Blessings Descend Upon Covered Eyes

ח' בתמוז תשס"ז

In my previous entry I discussed Bilaam's experience of prophecy with uncovered eyes, correlating "uncovered" to "unprotected", while Ibn Ezra posits "uncovered" to mean "open" in terms of "open" to receive prophecy.

"Openness" would make sense in terms of receiving prophetic cursing, which Bilaam was hired to do.

In contrast to prophetic cursing, reception of prophetic blessing depends on "covered" eyes. Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair writes regarding the "prophetic" blessings which flow from the Kohanim:

In the time of the Holy Temple, when the kohanim would bless the people, they would raise their hands over their heads and make a space between the third and fourth fingers of hands. When they recited the blessing using the ineffable Name of G-d, the Shechina, the Divine Presence, would rest on their hands. Although the Shechina no longer rests on the hands of the kohanim, to this day they still cover their heads and hands with their prayer shawls when they recite the blessing.

But maybe we could also understand a different symbolism behind the covering of the kohens hands.

Our Sages teach us that blessing only descends on things that are hidden from the eye, that the eye doesn't see.

Thus, we can understand that blessings descend when, like the hands of the Kohanim, the eyes are covered. Consequently, the kruv which covered my lifted eyes this past Shabbat during the tarot reading, also brought to me blessings, which at that time were hidden from my "covered" eyes, where the Presence of the blessings only today I now see.

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