[Avodah] Birchas Kohanim

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 06/26/2016 03:13 PM, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> Regarding the view that there is a mitzvah for a Yisrael to be
> blessed by a kohen, R' Zev Sero asked:
>> According to this opinion should we be saying a brachah?
> As I understand it, one of the rules of Birkas Hamitzva is that one
> does not say thea bracha when he is dependent on someone else.
> Classic examples are giving tzedaka or giving terumah, because if the
> recipient changes his mind and refuses, it will be a bracha l'vatala.
> How much more so here, where I am not even offering something to the
> kohen, but asking a favor *from* him.

Our case is different, because once the cohen has answered the call and
gone up to the duchan he can't change his mind.  He's now obligated to
bless.  And if he hasn't done it yet that day then he has to do it anyway.


> Similarly, I recently heard a similar rule, that we say the bracha
> only if we will be doing the pe'ulah personally, such as by Hallel
> and Sefirah. But we do not say the bracha ourselves if we are merely
> being yotzay on the kiyum, such as by Shofar and Megilah. If there is
> indeed a mitzvah to be blessed by the kohanim, it seems closer to the
> latter than the former.

But we *do* have an obligation to say a bracha, which we are yotzei by
listening to the baal tokeia's or baal korei's; if he has already been
yotzei himself then he does *not* say the bracha again, and one of the
listeners says it for everyone.    Here, however, we are not yotzei
with the cohanim's bracha, since it doesn't apply to us; we are not
sanctified with Aharon's kedusha, and we were not commanded to bless
but (according to this opinion) to be blessed.  So if we're not yotzei
their bracha why don't we say our own (or have the chazan say it for us)?



-- 
Zev Sero               Meaningless combinations of words do not acquire
zev at sero.name          meaning merely by appending them to the two other
                        words `God can'.  Nonsense remains nonsense, even
                        when we talk it about God.   -- C S Lewis