Thursday, May 18, 2023

Jacob Milgrom on Ordination by laying on of hands in Numbers 22:17 (cf. vv. 22-23)

 

your hand Hebrew yadkha. Rather, yadeikha (pl.), “hands.” Transfer of authority and power can only be performed by the laying of both hands. This is clear from Numbers 8:10 and Leviticus 16:21. The leaning of only one hand is limited to the ritual whereby the offerer of a sacrificial animal identifies himself as its owner and declares its purpose. In Jewish tradition the laying of both hands, called semikhah, became the rite for rabbinic ordination. (Jacob Milgrom, Numbers [The JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelpha: Jewish Publication Society, 1990], 235)