"And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them..." (Lev. 9:22)
Although the Torah does not describe the content of Aharon's blessing, the Sages assume that it was the well-known Priestly Blessing that appears in Parshat Naso. There is also a textual anomaly in the verse: The word that is pronounced "his hands" is spelled deficiently (the term of art for words written in the Torah missing a typical letter) as "his hand." The Torah Temimah explains that the deficient spelling comes to teach us a nuance of the Priestly Blessing procedure. The Kohen positions himself in a manner that satisfies both the pronunciation of the verse and its spelling. He raises both hands but places his right hand above his left; he has both raised "his hands" and "his hand." R' Samson Raphael Hirsch takes a more homiletic tack. He suggest that the deficient spelling of "his hands" hints to the idea that the blessing is not really coming from him, it is coming from Him; the Kohen is merely a messenger on behalf of G-d, the source of all blessing.
by Dan Lifshitz
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