From Rabbi Silverman
Last Shabbat I ended the service with a new blessing from the MRJ Siddur
(p.324). New to us but originating from the Dead Sea Scrolls and based
on the priestly blessing in the Torah.
People found it uplifting.
Here it is :
"May God bless you with all that is good, and guard you from all
that is harmful. May God enlighten you with the wisdom of life and give
you understanding of many worlds. May God in faithful love offer you
enduring peace."
The phrase 'understanding of many worlds' aroused the most interest. What does it mean? - I was asked.
Cosmic understanding? A sense of oneness with all nature the
more we learn about it? Connection with our fellow human beings, each
one of whom is a whole world ? All of the above?
Doing my homework I quickly found that from the original Dead Sea Scroll text the meaning clearly gets lost in our translation.
'Olamim' is ambiguous. It can mean 'worlds' or 'eternity'.
Over and over again in the section of the Dead Sea Scrolls where
it comes it is very frequently, consistently and, as far as I could
tell, exclusively used adjectivally to mean eternal, long-lasting, or
as it is correctly translated from the last words, li-Shelom Olamim -
'enduring' (peace).
Later in the week Prof Steven Hawking made a statement on
assisted dying. He said that he would 'consider' assisted dying only if
he were in great pain or had nothing left to contribute to the world.
I would want to apply the blessing to him. You and I can have
nothing approaching the knowledge of the 'many worlds ' of the universe
that such minds as his have contributed to science and life generally.
But, like him, we can bring ourselves honestly to grapple with
the dilemmas and distresses of those who lose their faculties, and hope
that we will be blessed with enduring knowledge and ability to continue
giving of ourselves until we reach eternal peace.
