Numbers 4:21 – 7:39
Here is the priestly blessing: “may the lord bless you and keep you; may hashem illuminate His continence and be gracious unto you; may hashem lift His continence and establish peace.” The gesture of the priests was to separate their fingers into four areas to allow the four letters of the unpronounceable name of Hashem to pass through and over the people – the yud, heh, vov, heh.
The colors here on the palms of the hands are Kabbalistic representing the four worlds with red, purple, blue and yellow for each and the finger colors refer to the ten sephirot.
Behind them are some of the other issues covered in this parsha – impure people are to leave the camp; the procedure to follow if a husband is accusing a wife of adultery – here as a “sotah” breasts exposed like Eve she must drink from the holy water of the laver in the mishkan mixed with a paper that had the Tetragrammaton – the unpronounceable name of Hashem – and if she is guilty she would bloat up, eyes bulge and lose her fingernails; the laws regarding a Nararite – someone who is seeking refuge to concentrate on Torah with vows not to drink or even eat grapes and abstaining from other worldly pleasures not cutting his hair or having contact with the dead ( his hand gesture here is also a rejection of seeing the sin of the “sotah.”); and below him are gifts from the leaders of each tribe that included a silver bowl and basin and golden spoon all for the Tabernacle.
