among graves, not for fear of ritual contamination (because you can't ritually contaminate someone who is already ritually impure) but so as not to let the custom die out and be forgotten. We discussed the whole issue of ritual impurity and its present day ramifications when we studied Tractate Yadayyim. Furthermore, nowadays we just assume that everyone who says he is a kohen is indeed a kohen: we have no reliable geneological registers to guide us. (But see also Tefillah 072, paragraph 42.)