Parsha Talk Naso 5786 2026

Parsha Talk Naso 5786 2026

From Kol Ramah by Camp Ramah in the Berkshires

June 11, 2026 · 35 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Parashat Naso, focusing on the priestly blessing and its significance in Jewish liturgy.

Parashat Naso [Numbers 4:21-7:89] features, among other things, the law of the suspected adulteress [sotah in Hebrew], the nazir [the person who seeks more piety than is required by normative biblical law], and the gifts of the chieftains in chapter 7, at 89 verses the longest in the Torah. Between the laws of the nazir and the gifts of the tribal chieftains we find a passage of 6 verses which contain the priestly blessing [Numbers 6:22-27]. This passage is perhaps the earliest liturgy in the Bible since its use as a liturgy is as it appears in the Torah. The Shma, in contrast, which is also a very old liturgy, was cobbled together from 3 texts which serve a different function in the Torah than it does in the prayerbook. There are perhaps other texts similar to the priestly blessing, such as the recitation voer the first fruits [Deuteronomy 26:5-11] and the vidui ma’aser [the confession over the tithes], but it is fair to say that the priestly blessing has been in continual liturgical use from the days of the Torah down to our own, long after the destruction of the Temple and the loss of sovereignty in the land. So while the 6 verse passage is far shorter than the other units in…

Topics covered

  • Jewish law
  • priestly blessing
  • liturgical use
  • nazir
  • sotah
  • tribal chieftains

Keywords

  • Naso
  • priestly blessing
  • sotah
  • nazir
  • Jewish law
  • liturgical texts
  • Torah

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Parashat Naso, Numbers, Shma, Deuteronomy, vidui ma’aser

Places: Temple

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