אָמַר ר' שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן לָקִישׁ - "וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם", בִּקֵּשׁ יַעֲקֹב לְגַלּוֹת לְבָנָיו קֵץ הַיָּמִין וְנִסְתַּלְּקָה מִמֶּנּוּ שְׁכִינָה. אָמַר - שֶׁמָּא חַס וְשָׁלוֹם יֵשׁ בְּמִטָּתִי פְּסוּל כְּאַבְרָהָם שֶׁיָּצָא מִמֶּנּוּ יִשְׁמָעֵאל וְאָבִי יִצְחָק שֶׁיָּצָא מִמֶּנּוּ עֵשָׂו? אָמְרוּ לוֹ בָּנָיו – "שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱ-לֹקֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד". אָמְרוּ - כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאֵין בְּלִבְּךָ אֶלָּא אֶחָד כָּךְ אֵין בְּלִבֵּנוּ אֶלָּא אֶחָד. בְּאוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה פָּתַח יַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ וְאָמַר – "בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד". (פסחים נו, ע"א)
In the five preceding parshiyot, the Torah reveals certain central character traits of some of the Twelve Tribes. For example - Reuven and the דּוּדָאִים, Shimon and Levi in the episode of Dina and Schem, Yosef of course, Yehuda and Tamar, Binyamin and the גָּבִיעַ, etc. However, the Torah tells us nothing about the remaining sons of Yaakov, the other six Tribes, until this week's parsha.
In parshat Vayechi, the Torah spells it out, tribe by tribe, as part of Yaakov Avinu's "last will and testament", his brachot to his twelve (?) sons.
The Malbim (בראשית לה, כא), quoting the Ari z"l, drops a real "clanger" and brings a chilling perush. The Malbim says that in fact, there should have been Fourteen Tribes, not twelve. If Reuven had not misguidedly moved Yaakov's bed from the tent of Bilhah to the tent of Leah, Yaakov would have slept that night with Bilhah and she would have given birth to two additional sons – Efraim and Menashe, two more tribes (making a total of 14). The neshamot of Efraim and Menashe had to come down to the world regardless, and they did so when Yosef married Osnat, daughter of Dina.
This is the reason why Yaakov, in this week's parsha, elevated Efraim and Menashe to equivalent status of the other Twelve Tribes and righted the wrong, caused by Reuven. As a result of his actions, Reuven lost his right as firstborn, the right to כְּהֻנָּה and to מַלְכוּת, which would all have been his, if he had not sinned. As a result of his sin, there had to be a "reshuffle" of these roles to Levi and Yehuda accordingly.
This is why there is a break in the middle of the passuk וַיִּהְיוּ בְנֵי יַעֲקֹב שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר ... (בראשית לה, כב), to tell us, that it should have been fourteen, not twelve and that the story was not yet over (hence the break in the passuk, without the appropriate ending intonation - סוֹף פָּסוּק).
I will not get into how this perush of the Ari z"l and the Malbim correlates with the fact that it was ordained from Creation that there be Twelve Tribes, that is the topic of another discussion.
By all rights, we should be examining, in depth, the brachot of Yaakov to all Twelve Tribes, but the resulting shiur would be 48 pages long, rather than 8. Instead, I would like to delve more deeply into two specific tribes, Zevulun and Yissachar, since examination of these two alone is sufficient basis for the underlying conclusion of this shiur. If we were to examine all twelve, we would discover the same, repeating pattern.
Let us examine these two tribes, in the order of the brachot, first Zevulun and then Yissachar (although this was not the order of their birth, Yissachar was born before Zevulun).
זְבוּלֻן לְחוֹף יַמִּים יִשְׁכֹּן וְהוּא לְחוֹף אֳנִיּוֹת וְיַרְכָתוֹ עַל צִידֹן (בראשית מט, יג)
The Midrash Tanchuma (ויחי יא) explains why Zevulun precedes Yissachar
קָדָם זְבוּלֻן לְיִשָּׂשׂכָר. וְלָמָּה? שֶׁזְּבוּלֻן עוֹסֵק בִּפְרַקְמַטְיָה וְיִשָּׂשׂכָר עוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה. עָשׂוּ שֻׁתָּפוּת בֵּינֵיהֶם שֶׁיְּהֵא פְּרַקְמַטְיָה שֶׁל זְבוּלֻן לְיִשָּׂשׂכָר. שֶׁכֵּן מֹשֶׁה בֵּרֲכָן, שְׂמַח זְבוּלֻן בְּצֵאתֶךָ וְיִשָּׂשׂכָר בְּאֹהָלֶיךָ (דברים לג, יח), שְׂמַח זְבוּלֻן בְּצֵאתְךָ לִפְרַקְמַטְיָא מִשּׁוּם דְּיִשָּׂשׂכָר בְּאֹהָלֶיךָ עוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה. לָמָּה, עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ (משלי ג, יח). לְפִיכָךְ הִקְדִּים זְבוּלֻן לְיִשָּׂשׂכָר, שֶׁאִלְמָלֵא זְבוּלֻן, לֹא עָסַק יִשָּׂשׂכָר בַּתּוֹרָה.
The destiny of the Tribe of Zevulun is that they will be fully occupied with commerce - seafaring merchants. For this reason, the נַחֲלָה of Zevulun (according to the passuk) is on the coast, with ports for ships, stretching up to צִידוֹן (in what is today Lebanon).
However, in sefer Yehoshua (פרק יט), we see that in reality, this was not the case! According to descriptions in Yehoshua, the נַחֲלָה of Zevulun is located in the lower Galilee, sandwiched between the tribes Asher (north-west), Naftali (north-east), Yissachar (east) and Menashe (south). In other words, Zevulun is land-locked!
According to Onkelos (בראשית מט, יג), the passuk in our parsha is referring to a future inheritance. Originally the inheritance of Zevulun is the land locked area described in sefer Yehoshua, however, later Zevulun conquered/acquired additional regions on the coast - וְהוּא יְכַבֵּישׁ מָחוֹזִין בִּסְפִינָן. This opinion is reflected both in the Targum Yonatan (ibid.) וְהוּא יְהֵא שַׁלִיט בִּמְחוּזִין וּמְכַבֵּשׁ הֲפַרְכֵי יַמָא, and in the Zohar HaKadosh (חלק ב', פרשת משפטים, סוד הפסוק "אם אחרת ייקח לו").
Perhaps we can get a better understanding of this from a Gemara (מגילה ו, ע"א) that describes Zevulun "complaining" to HKB"H –
אָמַר זְבוּלוּן לִפְנֵי הקב"ה - רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם לְאַחַי נָתַתָּ לָהֶם שָׂדוֹת וּכְרָמִים וְלִי נָתַתָּ הָרִים וּגְבָעוֹת. לְאַחַי נָתַתָּ לָהֶם אֲרָצוֹת וְלִי נָתַתָּ יַמִּים וּנְהָרוֹת. אָמַר לוֹ - כֻּלָּן צְרִיכִין לָךְ ע"י חִלָּזוֹן שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר [(דְּבָרִים לג, יט) עַמִּים הַר יִקְרָאוּ] וּשְׂפוּנֵי טְמוּנֵי חוֹל. תָּנֵי רַב יוֹסֵף שְׂפוּנֵי זֶה חִלָּזוֹן טְמוּנֵי זוֹ טָרִית חוֹל זוֹ זְכוּכִית לְבָנָה.
Zevulun "complained" that all the other tribes had fields and vineyards to farm, while his inheritance was only mountainous rock. The other tribes had land while he had rivers and the sea! HKB"H replied "Do not worry about parnasa, all the other tribes will need you!"
HKB"H gave Zevulun in his inheritance the חִלָּזוֹן from which the תְּכֵלֶת dye is derived. He gave Zevulun an abundance of fresh water fish (טָרִית, which Rashi says is tuna) in the mountain rivers and also the beach sand on the coast was used to make the highest quality glass.
Sefer Meir Panim (פרק יג, עמ' קמב) says that Zevulun's later bracha from Moshe - וּשְׂפוּנֵי טְמוּנֵי חוֹל, is referring to the Lechem HaPanim, the "ships", the Lechem HaPanim shaped liked a סְפִינָה רוֹקֶדֶת. Both Onkelos and the Targum Yonatan translate וְהוּא לְחוֹף אֳנִיּוֹת (בראשית מט, יג) as בִּסְפִינָן/בִּסְפִינְתָּא. In other words, Zevulun's association is with - the Shulchan Lechem HaPanim, the blessing of materialism.
It would seem that Zevulun was complaining that he did not have enough material wealth in his inheritance, as opposed to the other tribes. However, I would like to suggest that this was not Zevulun's טַעֲנָה at all. I believe that Zevulun was complaining that his destiny would be total involvement in materialism and not in Torah! Zevulun wanted to study Torah, like the other tribes!
Most of the other tribes were farmers. Farming is not 365 days of intensive work. Only certain periods in the year were intense, like sowing at the start of the winter and harvesting from spring until the end of summer. There were many months where no work was done at all, like in the winter months after sowing, until spring. What were the farmers doing during this time? Studying Torah!
Zevulun, being out on the high seas, could not study Torah. It is not like today where modern ships are equipped with stabilizing technology to prevent them from rocking. Imagine if you took a vacation on a cruise liner and the ship was not stabilized, how many gourmet meals would you enjoy? Most of the time you would be retching over the deck rail. Seafarers in ancient times never had a moment's יִשּׁוּב הַדַּעַת.
They were either worrying about a storm, or about no wind in the sails, or whales or the many other dangers that lurk on the high seas. It is impossible in this frame of mind to study Torah. When they docked and were on land, they were constantly preoccupied with commerce, and as Hillel says מַרְבֶּה נְכָסִים מַרְבֶּה דְּאָגָה (אבות ב, ז). The destiny of Zevulun was not conducive to Torah study.
The Tanchuma says that the tribes of Zevulun and Yissachar were a partnership. Zevulun would engage full time in commercial materialism and Yissachar would engage full time in Torah study. Zevulun would provide a portion of their material parnasa to sustain Yissachar and in return, Yissachar would give a portion of the merit of their Torah study to Zevulun.
Instead of these two tribes being a kind of a "hybrid" like the other tribes - sometimes working, sometimes learning – Zevulun and Yissachar were engaged full time in their totally "polarized" fields of occupation. In the final reckoning however, despite the fact that Zevulun never physically spent a moment studying Torah, HKB"H considered a portion of the Torah study of Yissachar as belonging to Zevulun and thus Zevulun merited Olam Habah, as if he was sitting in yeshiva and studying.
When Zevulun "complained" to HKB"H, they were not complaining about not having enough materialism in their נַחֲלָה. They were complaining that their very existence would not allow at all for Torah study. They yearned to study Torah. HKB"H replied "This is not your destiny! Your purpose in the world is to make parnasa, not just for you but also for Yissachar. You have the genetic gift of being successful at business. You are not like the other "farmer" tribes who sometimes work, and sometimes learn. You have the special gift to be a tycoon. I want you to use this gift entirely to sponsor Yissachar".
When Zevulun heard that they would get the merit of Yissachar's Torah study, they were placated, they were happy with their inheritance. This is what it means אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ. Zevulun was undoubtedly the "rich" tribe, the tribe of tycoons, but that is not what "rich" means. The true meaning of rich is that they were happy with their purpose in life, שָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ even if that meant them having to forego studying Torah themselves, that they so yearned to do. They bowed to the greater will of HKB"H and devoted their entire existence to the purpose which He gave them to fulfil in this world.
Let us now examine Yissachar. The bracha of Yaakov to Yissachar –
יִשָּׂשכָר חֲמֹר גָּרֶם רֹבֵץ בֵּין הַמִּשְׁפְּתָיִם (בראשית מט, יד)
The Midrash (בראשית רבה צט, ט), quoted by Rashi (ibid.), says that Yissachar is compared to a donkey who bears a heavy load, thus Yissachar bears the עֹל of the Torah. If you think that it requires more mesirut nefesh to face the danger of the high seas, than to study Torah, you are mistaken. It takes equivalent (or even more) mesirut nefesh to study Torah.
A case in point is Hillel (יומא לה, ע"ב), before he became "Hillel HaZaken". Young Hillel was a day laborer who was so poor he only earned a half a "dinar" (Rashi) a day. Of this, he would pay a quarter dinar for food for him and his family and the other quarter was paid to the guard at the entrance to the Beit Midrash of Shmaya and Avtalyon, as admission (an entrance fee was required for the upkeep of the Beit Midrash, to provide lighting, heating etc.).
One day, Hillel did not earn enough money for entrance to the Beit Midrash and the guard would not allow him in. Hillel did not want to miss out on Torah, so he climbed onto the roof and put his ear to the skylight, so he could hear the words of Torah from below, in the Beit Midrash (this was not גֶּזֶל because he was not enjoying the light or warmth of the Beit Midrash). It was Friday night in the middle of winter, the month of Tevet (like we are currently experiencing) and the snow was falling heavily (here in Israel right now there is no snow). The following morning, Shabbat morning (after teaching all night), Shmaya remarked to Avtalyon that the Beit HaMidrash seemed unusually dim, perhaps it was cloudy outside? (they were so engrossed in Torah that they did not even realize that it was snowing outside).
They looked up at the skylight and saw a frozen face plastered on the window pane. They quickly sent some bochrim up to the roof and found Hillel there, under three amot (1.5m) of snow. They brought him down, removed his soaked clothes and thawed him out in a warm bath, dressed him in dry clothes and sat him next to the fireplace. They said, for this person it is permissible to be מְחַלֵּל שַׁבָּת.
The Gemara uses this as the "prototype" for the required mesirut nefesh to study Torah. After 120 we will have to give a דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן before HKB"H and He will ask us why we did not devote more time to studying Torah. If we claim that we were poor and busy all the time providing for our family and thus did not have the time to study Torah, HKB"H will ask us "Were you as poor as Hillel?" Hillel had no money and despite that he risked his life to study Torah!
This is Yissachar. The true Yissachar is someone who risks their life to study Torah at the expense of any materialism. Someone who has such mesirut nefesh in their Torah study, that comfort is not a factor in the equation at all. They measure every second of their day and do not waste a single second on anything that is not essential to Torah study.
Eating just enough to give you strength to study Torah, sleeping just enough that you will be awake and alert to study Torah with the required intensity, spending just the right, balanced amount of time with your family and children that is required to educate them and maintain Shalom Bayit. Not wasting a second on anything that does not contribute to your study of Torah.
Just like Zevulun never had a single second of יִשּׁוּב הַדַּעַת to study Torah, he was involved entirely, spending every second of his day, earning money to maintain the study of Torah by members of Yissachar, so too were Yissachar involved entirely, without a single second wasted on anything that did not contribute to intense Torah study.
Yissachar's bracha follows immediately after Zevulun's and it says יִשָּׂשכָר חֲמֹר גָּרֶם. The very existence of Yissachar נִגְרַם, is made possible by the חֹמֶר, the materialism provided by Zevulun (Meir Panim, פרק יג, עמ' קמב). This is what the Tanchuma (above) is saying, that without Zevulun's parnasa, Yissachar would not be able to study Torah.
Incidentally, this is why the name of the family who made the Lechem HaPanim was called גָּרְמוּ, because they made parnasa in the world possible, by virtue of their baking of the Lechem HaPanim to place on the Shulchan to serve as the conduit for parnasa for the entire world.
What we have here is a symbiotic relationship between two tribes, whose central purpose is not for their own tribe, but for another tribe. The main thrust of their energy was not for themselves but for others.
Zevulun and Yissachar are just a case study, a microcosm of the symbiotic structure of the Twelve Tribes. If we would delve into this more deeply, we will see that this symbiosis is reflected in each and every one of the tribes. The Tribe of Gad, soldiers, who devoted their entire existence to developing their military skills in order to defend Am Yisrael and defeat our enemies in battle.
The Tribe of Dan, judges, who devoted their entirety to law and justice to maintain social stability in Am Yisrael. The Tribe of Shimon, סוֹפְרִים and מְלַמְּדֵי תִּינוֹקוֹת, who dedicated their lives entirely to preserving the written and verbal heritage of Am Yisrael, in the Sifrei Torah they wrote and in the oral law they taught in the Beit HaMidrash. And the list goes on.
We have just finished the chag of Chanukah where we read each day about the korbanot that the Twelve Tribes brought during the inauguration of the Mishkan. For any ba'al koreh, this is easy reading, because every tribe brought exactly the same korban.
However, look at Bamidbar Rabba on parshat Naso and you will find reams and reams of pages explaining each tribe's korban. If they were all the same, why not simply explain the first and then say <cut and paste> for all the others?
The reason is, that although the elements of each korban were identical, the kavanot of each tribe were different. Each tribe, when they brought their korban, had the kavana that it would be for the benefit of some other tribe, not for themselves. When Yissachar brought their korban, all their kavanot were about the Torah and how it be a zchut for all of Am Yisrael. When Zevulun brought their korban, all their kavanot were how their parnasa should enable Yissachar to study Torah, etc.
Sefer Breishit culminates in parshat Vayechi. It seems strange that the parsha that talks about Yaakov's death be called Vayechi. However, it is in parshat Vayechi, where Am Yisrael acquired life.
The Gemara (above, פסחים) tells us that when Yaakov came to bless his sons, the Shechina departed from him and he was afraid that one or more of the twelve sons were not worthy, like it was with his father Yitzchak and grandfather Avraham, with Eisav and Yishmael. How did the sons reassure Yaakov?
They said שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱ-לֹקֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד, just like you only have "One" in your heart, so we too only have "One" in our heart. The common perush is they were saying that just like Yaakov's life was devoted entirely to service of the "One", HKB"H, so too were his sons' lives devoted to service of the same G-d.
I would like to suggest another perush for that Gemara. The sons were reassuring Yaakov, that even though until now it may have appeared that their diversity was counterproductive to unity, that is not the case. In the previous parshiyot it emphasized the diversity of the tribes, that of Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yosef … and that resulted in catastrophe, when, because of their diversity, the brothers could find no common thread to bind them.
In this week's parsha the sons are reassuring Yaakov "Even though we are diverse, we all have a different purpose, we are all united as one, with one common thread that binds us". When Yaakov heard this the Shechina returned and he blessed his sons and Am Yisrael was born.
Today, thousands of years later, the same energies that we find in parshat Vayechi still course through Am Yisrael. When you examine Am Yisrael you still see the same diversity amongst the sectors – Torah, commerce, military, education, legal, political, etc. The Twelve Tribes are still alive and kicking and we see that each diverse sector excels in their purpose.
Our Torah sector has no peer in the world for theologians. Our commercial sector has no peer in the world for innovation – we are the startup nation. Our military sector has the rest of the world in awe at our achievements in the last year.
Our judiciary is world renowned and respected (politically we may not like it overly much, but there is no doubt that professionally speaking, we are world leaders in this as well).
In the educational sector we are pioneers in research and have won more Nobel prizes per capita than any other nation. In the political sector … well perhaps we are not word leaders in this (yet) because we have not yet grasped what Am Yisrael's political structure should be – it should not be a copy of the goyim's!
All the energies are in place, what is missing is the "One" and the "one", the common thread that binds us and makes us unique amongst the nations.
The one thing that makes us unique is that Am Yisrael, from its inception, has always been devoted to the "One", the only G-d, HKB"H. That is the common thread that binds us all. We introduced monotheism to humanity.
For millennia we have been willing to sacrifice our lives for this belief and of all the nations throughout history, we are the only nation to persist in its original form - the same "book", the same set of values. Throughout history other nations tried to copy us and failed and vanished from the world.
This is our strength,our only strength. If you do a statistical analysis of our history, it is undisputed that our periods of grandeur were when we clung to HKB"H and our periods of the worst darkness were when we did not.
The fact that we are diverse is not a disability, it is a necessity. Other cultures tried (and continue to try) to eliminate diversity. King Arthur tried it with his round table, where everyone was equal. That failed dismally. The woke movement is trying to do the same thing today, trying to eliminate diversity and make everyone the same, a "global village".
Just like with King Arthur, woke cannot work, because human nature is not equivalent, it is not meant to be - every human being has a different purpose on this earth. Trying to "level the playing field" negates the very thing that makes an individual unique. We are not all meant to be Mozart, Van Gogh, Moses, Betzalel, R' Akiva, Reish Lakish – we are meant to be – us!
Secular Jews trying to make Charedim into soldiers is woke. Charedim trying to make the rest of us study Torah like they do, or put a חֵרֶם on people when they don't is woke. Decans in universities trying to force their life view on others is woke. Supreme court judges trying to force their life view on others is woke. A democratically elected majority trying to unilaterally force their life view on others without consensus is also woke.
Just like King Arthur and the round table, woke and all other movements like that in history will fail. There is only one movement that has always and will continue to persist and that is the movement that believes in the One G-d. Am Yisrael is not designed for the "round table" model, we are designed for the Shulchan Lechem HaPanim model, where one sector supports and props the other up. Where the entire purpose of any sector is devoted to facilitating the other sectors, not themselves.
How can we tell if a sector is on the right path? By evaluating their devotion to HKB"H. If the motto of a sector is שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱ-לֹקֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד, they are on the right path. If everything they do is an attempt to eliminate and tear down G-d and those that believe in Him, then they, like the woke movement, are instigators not facilitators and they will disappear from the pages of history.
Am Yisrael is returning to its core to שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱ-לֹקֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד. The majority of Am Yisrael want to be facilitators, not instigators. The instigators, while they may be loud, are a small minority. What is needed now is for the majority, the core Am Yisrael to also be loud, to stand up, speak out and drown out the instigators. To daven that they will do teshuva and if not, that HKB"H will take care of them, only He can.
The twelve brothers went through a process before they became the Twelve Tribes. We, Am Yisrael, are going through a similar process, but the end will be the same, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱ-לֹקֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד. Am Yisrael will prevail.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
No comments:
Post a Comment