Birkat Kohanim — the Priestly Blessing: the three verses, and everything that happens around them

Fifteen words, three verses, and an entire choreography around them: the kohanim face the people, hands raised and split, a word at a time behind the reader — and the congregation looks down. The verses are from the Torah; everything else fills the longest siman of this part of the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128, with 45 seifim. Here are the verses first, then the rules that answer what people actually ask: who, when, why the covered faces — and why outside Israel you may only hear it a few times a year.

The text — the three verses

The blessing itself is not rabbinic wording — it is three verses from the Torah (Bamidbar 6:24–26), the words God instructed Aharon and his sons to bless Israel with:

יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ יְהֹוָ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ׃ יָאֵ֨ר יְהֹוָ֧ה ׀ פָּנָ֛יו אֵלֶ֖יךָ וִֽיחֻנֶּֽךָּ׃ יִשָּׂ֨א יְהֹוָ֤ה ׀ פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם׃
May the Lord bless you and guard you. May the Lord shine His face upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His face toward you and grant you peace.Bamidbar (Numbers) 6:24–26

Torah text — Miqra according to the Masorah, with cantillation marks. The spelling of the Divine Name is that edition’s.

Transliteration: Yevarechecha Adonai veyishmerecha. Ya’er Adonai panav eilecha vichuneka. Yisa Adonai panav eilecha veyasem lecha shalom.

Fifteen Hebrew words in a deliberate crescendo — three, then five, then seven. These are also the verses many parents use to bless their children on Friday night.

Who blesses — and what “being called” means

The blessing needs a minyan, and the kohanim themselves count toward it:

…אין נשיאת כפים פחות מי' והכהנים מהמנין: ואין לזר לישא כפיו אפילו עם (כהנים אחרים)…
There is no raising of the hands with fewer than ten, and the kohanim are part of the count. A non-kohen may not raise his hands, even alongside other kohanim.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:1

For the kohen it is not optional once he is called:

כל כהן שאין בו אחד מהדברים המעכבים אם אינו עולה לדוכן אע"פ שביטל מצות עשה אחת הרי זה כעובר בג' עשה אם היה בב"ה כשקורא כהנים או אם אמרו לו לעלות או ליטול ידיו:
Any kohen with no disqualification who does not go up to the duchan — although he has annulled one positive commandment, he is as one who transgresses three positive commandments — if he was in the synagogue when “kohanim” was called, or if he was told to go up or to wash his hands.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:2

Note the precision of the wording: he has failed one commandment and is “as one who transgresses three” — the three verses being three commands. And once he has gone up that day, he has done his duty: “if he went up once that day, he no longer transgresses, even if they tell him to go up” (128:3).

How it goes — word by word

Facing the people, the kohanim first say their own blessing — the only blessing in the siddur that mentions the holiness of Aharon:

כשמחזירין פניהם כלפי העם מברכין אשר קדשנו בקדושתו של אהרן וצונו לברך את עמו ישראל באהבה:
When they turn their faces toward the people, they bless: “…who sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon and commanded us to bless His people Israel with love.”Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:11

Then the verses — never from memory, always prompted:

מתחילין הכהנים לומר יברכך: הגה וי"א שגם מלת יברכך יקרא אותם ש"צ תחלה [טור ור"ן פ' הקורא והגהות מיימוני] (וכן נוהגים בכל מדינות אלו) ואח"כ מקרא אותם ש"ץ מלה במלה והם עונים אחריו על כל מלה עד שיסיימו פסוק ראשון ואז עונים הצבור אמן וכן אחר פסוק ב' וכן אחר פסוק ג':
The kohanim begin by saying “yevarechecha”. Rama: and some say that even the word “yevarechecha” is first called out by the leader — and such is the custom in all these lands. Then the leader reads to them word by word, and they repeat each word after him, to the end of the first verse — and then the congregation answers amen; and so after the second verse, and so after the third.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:13

The frame around it is fixed: “one blesses only in the holy tongue, standing, with raised hands, and out loud” (128:14). And at the words where the blessing turns personal — yevarechecha, veyishmerecha, eilecha, vichuneka, eilecha, lecha, shalom — the kohanim turn south and north, so the blessing faces everyone (128:45). The Rama adds there that the custom is to draw out a melody on the closing words — the niggun everyone who has heard duchening remembers.

The hands

The seif behind the most famous hand gesture in Jewish life:

מגביהים ידיהם כנגד כתפותיהם ומגביהים יד ימנית קצת למעלה מהשמאלית ופושטים ידיהם וחולקים אצבעותיהם ומכוונים לעשות ה' אוירים בין ב' אצבעות לב' אצבעות אויר אחד ובין אצבע לגודל ובין גודל לגודל ופורשים כפיהם כדי שיהא תוך כפיהם כנגד הארץ ואחורי ידיהם כנגד השמים:
They raise their hands to shoulder height, the right hand slightly above the left, stretch out their hands and split their fingers to form five spaces — between two fingers and two fingers one space, between finger and thumb, and between thumb and thumb — and they spread their palms so that the inside of the palm faces the ground and the back of the hands faces the sky.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:12

Five spaces, palms down, right above left. (Yes — this is the gesture Leonard Nimoy borrowed for the Vulcan salute; he had seen it as a child in shul during duchening.)

Why nobody looks — and the tallit over the face

בשעה שהכהנים מברכים העם לא יביטו ולא יסיחו דעתם אלא יהיו עיניהם כלפי מטה כמו שעומד בתפלה והעם יכוונו לברכה ויהיו פניהם כנגד פני הכהנים ולא יסתכלו בהם: הגה וגם הכהנים לא יסתכלו בידיהם על כן נהגו לשלשל הטלית על פניהם וידיהם חוץ לטלית ויש מקומות שנהגו שידיהם בפנים מן הטלית שלא יסתכלו העם בהם (ב"י):
While the kohanim bless the people, the people should not look at them nor let their minds wander; their eyes should be lowered as in the Amidah, they should concentrate on the blessing, their faces toward the faces of the kohanim — but without gazing at them. Rama: and the kohanim too should not gaze at their own hands; therefore the custom is to drape the tallit over their faces, the hands outside the tallit; and in some places the custom is that the hands are inside the tallit, so the people will not gaze at them.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:23

Everything the visitor finds strange in the scene is in that one seif: the lowered eyes, the covered faces, the hands in or out — two customs, both recorded. Facing the kohanim but not staring; receiving, not watching.

One more detail people notice: the kohanim stand in socks. “The kohanim may not go up to the duchan in shoes” (128:5) — the Rama records those who are strict with leather boots, and places where the custom is lenient.

Every day in Israel — Yom Tov in the diaspora

In Eretz Yisrael, duchening is daily practice — that is the Shulchan Aruch’s baseline in this siman. The reason an American shul only hears it on festivals is a Rama, and he gives his reason in full:

…נהגו בכל מדינות אלו שאין נושאין כפים אלא בי"ט משום שאז שרוים בשמחת י"ט וטוב לב הוא יברך משא"כ בשאר ימים אפי' בשבתות השנה שטרודים בהרהורים על מחייתם ועל ביטול מלאכתם ואפי' בי"ט אין נושאין כפים אלא בתפלת מוסף שיוצאים אז מב"ה וישמחו בשמחת י"ט…
The custom in all these lands is that the hands are raised only on Yom Tov, because then people are immersed in the joy of the festival — and “the good-hearted one, he shall bless”; unlike other days, even Shabbatot, when minds are troubled with livelihood and lost work. And even on Yom Tov, only in the Mussaf prayer, when they are about to leave the synagogue and rejoice in the festival’s joy.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:44

The same gloss closes the loop: on Yom Kippur the hands are raised as on Yom Tov — some places at Ne’ila, some even at Shacharit; and whenever there is no duchening, the leader says the Elokeinu prayer in its place. Note what this is: a custom (“נהגו”), recorded with its reason — not a prohibition. Sephardi communities in the diaspora, and everyone in Israel, duchen far more often.

One last seif from the same run: a kohen who is unmarried still goes up — Maran says it plainly, the Rama records those who say a man without a wife lacks the joy a blesser needs, and concludes that the custom is that he goes up (128:44).

Sources

• Bamidbar (Numbers) 6:24–26 — the three verses — the text of the blessing
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:1 — a minyan; the kohanim count; no non-kohen
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:2 — called and not going up — as one who transgresses three
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:3 — once a day suffices
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:5 — no shoes on the duchan; Rama on boots
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:11 — the kohanim’s own blessing — “with love”
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:12 — the hands — five spaces, palms down
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:13 — word by word behind the leader; amen after each verse
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:14 — Hebrew, standing, raised hands, out loud
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:23 — not looking; the tallit over the face (Rama)
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:44 — the unmarried kohen; the diaspora custom — Yom Tov, at Mussaf (Rama)
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:45 — the words where they turn; the niggun (Rama)