Remebring Secrets Week #7 ,Track # 12 The Priestly Blessing

Remembering Secrets Week # 7
Track # 12 The Priestly Blessing

יהודה כ"ץ - ברכת כוהנים by YehudahKatz

In 1989 my then landlord, a kohen himself, Mr. Michael Kaplan of blessed memory, challenged my knowledge of Jewish music. "Where do you think that hymn that you sing on the holidays, when blessing the congregation with the Priestly blessing, comes from? Do you know the source? "
I had no idea. "Let me tell you a story," he said.
"When I was a young man, in the 1910's, I was running away from the Russian army and was found in the forest, half dead, by a student of the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Hakohen. They graciously took me in and I became a student of this great scholar and sage.
One day after Birkat Kohanim, the Preistly Blessing , The Chofetz Chaim shared with me that a teaching was passed on from generation to generation in his family of kohanim, testifying that this exact melody was chanted in the Beit Hamikdash, The Holy Temple in Jerusalem, 2000 years ago!"
As soon as I heard that story, I began singing that melody all over the world as a meditative tool used to envision Jewish history coming alive today.
This same great sage, The Chofetz Chaim, also taught us to be very clear when to speak and when to be silent. In this week's Torah portion, "Shemini," we learn about the story of the tragic death of Aharon Hakohen's two oldest sons ,Nadav and Avihu.
When Moshe was sent to tell his brother Aharon, the shocking news, Aharon's response was one of total silence. "Vayidom Aharon," the Torah reads.
I can remember Reb Shlomo,zt"l teaching me that sometimes the best reaction is to say nothing. How many times does someone "take off" on me, criticizing me as if it will never end? Ok, I know that he is totally off and is not making any sense. So what is the best thing to do? Be quiet! You know I could shut him up after a minute, but if I do, perhaps I will miss the one thing that was going to be said to me that I really needed to here.
So friends , I bless us all to be great listeners; to listen on the level that when you are speaking to me I am listening to you as if there is no one else in the world right now.
Shabbat Shalom,
Yehudah Katz
Tekoa, Israel