Priestly Blessing - Procedure

Procedure

At the beginning of the ceremony, those descended from the tribe of Levi, the Leviim in the congregation wash the hands of the Kohanim and then the Kohanim remove their shoes (if they are unable to remove their shoes without using their hands, the shoes are removed prior to the washing), and walk up to the platform in front of the ark, at the front of the synagogue. The use of a platform is implied in Leviticus 9:22. They cover their heads with their tallitot, recite the blessing over the performance of the mitzvah, turn to face the congregation, and then the hazzan or prayer leader slowly and melodiously recites the three verse blessing, with the Kohanim repeating it word by word after him. After each verse, the congregation responds Amen.

Raising the hands

During the course of the blessing, the hands of the Kohanim are spread out over the congregation, with the fingers of both hands separated so as to make five spaces between them; the spaces are (1) between the ring finger and middle finger of each hand, (2) between the index finger and thumb of each hand, and (3) the two thumbs touch each other at the knuckle and the aperture is the space above or below the touching knuckles.

The Kohanim raises his hands, with the palms facing downward and the thumbs of his outspread hands touching. The four fingers on each hand are sometimes split into two sets of two fingers each (thus forming the letter Shin (שׁ), an emblem for Shaddai, "Almighty "), or sometimes they are arranged to form an overlapping lattice of 'windows.' This ceremony is sometimes called Nesiat Kapayim, the "lifting of the hands." The Jewish tradition states the Divine Presence would shine through the fingers of the priests as they blessed the people, and no one was allowed to look at this out of respect for God.

Each kohen's tallit is draped over his head and hands so that the congregation cannot see his hands while the blessing is said. Performing the ceremony of the priestly blessing is known in Yiddish as duchening, a reference to the "duchan" (Heb: platform) on which the blessing is said. The tradition of covering the hands stems from the biblical prohibition against a Kohen with hands that are disfigured in any way from offering the blessing. The rabbis softened this prohibition by saying that a Kohen with disfigured hands to which the community had become accustomed could bless. In later centuries, the practice became for all Kohanim to cover their hands so that any disfigurement would not be seen by the Congregation. Unfortunately, this gave rise to folklore that one should not see the hands of the Kohen or even that harm would befall someone who sees the hands of the Kohen. Even more unfortunately, this superstition gave rise to an extreme practice in which some congregants will turn their backs to the Kohanim so as to avoid any possibility of seeing their hands—a practice unsupported by any rabbinic source.

The Talmud describes God as peering through the "lattice" formed by the hands of the Kohanim, referencing the verse in the Song of Songs (2:9):

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart

Behold, he stands behind our wall

He looks in through the windows

Peering through the lattices (הַחֲרַכִּים).

Ha-kharakim means "the lattices" and this is the only place it occurs in the Bible, but splitting off and treating the definite article as a numeral produces ה׳ חֲרַכִּים -- " five lattices".

Prayer chant

In some communities it is customary for the Kohanim to raise their hands and recite an extended musical chant without words before reciting the last word of each phrase. There are different tunes for this chant in different communities. Aside from its pleasant sound, the chant is done so that the congregation may silently offer certain prayers containing individual requests of G-d after each of the three blessings of the Kohanim. Because supplications of this nature are not permitted on Shabbat, the chant is also not done on Shabbat. In Israel, this chanting is not the custom.