Dare to bless

This week’s Parsha is Nasso, which contains the Priestly Blessing that most Jews recognize from Fiddler on the Roof. May the Lord protect and defend you…

Hashem shall bless you and protect you.
Hashem shall shine His face to you and give you grace.
Hashem will raise up His Face to you and will give you
Shalom-peace.

I bless my kids every night in bed with this blessing, and at the Shabbos table, and then we all turn to the right, the dozens of people at our home, or hundreds and hundreds at Jewlicious Festival, and we bless each other. We spread the blessing, we draw down the blessing. It feels good to be blessed, and better to bless. Go ahead, dare to bless.

From Torah teachings of Reb Shlomo via his student Rabbi Sholom Brodt:

Reb Shlomo taught that the very letters of the word Shalom teach us
important lessons about peace. ‘Shalom’ has three letters, Shin, Lamed, and
Mem.

Shin – The first way to bring peace is to bring two sides together, like the
middle of the ‘shin’. [The letter ‘shin’ consists of three ‘vavs’ which are
joined at the bottom].

Lamed – is the tallest letter. It goes from the highest to the lowest. If
you want to bring peace you have to stick out.

Mem – The ‘mem’ is closed, with no openings. Shalom has to be complete,
like a little wall. The wall of peace has to be complete. You can’t say, “I
am peaceful, but I have a little opening for getting mad in an emergency.”