נְשִׂיאוּת כַּפַּיִם: כְּשֶׁאוֹמְרִים תֵּבַת יְבָרֶכְךָ — הַמִּתְבָּרֵךְ רֹאשׁוֹ בְּאֶמְצַע. ה' — מֵסֵב רֹאשׁוֹ לִימִינוֹ, שֶׁהִיא שְׂמֹאל הַמְבָרֵךְ. וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ — בְּאֶמְצַע. יָאֵר — לִשְׂמֹאלוֹ שֶׁהִיא יְמִין הַמְבָרֵךְ וכו'. שָׁלוֹם — רֹאשׁוֹ בְּאֶמְצַע. אֲמִירַת רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם — בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהַכֹּהֲנִים מְנַגְּנִים דַּוְקָא, אֲבָל כְּשֶׁאוֹמְרִים הַתֵּבוֹת צָרִיךְ לִשְׁמוֹעַ. כְּשֶׁמְּנַגְּנִים לְ"וְיָשֵׂם" אוֹמְרִים רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם... הַצַּדִּיק. כְּשֶׁמְּנַגְּנִים לְתֵבַת "לְךָ" — וְאִם... אֱלִישָׁע. לְ"שָׁלוֹם" — וּכְשֵׁם... לְטוֹבָה. כְּשֶׁאוֹמְרִים "שָׁלוֹם" — אוֹמְרִים "וְתִשְׁמְרֵנִי וּתְחָנֵּנִי וְתִרְצֵנִי". אַדִּיר בַּמָּרוֹם אוֹמְרִים אַחַר עֲנִיַּת אָמֵן כְּשֶׁעֲדַיִן הַטַּלִית עַל פָּנָיו.

1 [Whenever] the Priestly Blessing [is given,2 the procedure to be followed by each congregant is as follows]: Whenthe kohanim say the word yevarechecha, the recipient of the blessing faces forward; when they say A-donai, he turns his head to the right, which is to the left of [the kohanim] who recite the blessing; at veyishmerecha he faces forward; at ya’er he faces left; and so on, [word by word — center, right, center, left, etc.,] until when they say shalom, he faces forward.

The prayer beginning Ribono shel olam is said only while the kohanim sing; when they recite the words of the blessing, one should listen. When they sing the melody that introduces the third to last word, veyasem, the congregation recites the words from Ribono shel olam until hatzaddik; while they sing the melody for lecha, the congregation recites the words from ve’im toElisha; while they sing the melody for shalom, the congregation recites the words from u’keshem to letovah; and while they say shalom, the congregation recites the words vesishmereini, u’sechaneini, vesirtzeini.

Each congregant recites the passage beginning Adir BaMarom after having responded Amen [to the last word of the Priestly Blessing], while his tallis is still covering his face.3

To Fill In the Background

The Rebbe Rayatz once related4 that the melody chanted by the kohanim in Lubavitch communities was composed by the choir of the Mitteler Rebbe, under the latter’s guidance.

It captures an inner spiritual striving that follows the mystical principle of ratzo and shov. This phrase is borrowed from the prophet Yechezkel’s vision of the celestial “chariot,”5 where it describes the Divine service of the angels who alternately surge forward and retreat. When applied to the Divine service of a mortal, it describes the dual dynamic whereby his soul, enraptured, initially seeks to shake off the body, to surge forward disencumbered, and to be absorbed in the soul’s Divine source. At this point, however, in response to the sober awareness that G‑d does not seek yet another ethereal angel but a man of flesh and blood who can empower his soul to harness his body, the individual steps back and tackles the earthbound life-tasks for which he was created.

And, indeed, the two themes of this melody alternate between a mood of ratzo, in an insistent outcry of yearning, and a mood of shov, in a subdued, lower-register refrain of measured tranquillity.6