A CUB [AND] A GROWN LION IS JUDAH. FROM THE PREY, MY SON, YOU WITHDREW. HE CROUCHED, RESTED LIKE A LION, AND LIKE A LION, WHO WILL ROUSE HIM?

(Bereishit 49:9)

 

A cub [and] a grown lion is Judah.

You combine within yourself the valor of youth (a cub) and the sobriety of old age (a grown lion). You do not seek war and booty for their own sake. You are not a wolf or a hyena; you are a lion. Base murder for the sake of booty is beneath you.

He crouched, rested - Judah's strength is not in the din of war and battle and not in blazing power that inspires awe in the hour of danger but is later extinguished. Such is not your character; even when he rests, he remains a lion. He inspires awe in times of repose, and thus he provides outward security. Under his leadership peace is assured that allows for development of the inner mission.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc)

 

There is no such thing as a "fighting nation" or a "fighting army," and the terms "brave nation" and brave army" are meaningless. The point of such expressions is that the nation referred to contains many human beings who fight courageously or that many of the soldiers belonging to the army in question fight courageously. Any courage is an individual quality. I repeat myself and claim that the courage of the battlefield is the cheapest form of courage. It is found in many people of all nations, in all societies and cultures. Generally speaking, it does not indicate human worth - be it moral or intellectual - in those who posses it. Just as upright and wise people can be war heroes, so can scoundrels and fools. In contrast, the courage of one who passes a test when seduced by acquisitiveness, or by the passion for honor and power, or by lust is sure evidence of human worth, and it is very rare.

(From a response written by Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz in his book, Ratziti Lishol Otkha, Professor Leibowitz, pg. 38).

 

 

This Parasha is Closed

Ariel Picard

If you check a Torah scroll or a complete volume of TaNaKh you will find that parashat Vayehi begins differently from other parashiyot. Parashat Vayehi is setuma or "closed." That is to say: there is no break in the formatting of the text between the end of parashat Vayigash and the beginning of parashat Vayehi. The Sages addressed this fact and found symbolic significance in it.

Rashi writes in the name of the midrash: "And Jacob lived - Why is this section [completely] closed? Because, as soon as our father Jacob passed away, the eyes and the heart of Israel were "closed," (i.e., it became "dark" for them) because of the misery of the slavery, for they (the Egyptians) commenced to subjugate them. Another explanation: That he (Jacob) attempted to reveal the End [of the exile] to his sons, but it was "closed off" (concealed) from him" (all Rashi quotes from Judaica Press translation). According to the first interpretation, the Israelites were "closed off" from what was happening to them in Egypt. We readers know how the story continues, but the participants in the divine drama are unaware of what the future has in store for them. Rashi's second interpretation ("Another explanation...") describes Jacob's predicament as he tries to reveal future history to his children but is stopped from doing so by God.

The basis for the second interpretation appears later in the parasha: Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days (49:1). Rashi explains in the name of the Sages: "And I will tell you, etc. He attempted to reveal the End, but the Divine Presence withdrew from him. So he began to say other things."

What is the meaning of this comment? What did Jacob wish to reveal? Why was he prevented from doing so?

Jacob's death was the moment of the Jewish People's birth. It marked the passage from family to nationhood. This was the nation's foundational moment; from this point forward it would roll through the maze of history until the Messianic age. Jacob wanted to tell his children everything that would happen to them until the End of Days, what awaited them on their long journey.

Why was this denied him?

Knowledge of the divine plan grants people strong hope for the future. However, it also has a great disadvantage; one who knows how things will end is, apparently, freed from the need to think out his path and to plan his actions in accordance with immediate reality. After all, he knows that present reality is false and fleeting, and that, in any case, redemption will come. This kind of mind set is very dangerous and liable to engender severe catastrophes.

Those who are sure of their knowledge of the divine plan tend not to pay attention to human implications and earthly considerations. What are the mundane difficulties and distress of one person or another compared to the gleaming light of redemption, of the end of days? Disinterest in details leads to severe moral distortions and to serious misreadings of reality.

This is how the RaMBaM put it in his discussion of the Messianic Era:

But no one is in a position to know the details of this and similar things until they come to pass. They are not explicitly stated by the prophets. Nor have the rabbis any tradition with regard to these matters. They are guided solely by what the Scriptural texts seem to imply. Hence there is a divergence of opinion on the subject. But be that as it may, neither the exact sequence of those events nor the details thereof constitute religious dogmas. No one should ever occupy himself with the legendary themes or spend much time on midrashic statements bearing on this or like subjects. He should not deem them of prime importance, since they lead neither to the fear of God nor to love of Him. Nor should one calculate the end. Said the rabbis: "Blasted be those who reckon out the end." One should wait (for his coming) and accept in principle this article of faith, as we have stated before." (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim 12:2, Hyamson translation)

Those who "reckon the end" may know the end, but they do not understand the process which leads to it. The Sages teach us that the path towards redemption is not so simple: "My lover is like an antelope - just as the antelope can be seen and then is hidden, and is again seen and yet again hidden, so the first redeemer is seen and hidden and seen again... (Shir HaShirim Rabba 2) We must not engage in reckoning the end, we must not observe and judge reality as if we possessed sure knowledge of God's ways regarding redemption.

The end of parashat Vayehi offers an interesting example of human inability to understand God's hidden ways. The parasha reaches its climax in the reunion of Joseph with his brothers in which they express their fear of his possible vengeance. Joseph answers them with these words: But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I instead of God? Indeed, you intended evil against me, [but] God designed it for good, in order to bring about what is at present to keep a great populace alive (50:19-20). "You brothers wanted to force the end, you wanted to keep my dreams from being realized and because of that you planned evil against me. However, God's plans are hidden from human beings and we and our children only posses knowledge of that which has been revealed to us."

Like Jacob and his brothers, we also want to uncover the end and know what the future holds in store for us. However, we know that, as the RaMBaM states, preoccupation with such matters leads to neither fear nor love, but rather to disappointment and failure. We only have what our eyes can see; our judgment must relate to reality as it looks to us, and not as it should look. This insight requires us to see reality's complexity, the shades of grey as well as the black and white.

Parashat Vayehi is a closed parasha. The life of the individual and the life of the nation are sometimes closed off and hidden from us. We cannot penetrate the world's depths and yet we must live our lives with the human tools we posses. The Sages brought a tradition in the name of Ben Sira: "Do not inquire into that too great for you, do not investigate that which is too powerful for you, do not [try to] know that which is hidden from you, do not ask about that which is covered up from you; contemplate that which is permitted to you and have no truck with mysteries" (Bereishit Rabba, 8)

Ariel Picard teaches and researches at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and in Bar Ilan University. In the past he serves as the rabbi of Kibbutz Sheluhot.

 

In Issachar that disposition is described which works gladly but only in such a way, and with such an idea, as has worth in the true Jewish nation. While in Judah the ruling tribe and in Zevulun the commercial tribe is presented, in Issachar the real backbone of the Jewish nation appears - the Jewish land-worker. He does not work to go on and on and earn more and more wealth, the Jewish man of the people, and does not wear himself out in the pressure of his work, he works to earn leisure for himself. He is content to allow Zevulun to earn millions with his products, prefers to stay quietly at home, and sees that leisure, so won, won by one's own independent work, is the highest prize that man can strive for by his work. For it is in his leisure that a man really comes to himself. For that he bends his shoulder to take on burdens, leaves the ruler's scepter to Judah, the prize of commerce to Zevulun; he is not tempted by military glory nor by the wealth to be made in trade. He knows other conquests and other treasures that can only be won and only nurtured in leisure. It was just this tribe that became thereby cultivators of the spiritual treasures of the nation. When, after the fall of Saul, all the tribes gathered about David, thousands and hundreds of thousands came from them all. Issachar sent only 200 and there the heads of the tribe, - the others stayed at home and did not leave their work. But these 200 were all philosophers and scientists, who understood the signs of the times, they brought "binah" - understanding - with them. Binah is really discrimination, recognition of the true relation of men and matters to each other and the result of their constant reaction on each other. This insight Issachar had won in its leisure for which it had worked, and indeed had bina, practical knowledge, not mere sophistic cleverness, but that practical understanding of the real relationship of men and matters which the true Torah wisdom gives, and indeed applied it to a just estimation of the special meaning and implications of any moment.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Bereishit 49:15, translated from the original by Isaac Levy)

 

The "Sword" Which Destroys the World Needs to be Distanced and Scattered

Their weapons [mekhoroteihem] are tools of lawlessness (Bereishit 49:5). In Greek this means "their ruins." Jacob said: If these two tribes live together as one they shall destroy the world, so I will scatter them (as it is written): I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel (49: 7).

(Midrash Aggadat Bereishit 83)

 

Foe and Spoils: Even in War There is Necessary and Unnecessary Violence

In the morning he consumes the foe [Hebrew: ad], and in the evening he divides the spoils [shalal]... and anything which is necessary for a person, that is, what he needs to consume to break the hunger of his household, is something given cheerfully and he shall not want bread la'ad [forever] and for all eternity. But the luxuries that a person asks for beyond his own consumption will eventually be left to others and divided among them - perhaps to his widow's new husband - while he is denied [meshulal] and distanced from those luxuries given him in the evening. That is why it says, In the morning [he consumes his foe], speaking of the thing given him cheerfully, of which he consumes only his fill and which is given to him forever. Even though la'ad also refers to spoils, the term la'ad was used in order to imply eternity. And in the evening refers to that which is given to him regretfully, things that he will have to share with others, it is removed from him [meshulal mimenu], since the term shalal can be used in the sense of removal, as in the verse the axe-head flies off [ve'nashal habarzel] the handle (Devarim 19:5), in the sense of negation and casting off.

This matter (In the morning he consumes the foe [Hebrew: la'ad], and in the evening he divides the spoils [shalal]) appears next to the blessing (Benjamin is) a ravenous wolf (49:27) in order to warn the judges of Israel not to ravage in war more than is necessary, as it says: Her judges are wolves of the steppe, they leave no bone until morning (Zephaniah 3:3). The prophet accuses them of ravaging more than is necessary, therefore he called them wolves of the erev [steppe, also "evening"] and says they leave no bone until morning because they did not ask for the necessities given in the morning. Similarly, Saul, who was of Benjamin is accused [of having] swoop[ed] down on the spoils (I Samuel 15: 19), for he did not remember Jacob's blessing to Benjamin. However, of Abraham it is said [that he took of the spoils] nothing but what my servants consumed (Bereishit 14: 24). They took only what was needed for their own consumption, and he did not divide superfluous spoils among them. That was the inspiration for his comparison with the wolf who hunts for his own consumption yet sometimes needlessly kills and destroys, and this is a precious interpretation.

(Keli Yakar Bereishit 49:27)

 

Vindictiveness and Suspicion vs. Forgiveness and Peace

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead. What did they see then that made them fearful? They saw that on the way back from burying their father, Joseph visited the pit into which they had sent him in order to say a blessing, as one is required to say a blessing at a place where a miracle happened for one's sake: "Blessed is the omnipresent who performed a miracle for my sake at this place." When they saw this, they said, now that our father is dead, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him!" So they sent this message to Joseph, "Before his death your father left this instruction... So shall you say to Joseph, Forgive..." (50:15-17). We have searched and not found that Jacob commanded this thing. But come and see how great is the power of peace, for the Holy One blessed be He wrote these things in His Torah regarding the power of peace.

(Tanhuma Vayehi 17)

 

The midrash tells us that Joseph the Righteous had acted for the sake of Heaven, he went to fulfill the commandment taught him by his father, to recite the customary blessing for a miracle which had occurred. Nevertheless, the brothers are unable to shake off their suspicions. They were entrapped by their old prejudice that had caused them to err even after the reunion; they were incapable of understanding the reality that someone might be guided by forgiveness, even for a terrible deed such as that which they had done to their brother Joseph.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat Ha-Shavua, pg. 186)

 

When David's life was drawing to a close, he instructed his son Solomon as follows: "I am going the way of all the earth; be strong and show yourself a man...Further, you know what Yoav son of Zuriah did to me, what he did to the two commanders of Israel's forces, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Yeter: he killed them, shedding blood of war in peacetime, staining the girdle of his loins and the sandals on his feet with the blood of war. So act in accordance with your wisdom, and see that his white hair does not go down to Sheol in peace.

(I Kings 2:1-6, from the Haftorah for parashat Vayehi)

 

This must be said to all those who view Jewish sovereignty as the realization of the highest religious and moral ideals. Jewish sovereignty is a great and precious value, since it means that the Jewish People is not enslaved by other nations. However, it is a great mistake to raise up the state's power of sovereignty to the level of a supreme value. This is proved by the contrast between Jacob, who lacked any political authority or power, but who foresaw the end of days before his death, and King David, who enjoyed sovereignty and power, but who, in his final days, is revealed to be a person whose political interests push off all the great purposes. This is a lesson for all generations, including our own.

(Y.Leibowitz He'arot le'Parshiyot ha'Shavua pg. 38)

 

 

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