6292. Put thy right hand upon his head. That this signifies that thus it should be in the first place, is evident from the signification of "putting the right hand on the head," as being to account in the first place (see n. 6269, 6287). That when he was blessing, Israel placed his hand on the head, was from a ritual received from the ancients; for in the head are the very intellectual and will of man, but in the body are acts according thereto, and compliance; thus putting the hand on the head was a representative that a blessing was being communicated to the intellectual and the will, thus to the man himself. From that ancient time the same ritual remains even to this day, and is in use in inaugurations, and also in the act of blessing.
