The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 20 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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NashimSederסדרנָשִׁים
SotahMasechtaמסכתסוטה
7Perekפרקז׳
6Mishnahמשנהו׳
נושא · Topicבִּרְכַּת כֹּהֲנִים — בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ וּבַמְּדִינָהBirkas Kohanim: in the Mikdash and outside it
Mishnah סוטה ז׳:ו׳ · Sotah 7:6
בִּרְכַּת כֹּהֲנִים כֵּיצַד?
בַּמְּדִינָה אוֹמְרִים אוֹתָהּ שָׁלשׁ בְּרָכוֹת,
וּבַמִּקְדָּשׁ בְּרָכָה אֶחָת.
בַּמְּדִינָה בְכִנּוּיוֹ,
בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ אוֹמֵר אֶת הַשֵּׁם כִּכְתָבוֹ.
בַּמְּדִינָה כֹּהֲנִים נוֹשְׂאִים אֶת יְדֵיהֶן כְּנֶגֶד כִּתְפֵיהֶן,
וּבַמִּקְדָּשׁ עַל גַּבֵּי רָאשֵׁיהֶן,
חוּץ מִכֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל שֶׁאֵינוֹ מַגְבִּיהַּ אֶת יָדָיו לְמַעְלָה מִן הַצִּיץ.
רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אַף כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל מַגְבִּיהַּ יָדָיו לְמַעְלָה מִן הַצִּיץ,
שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ויקרא ט) וַיִּשָּׂא אַהֲרֹן אֶת יָדָיו אֶל הָעָם וַיְבָרְכֵם.
Birkas Kohanim — how is it recited?
In the medinah they say it as three blessings,
and in the Mikdash as one blessing.
In the medinah [the divine name] is said by its substitute,
in the Mikdash one says the Name as it is written.
In the medinah the kohanim raise their hands at shoulder-height,
and in the Mikdash above their heads,
except the Kohein Gadol, who does not raise his hands above the Tzitz.
Rabbi Yehuda says: even the Kohein Gadol raises his hands above the Tzitz,
as it is said, (Vayikra 9:22) "And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them."
case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannareasonpasuk/proof textgeneral rule
Transcript
Summary Chart
Birkas Kohanim: in the Mikdash and outside it▾
CaseRulingReason
How many blessings, and how are they said?Medinah: three separate · Mikdash: one continuous—
How is the divine Name pronounced?Medinah: a substitute · Mikdash: as written—
How are the hands raised?Medinah: shoulder-height · Mikdash: above the head—
Does the Kohein Gadol raise his hands above the Tzitz?Tanna Kamma: No—
Rabbi Yehuda: YesVayikra 9:22
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
Birkas Kohanim, and the line at the Tzitz▾

Whose verse is it?

R' Yehuda proves the Kohein Gadol raises his hands above the Tzitz from vayisa Aharon es yadav el ha'am vay'varcheim — Aharon's blessing after the Miluim. The Tosafos Yom Tov notes the same verse is elsewhere the source for nesias kapayim itself; R' Yehuda is reading a second detail out of it — that Aharon raised his hands fully, the Kohein Gadol included.

Why the Kohein Gadol's hands stop — and R' Yehuda's reversal

Tanna Kamma: the Kohein Gadol does not lift his hands above the Tzitz, which bears Kodesh L'Hashem on his forehead. R' Yehuda holds even the Kohein Gadol raises them above it. The Meshech Chochma explains his logic: the Shechinah that rests at the Tzitz is, as it were, set aside for kavod hatzibur — the honor of the community receiving the blessing takes precedence in that moment.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls (7th century BCE)

Two tiny silver scrolls, found in a burial cave at Ketef Hinnom in Yerushalayim and dated to the First Temple period — the 7th century BCE — were inscribed in paleo-Hebrew with yevarechecha Hashem v'yishmerecha and worn as protective amulets. They are the oldest physical copies of any words of the Torah yet found, centuries before our mishnah. Long before the daily duchening this mishnah describes, the words of Birkas Kohanim were already being carried close to the body in Yerushalayim — a tangible link to the bracha as it was given.

Where it stands today

The mishnah's line runs between the Mikdash and everywhere else — and that same line still runs through our practice today. Birkas Kohanim must be said in Lashon Hakodesh. In Eretz Yisroel kohanim duchan daily, at Shacharis and Musaf; in Chutz LaAretz the Ashkenazi custom is Yom Tov only, while Sephardi minhagim vary, some daily. Just as the mishnah set the blessing of the Mikdash apart from the blessing of the medina, the divide between Eretz Yisroel and the lands outside it — felt most sharply by Ashkenazim — is a living remnant of that same distinction the Churban left behind. And the kohanim go up barefoot: one of the nine takanos of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai forbade ascending the duchan in shoes (Rosh Hashanah 31b), a practice that still holds wherever kohanim duchan today.

Series Insights
Series context▾
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Sotah 7:8
Parshas HaMelech
Mishnah 20 of 41
Sotah 7:6
How berachos differed in the Mikdash
Next →
Tamid 7:2
Birkas Kohanim (Mikdash)

Where this sits: how berachos differed in the Mikdash

The series gathers several mishnayos on the distinctive shape of berachos in the Beis HaMikdash. This is one: it records how the daily Priestly blessing was performed in the Mikdash — the Divine Name said as written, the hands raised above the head — differently from how it is done anywhere else. What we say today is the everywhere-else form; the mishnah lets us hear, inside the present-day blessing, the Mikdash version it no longer follows.

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