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Sunday, January 9, 2011

Dreams and Birchas Kohanim

While the Kohanim recite the last few words of Birchas Kohanim, there is an age-old custom to recite a special petition, imploring Hashem to annul any bad dreams that we may have dreamed. (שו"ע או"ח סי' ק"ל מברכות נה, ב)
What's the connection between Birchas Kohanim and dreams; why was this time picked specifically for this request?
A dream is considered one-sixtieth of prophecy (ברכות נז, ב). While bestowing the brachah upon the congregation, the Kohanim are considered to be full-fledged prohets, as the Shechinah "peers through the cracks" of their raised, blessing-giving hands. As such, it is a most appropriate time to nullify one's negative dreams, using the classic one-to-sixty halachic nullifying ratio, "batel beshishim."
נועם אלימלך פ' תרומה, הובא בס' טעמי המנהגים ע' ט"ו "עניני נשיאת כפים" ס"ק קכ"ד
ועי' דברי המדרש שיר השירים רבה עה"פ "מציץ מן החרכים" - ב,ט. הובא בטור סי' קכ"ח
ועי' עוד בענין השכינה מציץ מן החרכים בטעמי המנהגים הנ"ל אות קכ"ב בשם השבלי הלקט
See here

1 comment:

  1. The question, "What is the connection between dreams and the priestly blessing?" is more relevant when the priestly blessings are only said a few times a year (as opposed to every day). People can have bad dreams all the time! So the fact they need to wait as much as six months to say this prayer, and the fact that everyone says it, regardless if they indeed had bad dreams, seems to indicate that this prayer is very much connected with the priestly blessing.

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