Unraveling History: The Discovery of an Ancient Priestly Blessing Amulet

In the Torah portion Naso, the priests are commanded to bless the children of Israel: 'Thus you shall bless the children of Israel... May Hashem bless you and guard you. May Hashem make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May Hashem lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.' Since the giving of the Torah, on every occasion, the priests bless the people of Hashem with these blessings, and many parents bless their children with these wonderful words on Shabbat evenings.

Among all the ancient discoveries related to the Torah, the oldest text containing words from the Torah is the Priestly Blessing. The story of its discovery is described by archaeologist Gabi Barkai: 'We were then working with a group of children as part of an archaeology club of the Society for the Protection of Nature. One of these kids was particularly pesky. I thought to myself: let's put him in the survey, let him clean the rock face there. I assumed this survey was looted like the others in the burial caves, but after a while, I felt someone tugging at my shirttail. I turned around and saw the pesky kid with two complete vessels from the First Temple period in his hands. I almost choked him. It was improper conduct—to pull out vessels. He wasn't supposed to touch them; he should have called me inside... This kid led me to the discovery of my life, and great excitement overtook me... I organized a team of students, and we worked around the clock, 24 hours a day... One day, one of the workers, Judith Hadley, now a Professor of Biblical Studies in the United States, called me inside and pointed out something in the dirt that looked like a cigarette butt, in a grayish-purple color. Later, we found another similar item, this time the size of half a cigarette butt. After filtering and cleaning, it was clear that these were silver scrolls that had been rolled up, but it was impossible to open them.'

For three years, the contents of the scrolls were unknown. Opening them with force would have destroyed them. Eventually, suitable technology was found, but deciphering the text remained challenging. In 1986, the Israel Museum wished to display the scrolls, and for this purpose, Professor Joseph Naveh was asked to find an expert who could decipher the text. The one who succeeded was Ada Yardeni, who identified and demonstrated that it was the text of the Priestly Blessing.

The timing of the text found near the Temple Mount dates back to the First Temple period. The Priestly Blessing was engraved on a silver plate that was rolled up, presumably as an amulet prepared by one of the residents of Judah for themselves for protection and blessing. The silver scrolls are currently displayed, as mentioned, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.