Vayechi

We stopped at the point where, thanks to the implementation of Yosef's economic plan, the entire population of Egypt turned into slaves of Pharaoh. The entire population, with the exception of two categories. The first category that did not become slaves – these are the kohanim (priests), to whom Pharaoh allots a special ration, special food assistance, and they are not in need of food, they do not sell their land. And it must be said that these kohanim include, among others, all of Yosef's relatives on the female side, because he is married to the daughter of Potifar, the priest of the city of On. The second part of the population that also did not become slaves – these are Yosef's relatives on Yosef's side, his father and brothers, the people of Israel, who also by Pharaoh's grace had been settled in the land of Goshen, and fed themselves, kept their flocks, and also did not need bread. And the Jews also did not become slaves of Pharaoh.

We also read that Yaakov, after twenty-two years of separation, finally met Yosef, wept, they both wept, and Yaakov said that now, now I can die in peace. Yaakov is old, he is a hundred and thirty years old, and he tells Pharaoh that the years of his life were hard years, and it is at this point that we parted with Yaakov. Time to continue reading the story of our heroes.

Despite the fact that Yaakov is already old and he is preparing to die, the Most High has his own plans. Yaakov has been living in the land of Egypt for 17 years; he lived through 5 years of famine, and they ended 12 years ago already, and Yaakov goes on living in the country of Egypt.

Commentators note that for 17 years (until Yosef turned seventeen) Yaakov supported him. Now for 17 years Yosef supports Yaakov. There is a certain definite mathematical precision in this, which partly speaks of the estrangement that had occurred between Yaakov and Yosef. As if Yosef were paying back his debt to Yaakov “year by year.” Some shadow passed between father and son, that is certain, because Yosef does not keep Yaakov near him, does not settle him in his own house, but sends him together with his relatives to the land of Goshen, and things are not all that simple in Yaakov's family.

…and the years of Yaakov's life were, and the days of his life were a hundred and forty-seven years.

These enumerations of the patriarchs' lives are not accidental. We know that Avraham lived 175 years, Yitzchak lived 180 years, and now Yaakov lives 147 years. It would seem there is no sequence, no logic in this, but if you apply a little bit of mathematics, a fairly strict plan emerges.

Avraham's 175 years of life – this is the square of the number 5, 5x5 and multiply by 7=175. Together the factors 5, 5 and 7 make 17, 5+5+7=17.

The years of Yitzchak's life – this is the square of the number 6, 6x6=36, and the factor becomes smaller by 2, now 5, that is 6x6x5=180. Once again the sum of the factors 6+6+5=17. You can count it, it is fairly simple arithmetic.

By this logic it should turn out that the age of Yaakov's life is the square of the number 7 with a factor smaller by 2, that is 7x7x3; and so it is, 7x7 = 49, multiply by 3 = 147. And once again the sum of the factors 7+7+3=17.

And calculations like these, what are they done for? In order to see, to discern that these events, these years of life, are not accidental, they are determined by a clear Divine design and can even be calculated through certain formulas.

Other commentators said that, since Yaakov complained to Pharaoh in thirty-three letters about his bitter life and existence, 33 letters fell away from the age of 180 which he could have lived, and therefore he lived 33 years less than Yitzchak.

One way or another, the commentators try to find logic in the fact that the Torah names the ages of the righteous, and logic in why they lived exactly that long.

Usually everything we have read up to now: and Avraham lived, and Adam lived, and Yitzchak lived so and so many years – every time a person's age is mentioned, you can say: well, that's it, that means it is about the years of death drawing near. Right after that it will be written that the hero of the story died. With Yaakov it is a little different, the Torah departs from the storyline. Yaakov lives outside the land of Israel, Yaakov has many concerns. The Torah says that illness (Yaakov fell ill) is sent to a person in order to settle some household affairs. If a person dies suddenly, all his affairs are left in a “shambles,” in a “muddle”; but here a person who falls ill, who senses the approach of death, can begin to put his affairs in order. And it looks like Yaakov is doing this.

Yaakov does not want to be buried in the land of Egypt. It would seem, what difference does it make to him? (Yosef will be buried in Egypt). Yaakov understands that he is the Patriarch of generations and, if he remains buried in Egypt, perhaps all his sons will stay there too and will not want to go anywhere away from their dad's grave. Yaakov also understands that the promise was given to him with regard to the land of Israel. Later a tradition will develop about how important it is to be buried in the land of Israel, that this is significant. Yaakov, I think, was guided by other motives. He did not want to create a place of memory in the land of Egypt, did not want a mausoleum of Yaakov in Egypt, therefore he wanted to be buried with his fathers in the cave of Me'arat ha Machpela.

This is not the burial, this is an image of death: to lie down with the fathers is an image, a euphemism for death.

That is, Israel, Yaakov, gathered his last strength to talk with Yosef about this important subject. Why does Yaakov ask Yosef to swear, why is it important to him that Yosef swear? Not because he does not take Yosef at his word. The point is that 17 years have already passed since the time of the famine, since the time when Yosef's new economic policy made Pharaoh very rich, and Yosef's value in Pharaoh's eyes has changed. Yosef is no longer such an authority, no longer such a valuable asset, relations are complicated. Besides that, Yosef constantly has to prove his loyalty to the Egyptian people, and Yosef clearly has quite a lot of enemies. We said that Yosef made everyone slaves except his relatives on the one side and on the other, and it is clear that not everyone likes this, many want to undermine him. And coming to Pharaoh with the request “I want to bury my father,” he can say: “Well, it is an old man's whim. I swore to him. And not because I want to, not because that is what our religion is like, but my father took an oath from me. You also had a father, after all, treat my oath to my father with respect.” And that is what Pharaoh will ultimately do. Therefore it is important to Yaakov that Yosef can say afterwards: “I swore.” They both understand a little about Egyptian politics.

And we will read chapter 48.

We remember that Yaakov lives far away, in the land of Goshen. Apparently, after Yosef visited Yaakov and gave him the oath, he assigned some people to Yaakov, or they had been assigned from the start. They inform Yosef: “Your father is ill.” This does not mean that he has a fever and the flu, it means that it is already time to come and, perhaps, to say goodbye, it is the kind of illness when one has to visit the sick person.

And they told Yaakov – that is, once again, nobody opens the door to Yaakov and comes in; this and they told him means that he has someone like a butler, and servants, and a nurse who sits by him and watches over him, and this shows that Yosef surrounds him with sufficient honor.

Yaakov recalls his right, his, in essence, deed of purchase for the land of Israel, which will be called by his name, for the land of Canaan, and says: “The LORD promised me this land.” And why he recalls this now:

Interesting: if you check the gematrias, then for the pairs of names Efrayim-Menashe and Re'uven-Shimon they differ by one. That is, if you calculate the numerical values of the letters in the names Re'uven-Shimon and compare them with the numerical value of the letters of the names Efrayim-Menashe, the difference comes out to one: 735 – 736. Two different gematrias, but they differ by one. In the science of gematria they say that this is called im akolel, when the expression itself can be counted as a single whole and the gematrias can be taken as equal. But this is a sort of note in parentheses.

What does Yaakov mean? He says that they will each receive an allotment in their own land. And, although the land of Israel will be divided, as it is said, “by heads,” lots will be cast, and there are names of the allotments, there are definite allotments, nevertheless Efrayim and Menashe will each receive his own allotment. This practically means that Yaakov adopts Yosef's children. Why he does this, we will talk about later.

In other words: “I am adopting your two sons; if you beget anyone after them, they will be yours. That is, if you beget a third, a fourth and, God willing, a seventh or a tenth – they will no longer receive separate allotments, like Re'uven, they will be part of the allotment of Efrayim or Menashe, they will join the already existing tribes of your sons.” Yosef thus receives two allotments of his sons as the firstborn in inheritance.

Further on Yaakov continues, or does not continue, but gets distracted and says this:

Commentators try to understand why Yaakov gets distracted and switches to this story. Some say: “Yaakov is apologizing for the fact that, on the one hand, he asks to be carried all the way from Egypt to the land of Israel and to be buried in the land of Israel, while he himself buried Yosef's mom on the road. On the other hand, it would have been fitting for Yaakov to apologize for this (if he were apologizing for this) at the time when he asked not to bury him in Egypt, during the first meeting. But now he is not speaking about the burial, he is speaking about the allotment, and, most likely, what is meant here is this: “You, Yosef, are a courtier here, you have reached a very high rank, and your sons live at court, and they are almost princes, here they are the elite of Egyptian society. Remember, remember where you were taken from, remember where the grave of your ancestors is. Despite the fact that you live in Egypt and you have risen to high heights, remember: your mother's grave is there, by the road to Efrata, and strive to get there yourself.”

Now he has, as it were, finished saying what is most important for himself, he looks around and sees: next to Yosef stand his sons. They were born before Yaakov's arrival, that is, they are about eighteen or nineteen years old, maybe twenty. Maybe Yosef's sons did not visit their grandpa in the land of Goshen; maybe it is simply the darkness in the room where he lies, and the weakness of his eyesight (we will read further on about the weakness of his eyesight). One way or another, Yaakov does not recognize his grandsons, whom he has just adopted. Or maybe he is waiting for someone to tell him: “These are your children, Efrayim and Menashe.” Yosef says to him:

A very interesting passage in this weekly portion. We will say goodbye to practically all the heroes of the book of Bereshit. On the whole it will be a very sad portion.

So, Yosef with his sons, Efrayim and Menashe, visits the sick Yaakov, his sick father. Yaakov promises Yosef that Efrayim and Menashe, Yosef's sons, will be to Yaakov like Re'uven and Shimon, he adopts them. After this Yaakov turns his attention to two figures of some kind standing at a distance behind Yosef, and asks: “Who are these?” Yosef answers him: “These are my sons, whom God gave me here.” Yaakov says: “Bring them to me, and I will bless them.”

The eyelids became heavy. When the eyelids become heavy and it is hard for a person to raise his eyes, they say that his eyes have grown heavy. And therefore Yaakov could make out only that two people of some kind were standing there, he could not recognize his own grandsons. And in order that he would identify and recognize them:

…and he brought them near to him, and he kissed them, and embraced them.

Yaakov is barely holding on, he gathered his strength to meet Yosef, but he embraces and kisses the sons-grandsons, the grandsons who have become sons; this gives him more strength.

An amazing phrase. Of course, when Yaakov thought that Yosef had died, he no longer hoped to see his face. Here he says: “The LORD has shown me your seed too.” And the question arises: for 17 years Yosef and Yaakov have been living in Egypt, for 17 years they have known that both are alive, and Yaakov knows that Yosef has sons. And so? For 17 years they have not seen each other? These are no longer little children, they are 20 years old, Efrayim and Menashe. What is the matter here? And if we recall the traditions of adoption, then after a person had been missing for a long time, if he returned, the father had to carry out, so to speak, an official procedure of identification, to acknowledge him, to embrace him, to receive him, sometimes to hold a feast (we also remember the parable of the prodigal son). If Yaakov adopts his grandsons, Yosef's sons, he too must receive and identify them. And here a kind of identification procedure is taking place. Yaakov says: “Yes, this is your seed. I did not hope to see you as my son, to identify you and acknowledge you, to bear witness to your return, and behold, I see even your offspring.”

Why knees here? Remember, all the time, when it is about giving birth, they give birth onto the knees. Sara says: “This Hagar will give birth onto my knees.” Job later says: “The one on whose knees I was born, the knees that received me.” It was Yaakov who held his grandsons-sons on his knees, as the Torah now reveals to us. Or the taking onto the knees is simply a name for the adoption procedure itself.

…they stepped away from him and bowed down to him to the ground.

That is, with this the adoption procedure ended. But Yaakov, for his part, intended not only to adopt them, but also to bless them.

That is, Yosef brings his sons forward so that it would be more convenient for Yaakov to bless them: Menashe – with the right hand, Efrayim – with the left hand, because Menashe is the elder, Efrayim the younger. So that Yaakov would not accidentally mix them up, because he does not see very well, so that he would not start rearranging the sons, so as not to offend anyone. You can see that Yosef thought everything through well, and there is not really much to think through here anyway. But the unexpected happens.

Yaakov had to cross his hands in order to bless them the other way round. The original meaning of the word shikel (or shchol) – to cross or to make the sign of the cross.iThe Russian verb here can mean both “to baptize” and “to make the sign of the cross”. Because the author goes on to speak about the cross, it is rendered as “to make the sign of the cross”. But a word of the same root, sechel – mind, reason, the skill of crossing over, mixing, comparing things. And the commentators in the Middle Ages, in opposition to the Christian tradition of commentary, moved away from the idea that Yaakov crossed something somewhere there and laid his hands crosswise on the children's heads. They said that Yaakov applied reason, used his hands reasonably, folded them in some sophisticated way: moving the children around was inconvenient, so he made use of the wisdom of the hands. But all these commentaries arise on the ground of apologetics in discourses against Christianity, where one did not want to see any arguments that would bring grist to the Christian mills. And do not be quick to accuse the Jews of hypocrisy here, because this was happening in the shadow of the auto-da-fé and because at that time some could burn others at the stake in the course of disputations. Therefore it is all not so simple.

So, Yaakov crossed his hands and with crossed hands blesses his grandsons-sons, that is, he raises the younger above the elder, lowers the elder before the younger, on the one hand; on the other hand, they stand according to rank, that is, both receive a mutually complementary blessing.

The word yadgu comes from the root dag – fish. Fish move in schools, they multiply, therefore here the word yadgu is used in the meaning will multiply. There will be many of them, like fish, but they will be on the earth. A very puzzling blessing. It begins with “God, before whom our fathers walked, my fathers, Avraham and Yitzchak, God who shepherded me until this day.” And here everything is clear. And further: “And the Angel who preserved me from all evil, he will bless these lads, and my name and the name of my fathers will be called in them.” And right away it is not very clear: so who is it, God or an angel? He began with God, ended, it seems, with an angel, what does an angel have to do with it? And there are many commentaries on this point.

Some say that here he called God an angel. It often happens that God is called an angel or acts through an angel. Others say that these are some old traditions about Yaakov passing on his guardian angel. And one can agree with both commentaries, in the sense that Yaakov from the very beginning (and in his first dream, at the ladder) sees angels, and then, returning to the land of Israel, sees camps of angels. Angels are the constant instrument of the Most High's action in the life of Israel (Yaakov). And Israel passes on to his grandsons-children also this whole mechanism, the whole system of God's care over the people, and says that they will be able to prosper, that they will multiply on the earth, which means they will have contentment and plenty, He will keep them from all evil. There are no particular details here of how exactly He will bless them, He will simply bless them, and that is all. A little further on we will figure out how and why, and why there is no specific bracha here: whether He will bless them financially, materially, with a talent for playing the piano or a talent for languages.

We read in chapter 21 that it seemed not good to Avraham when he had to send Yishmael away. We remember this story, when Sara said to him: “Drive out already this Hagar with this Yishmael, who constantly mock me here and jeer at me.” Avraham got up, and it is written: “And this was very hard for him.” It was very sad for him to drive them out; this is in Avraham's family, in Yitzchak's family, in Yitzchak's childhood. Then Yaakov himself has difficulties with Esav, problems with the birthright, when he himself already had to flee. And Yosef also has problems, because he is the firstborn of the beloved wife, and there are also unloved wives. Yaakov has four categories of children from four different wives, difficulties with the firstborn status, and difficulties in the family in general. And ceaselessly the absence of peace between brothers, from generation to generation.

And Yosef is perhaps even seized with horror at seeing how Yaakov again brings some confusion into the natural order of things – that Menashe is the elder, Efrayim the younger. Yaakov shifts all this, and the frightened Yosef takes Yaakov's hand, so it is written:

…and he supported, he grabbed his father by the hand, to move it from Efrayim's head onto Menashe's head.

Maybe dad not only sees poorly, but already thinks poorly too, maybe old man Alzheimer has visited his distant ancestor Yaakov, and Yaakov is no longer thinking very clearly. I do not know what flashed through Yosef's head, but he got scared, scared that one more generation of brothers would be at enmity, the book of Bereshit is already coming to an end, it is high time to make peace; and Yosef's fright is understandable.

When we analyze the full blessing at the end of the next chapter, we will also examine what this very fullness of the nations or fullness of the gentiles means.

Every Sabbath, when dad comes home from the synagogue, and also the first time, during circumcision, a child is blessed like this: “May the LORD make you like Efrayim and Menashe,” by the name of these two boys. And naturally the question arises: why not like Moshe and Aharon, why not like Shimon and Levi, why not like Avraham and Yitzchak, why not like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov? After all, when we bless girls, we say: like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea. Why can one not bless here like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov? But we bless children like Efrayim and Menashe. And there are several reasons for this.

The first reason: Efrayim and Menashe are the first children of the galut (exile); they grew up far away from Jewish culture. To what extent did they preserve their belonging to the Jewish faith? These are children who are able to preserve the Jewish faith in the conditions of galut, able to carry light through darkness. This is an important quality for the whole Jewish people, because it will become one of the main functions of the Jewish people.

The second meaning says that Efrayim and Menashe are different boys. Efrayim is more inclined toward Torah, toward studying, he is a kind of “bookworm,” so the midrashim say. Menashe is a public figure, he can organize everything necessary so that Efrayim can study. Efrayim is a scholar, Menashe is a social worker, he helps everyone, a worker for the community. And in life people have different inclinations: introverts and extroverts, humanities people and physicists – and so on, all kinds of differences between people. When we see a child who has just been born, it is foolish to bless him and say: may he become a good dentist, or may he become a cellist, or may he become a jeweler. When his inner world appears, his talents will open up there where God has gifted him, and that is where we will bless him. And therefore we bless ke'efrayim and kemenashe (like Efrayim and like Menashe): a humanities person or a physicist, a physicist or a lyricist, a scholar or a virtuous person – each according to his nature. Everything that came before this – the blessings were not tuned to a specific person. For the first time Yaakov (the first father, the first grandfather) blesses his children and grandchildren each according to his nature, not blessing everyone as if they were all cut from the same cloth. In this lies an amazing essence, and in this is a reflection of the Divine blessings, that He does not make us all the same. This is the second version of why we bless as Efrayim and as Menashe.

The third version is connected with the fact that, actually, here we have the blessing of a grandfather, the third generation. For the first time in the whole Torah a grandfather blesses his grandchildren; before this, fathers blessed sons. Many say: “A Jew is one whose grandchildren will be Jews,” that is, whose children will want to raise their own children the way they were raised. Not everyone manages this, and every person has the worry whether his children will become believers, to say nothing of the grandchildren. What a joy it is when grandchildren, and not only children, follow in our footsteps.

And the fourth of the widespread versions of why Yaakov speaks of the blessing ke'efrayim and kemenashe: because this is the first case of peaceful, calm brothers. The entire narrative of the book of Bereshit is a history of confrontation between brothers. Here, even if they are mixed up in the blessings, and the younger, Efrayim, is blessed as the elder, and the elder, Menashe, as the younger, they will not quarrel over it. They kept the peace. This is very important – to follow the Most High and to be His disciple, to keep this unity, to keep love for one another; this is important for preserving the unity of the people, of the community, and therefore this is also an important blessing.

A blessing like The LORD be with you – this is instead of what is now customary to say: at meeting – Shalom! and at parting – Shalom! or Lihitraot (goodbye). In the book of Rut we read that it was customary to bless – The LORD be with you – Adonai imachem, and the answer to this was – May the LORD bless you. When we meet a person and when we part from a person, we wish him that the LORD be with him, this is the most important thing, the rest will follow.

We know that Yaakov has an allotment in Sh'chem, an allotment that he bought there, bought for money (we know that later there was the demonstrative action of Shimon and Levi there, with the destruction of the population of an entire city as revenge for Dina). But Yaakov says here that he “acquired this place with his sword and his bow.” Commentators say that cherev (sword) is prayer, and keshet (bow) is supplication, that “with prayers and supplications I acquired it.” This is, of course, a beautiful drash, a beautiful interpretation, but apparently what is meant is that they sold him the land, and Yaakov was able to hold on to it thanks to military might. This is the place in which Yosef himself will later be buried, this place is the tomb of Yosef in Sh'chem. Today it is in a difficult political situation, but the place has been preserved to this day.

In this chapter Yaakov turns to all his sons with a speech before his death, with blessings before his death, and a few remarks need to be made before we begin reading it. First of all we must remember, know, that this chapter is the most difficult in terms of language and in terms of understanding, the most difficult chapter in the whole book of Bereshit. There are many words here whose exact meaning is unknown and which at the same time are important for understanding the text. This came about because many poetic terms, lofty, one could say grandiose, such pompous statements are spoken here; and the nuances of this Hebrew have not been preserved for us. The very symbolism that Yaakov uses here was perhaps always clear to his sons, but to us it is not clear. And it must be said that everything written here we will be able to understand only with major reservations. And therefore people who strive to understand everything are tempted to give some mega-prophetic or eschatological (even better), end-of-the-world-related interpretation of this whole text, relying on some interpretations of symbols of their own, sometimes biblical, sometimes not. It is a very dangerous business to “read into” the text what is not there; better to understand a little less than everything. We will try to work out what this is about.

Many commentators seize on two words, be'acharit hayamim, and say: “This is at the end of days. This is outright eschatology, this is the end of the world. Yaakov was about to speak about this, but the Most High did not allow him, the prophetic gift left him, and therefore Yaakov simply, as a second, backup option, since he had already gathered the children, talked with them about their near future.” There are, strange as it may seem, a great many such commentaries. But the phrase itself, acharit hayamim, can be understood – also as in the days that follow. We do not know to what extent the brothers believed, knew, understood that there would be some end of the world; they, actually, were standing at the beginning of the world and were perhaps waiting only for the end of darkness. Yaakov continues to call on them and says:

Leikavetz – this is to gather closely. “Gather together, not simply gather, but come closer. You are gathering as brothers; I will speak as Israel, as the father of a whole people, as the father of the entire whole.”

It is very important to note: Yaakov does not hold individual appointments, as a doctor would, as a psychologist would, as people of other professions would. Yaakov invites the whole people, and he speaks to the whole people. This also means – “and at our table no one is left out.” No one will be excluded from the people of Israel, whatever he may have done in the past. The people of Israel is whole, and as a whole people it receives some whole instructions which can later help it to exist as a people made up of different complex parts, but whole.

In the tradition of the East very great importance was attached to the first drop, the first seed of a man. It was believed that the one who was born from the first drop is especially strong, especially important, and takes on the qualities of the father to the greatest degree.

The word se'et can be interpreted in different ways; here I applied an interpretation based on the verb nasa; nasa – to take upon oneself, to place upon oneself, connected with the kohanic service. The kohen takes upon himself, accepts upon himself the atonement of sins. And here Yaakov says that reshit on – this is the service of the firstborn, yeter se'et – this is the kohanic service, the next, the last – yeter az, this is mightier, stronger – this is the royal service.

By descent it turns out that Re'uven was entitled to royal power, and the priesthood, and the birthright, but we know that, unfortunately, Re'uven lost all of this.

We read this story several chapters ago. After Rachel's death Lea expected, perhaps, that Yaakov would live in her tent. But Rachel left small children behind her, and Yaakov stays in the tent of the concubine, the slave woman Bilha, and, of course, this outrages Re'uven very strongly, and he says: “If at first our mother was at least a rival to her sister, now we will not leave her like this, she is not to be a rival to a slave woman.” And therefore he defiled the slave woman, took such a spontaneous, unrestrained step. And Yaakov says further:

…you defiled the bed of my couch – what came into your head.

Here is your methodology, your methods of resolving questions. We still remember how Re'uven resolves questions, when he, for example, says: “If I do not bring Binyamin, kill three of my children.” When Yosef tries to hold Shimon in prison, Re'uven says: “This is all because of the boy, I told you this.” Rarely does he offer practical solutions, and they do not work, as was the case, for example, with the pit. And when Binyamin was brought, detained with the goblet, Re'uven found nothing at all to say. Therefore the nimble, quick, spontaneous, hot Re'uven does not know how to be prudent and cannot hold real power – neither the power of a kohen, nor royal power, nor the power of the firstborn. This is what Yaakov is talking about.

In verse 5 he moves on to Shimon and Levi, two other brothers, and here is what he says:

It is clear that they are brothers, but Re'uven and Shimon are brothers too. Why does Yaakov single out Shimon and Levi? Because they are alike, because they are not only brothers, they are bearers of the idea of brotherhood. They are the ones who stood up for their sister. They are the ones who (we talked about this) protected the brothers by trying, strange as it may seem, to sell Yosef, speaking of security, of brotherly unity, of a brotherly sort of alliance. Here Yaakov says, starting with the positive, that Shimon and Levi are brothers, but:

…but their vessels, their instrument – this is an instrument of evil.

From it they take their food, as from a mine, they extract fuel for themselves. A very difficult word (we said that there would be difficult words) to translate is mecherotehém. One can say that it comes from the word limkór – to sell, and it is about the fact that in their time they plundered the city. There is also an understanding that the word mecherót is formed from the word leakír – to study: it is well known to them, they have mastered it well, it is their profession to make war with instruments of cruelty, instruments of unjustified evil. One more understanding – from the word likrót – this is what unites them, what became the foundation of the covenant between them, and what feeds them, their mine, what gives them life when they unite together. This understanding seems closest to me.

That is, to what they are plotting, what they are conferring about in secret rooms. Do not say: “Where two are gathered in my name, there I am also among you. I am not with you in your meetings, because, joining with each other precisely as brothers, you switch on the mode of anger, and I cannot be in your council, I cannot be in a crowd that consists of Shimons and Levis, because it is precisely their interaction that gives birth to evil.”

…because in their anger they killed people, and by their will…

And here again we meet an expression that is hard to translate. Ikkéru can mean castrated, made barren. It can also mean hamstrung, made it so that walking was impossible. Shor symbolizes Yosef, but we have not yet reached this symbolism. Shor may be a hint at a bull, at damage (actually, the bull symbolizes Yosef too), a hint at the damaging of the livestock in Sh'chem. We know nothing about this. Ikkeru-shór – this can also mean smashed, broke down walls. That is, on the whole the expression haregú ish ikkeru-shór can be understood, as meaning that they killed and stretched out their hand to plunder. Therefore Yaakov says further:

Cursed is what pours out of them, what bulges out of them. The word avorá is connected with the word to overflow, to pour over the edge; ki kasháta – very heavy, it hardens like lava.

I will divide in Yaakov – we will see later that the tribe of Shimon, its whole achalá, its whole allotment, lies inside the tribe of Yehuda, surrounded on all sides by the tribe of Yehuda. There is a state like that in Africa – Lesotho, it too is surrounded on all sides by one state; well, and the Vatican goes there too. But this is not Lesotho at all and not the Vatican, this is an allotment that will be completely isolated by Yehuda. It will turn out later that the sons of Shimon will be wanderers through the land of Israel, because they will be teachers of children, “itinerant” children's teachers, and they will live by this, that is, live by bringing holiness to the people. And in exactly the same way the Levites, the descendants of Levi, will not have an allotment. Shimon has an allotment, but he does not live there; the Levites will not have an allotment, and they too will live by teaching the people holiness. This “scatteredness” is not a punishment, but a functional use. They have to be divided completely so that they work well. And precisely for this reason, because of this peculiarity, that all Israel will, as it were, have to absorb them, and they are to be divided throughout all Israel in the future – precisely for this reason Yaakov (unlike all the other sons whom he will bless) speaks of them in the third person: not “you, Shimon and Levi,” not “you, Shimon, and you, Levi,” but “Shimon and Levi – they.” Yaakov is speaking in their presence, most likely they came, but Yaakov gives all Israel this testimony, that these two – are not to be joined.

With verse 8 begins the blessing of Yehuda, a very interesting and just as incomprehensible blessing.

The word yodúcha can mean they will thank, but it also means hand-raisediHere the author uses a shorter form of the same coined “hand” word as in verse 8, so it is rendered “hand-raised” again to keep the link to voting by hand., that is, they voted for you. In modern Hebrew to vote is leatzbía, from the word – finger; but here – the brothers, as it were, laid their hands on you. Not by Yaakov's will, but it so happened that Yehuda took the leadership upon himself in Egypt. Spontaneously Yehuda began to make decisions, and the brothers – peacefully, calmly handed this power over to him. Power which, perhaps, Yaakov wanted to keep for Yosef too, also a brilliant politician. But the ruler generally accepted by the brothers is Yehuda, and Yaakov, in essence, passes on to him his royal heritage, his royal testament.

…your hand on the neck of your enemies (that is, you will be a remarkable warrior), and the sons of your father will bow down to you.

Again such a play on words – Yehuda yodúcha achécha yadechá. In general, when a brachá, a blessing, is spoken, it is good to say it beautifully; and it is often very important and interesting to play on the name. These are not just toys, this is an intensification: after all, every time his name is pronounced, a person will hear in it new and new melodies of the blessings that are spoken to him.

I often come across this question – people who do not understand the tradition or simply have not read it say: “How could anyone bow down there, after all, one should bow down only to the LORD God?” It is understood that one should bow down only to the LORD God. In this case it is about etiquette. They bow down, they will bow down, because they will come with economic requests, with requests to resolve this or that problem.

Yaakov continues the blessing of Yehuda, it is rather long, and in verse 9 Yaakov says very poetically:

Do you know how a lion cub gets its first prey? He first attacks it, tears it apart, and then steps back, that is, he does not tear it to the end, does not tear the prey to the end, does not throw himself on it, does not lose himself, behaves with dignity. And a well-fed lion also behaves with dignity. This is about a lion who sometimes does not even need to use force: it is enough for him to roar for everyone to get scared, and it is not necessary to hit anyone when it is about establishing power, about establishing boundaries. When a lion attacks someone in order to eat that someone, he attacks, bites to death and withdraws without zeal; without cruelty he tears the prey apart. When a lion is full, he is generally lazy and it is fairly easy to catch him. Many boast that they hunt lions, but lions, in fact, really are fairly easy to hunt, because when full they are practically in a state of “come up and kill.”

We read in the prophet Yechezkel (19:2–4), about lions as an image of Israel. We read this: “And you shall say: ‘What of your mother, the lioness? Among lions she lay, among young strong lions she raised her cubs. And she nurtured one of her cubs, (he) became a young strong lion and learned to tear prey, he devoured people. And the nations heard of him; in their pit he was caught, and they led him in chains to the land of Mitzrayim’

Well, and a few more similar stories here. That is, the essence of the blessing gur ar'yé (young lion) is that he knows how to attack, but most of all knows how not to attack, knows where it is enough just to “roar,” where it is not necessary to tear. A king must be a modest king, must not multiply chariots, women, we know this; he must not be cruel toward enemies, there is no need to show cruelty. One can intimidate without using cruelty, a king must have an intimidating roar. Therefore attack the prey, do not finish it off if there is no need to finish it off, do not kill those you are not going to eat, know how to show strength, know how to hold back the strength of the opponent without using your own.

In verse 10 Yaakov continues to bless Yehuda and says:

Who is this shiló and what is this shiló? There are at least 14-15 versions. And when there is definitely no single version and it fits so beautifully, one very much wants to say – until the Mashiach comes. But here it is not very clear what kind of Mashiach this is who will come. There has been no talk of the Mashiach so far, we do not know at all what the brothers believe in. And here it can be understood that shiló means the peacemaker – the one who brings peace, these too are, in essence, functions of the Mashiach. But about the Mashiach it is said veló yikkehát ammím, and to this Mashiach – reproach, darkening of the nations. Either he will shine so that all the nations grow dark, or he will cause the nations some kind of oppression such that their light goes out. That is, it looks as if this reign of Yehuda and the lawgivers born from him, they will move on until they reach their apogee and see the reaction of the nations of the world to the rule of Yehuda; darkening – this may mean that the light will begin from there. In any case this is a blessing for authority, for long years. There are historical analyses showing that this is, of course, not only royal authority, it is legislative authority, other kinds of authority. So this is the kind of promise we have.

What can one say here? You need to have a great many grapes, first of all, to tie a young donkey to the grapevine. After all, he will eat a great deal. Who feeds a donkey grapes if he can be fed hay – you would have to have grapes like hay. Besides that, perhaps it is about “you will tie the young donkey to the grapevine and load him right from the vine.” That is, it will be that convenient for you – so many grapes will be born for you. And further on we read that it seems this is indeed so.

…and to the shoots you will also tie little donkeys. you will wash your garment in wine…

Well, few people, in fact, wash their clothes in wine. There were commentators who said that wine would be at the price of water, that it evaporates afterwards anyway… I have not, of course, conducted an experiment, I cannot say, but it seems that wine is a poor means for washing clothes. And what is meant here, most likely figuratively, is that you will tread grapes: when they make wine, when they jump into the grapes, and if the vessels are deep, then the clothes get stained, the clothes get covered with red. That is why in chapter 66 of the book of the prophet Yeshayahu they ask a man who may also be a prototype of the Messiah, they ask him: “Why are your garments red?”

…and you will be flooded, drenched in the blood of grapes.

Again – the word sutó nobody can translate unambiguously, there are very many different interpretations. For example, they say: “Somewhere here a little letter has been left out) כ kaf(, and this is kasutó– and in the blood of grapes will be your covering.” But sutó in such a meaning as to ooze, to be abundantly soaked also fits here. This is a blessing for an abundance of wine. Wine is not merely an image of grapes; wine is also the Torah, of course, and much more can be said. And Yaakov concludes the blessing of Yehuda:

That is, from healthy, good foods the follower of a healthy lifestyle, the “health nut” Yehuda, will get beautiful healthy teeth – like milk teeth, whiter than milk teeth or whiter than milk – and beautiful eyes the color of dark wine. This is a full blessing, and one can put it this way: you will be flooded with wine and milk. Wine is an agrarian product, a product of the land, and milk is a product of animal husbandry; in both Yehuda will succeed. This is a very great blessing.

There are many mystical commentaries and midrashim on this matter, dozens of them. And with each of these blessings one can dive into this ocean of midrashim, but you and I are “pushing our way through” in search of the simple meaning. Not in order to reject the midrashim, but perhaps so that afterwards it will be more convenient and simpler for you to understand the midrashim, when the simple meaning is also known.

Verse 13 – the blessing of Zevulun. Actually Yissachar was born before Zevulun, but here they have been swapped, and not only here. To the question of why this happened, no one can give an answer.

The tribe of Zevulun, strange as it may seem (if we look at the map), did not receive an allotment by the sea, its allotment is inland, in the center of the tribes. But we know that the guys of the tribe of Zevulun themselves engaged in seafaring – hired themselves out in the ports, traveled and conducted trade, and besides that, they obtained tchélet (dye) for tzitzit. There even existed, as I understood, some internal curses, restrictions or warnings, so that trade would go precisely through Zevulun and no alternative trading posts would be created. In any case, the midrash Agadat Bereshit retells a story that the Most High warned, promised Zevulun that trade would be possible only through him.

Chamór gárem – this can mean a bony donkey or a strong donkey, a draft donkey that can pull a lot; this can also mean an aroused donkey. Here again one has to get used to the fact that in general, not only here but throughout the Tanach, we will encounter strange blessings. If someone says “donkey” to me, I will not always see some blessing in it. But these images seemed understandable and close to them. One can say that this is a hard-working, healthy, sinewy donkey.

… rolls over from side to side (or lies relaxed on its side, sprawled out, so to speak, in breadth);

And here one can understand it this way, that he stands between the sacks, that is, he is so loaded, so hard-working, that to the right and to the left of him there are sacks, and he just stands like this between them. Well, a complicated sort of blessing, I would say, a debatable one.

Another meaning – that he lies (there were such enclosures for livestock) in a kind of, one might say, birdhouse, a “donkey-house.” He lies in a place where it is comfortable for him to be, and on both sides these very mishpetáyim, about which we do not really know what they are, protect him from the wind.

If you picture such a scene, then you can try to read on.

What is this about? One can interpret it like this: Yissachar understood that he was a worthless warrior, but his country was good, and with small efforts great prosperity could be achieved; a sort of Switzerland – boring, but safe. Once the BBC did a survey and declared the Swiss city of Basel the most boring city in the world, to which the Swiss said: “We worked a long time for this to be the most boring city in the world.” Yissachar wants boredom, so he just lives, works. And he decides: how great it is – to live peacefully. If someone has to fight for me, I will either pay my brothers or come to terms with the enemies. He chose such a path of neutrality and economic prosperity. It was told that people came to the Holy Land, came precisely to Yissachar's allotment and saw how developed Yissachar's agriculture was, what wonderful fruits there were, and then they made arrangements with Zevulun to buy these fruits from Yissachar. That is how their trade went. Besides that, Yissachar also studied Torah. And here there is this understanding: Yissachar studied Torah, and this very happiness – to study Torah, that is how one can understand it – he saw in tranquility, and therefore he shared the reward for his Torah with the tribe of Zevulun, and the tribe of Zevulun brought him from abroad foreign tasty yummies. Several different understandings, but I think that (this can be seen from the further history) Yissachar did not want to go to war, he wanted to solve the problem with money, with financing, to live in the rear, and there is actually nothing bad in this.

The last one we will talk about in this passage – Dan.

Why does Yaakov say this? Because he begins to speak with the sons of the slave women, and despite the fact that Dan is the son of a slave woman and someone may say that he is a second-class little brother, Yaakov corrects all this here. He says that Dan will judge, will take part in governing. To judge is not necessarily a court in the sense of a court session, it is legislation and governance. Dan is admitted to governing the country exactly like all the other brothers. Regarding Dan the question always comes up (people ask me): why is he not in the book of Revelation? The sons of Dan, I will tell you a secret, are already not listed in the book of Divrei haYamim. That is, despite the fact that for some time the tribe of Dan was very large (it began with one person, a son of Dan named Chushim, and then grew), in the end the tribe almost disappeared, and it is no longer in Divrei haYamim, it is not mentioned everywhere, this tribe. But here Yaakov says that he will judge, as one of the tribes of his people.

The roadside snake that is mentioned here is a kind of Palestinian snake, it is called the horned viper. The horned viper really does hide in the sand, by the road. The snake is often found in the allotment of the tribe of Dan, its bite is very strong, it is very venomous. When it bites a horse or a camel, this is not enough to kill the horse or the camel, let alone an elephant, but the animal falls backward at the moment of the bite. This is what Yaakov will describe right here. So, this is the horned viper, or, as it is also called in Latin, Cerastes cerastes (kerastes kerastes) – not once kerastes, but precisely twice it is repeated. It is interesting that the word shefifon, or, as we said, kerastes, was known both to the Greeks and to the Egyptians (in fact, shefifon is what the Egyptians called it). From this animal, as from a coiled little snake, came the Egyptian little letter phi, which we would also read here if this were written in Egyptian names. And the Greek letter phi also came from this letter, and the Russian letter ef also came from the name of the little snake coiled up by the road (fifon), which lies in wait for ill-meaning travelers. The tribe of Dan has an allotment in the north, will receive an allotment in the north (and from the north Israel will constantly be attacked). And the tribe of Dan is placed there, two hundred fifty – three hundred versts from Tel Aviv, to set up a firm bolt, a barrier against any enemy who tries to attack us. And this is Dan's task, and about him it is said further:

…he will bite the heels of horses (horses do not exactly have heels, but there is somewhere to bite), and chariots will fall backward.

That is, the horses themselves will rear up and fall backward, and will bring down the chariots behind them. Where Dan lacks physical strength, cunning, technologies, possibly biotechnologies will be applied in the defense of the country of Israel.

Yaakov ends the blessing or promise to Dan with the words:

Look how different Yaakov's sons are: the first is a revolutionary; the second and third are partisans, masters of self-defense; the fourth is a future king, but still with his own complications. So, each of the sons is special, for each of them one can pray in a special way. It is precisely regarding Dan that Yaakov has a special concern, and he ends Dan's blessing with a prayer of deliverance: “On Your deliverance alone do I hope, Most High.” That is, despite the fact that Dan will be so “tough,” and he will be able to sting animals, Yaakov nevertheless hopes only in the deliverance of the Most High.

Last time we began reading the blessing with which Yaakov, almost right before his death, blesses his sons. We read that Yaakov gathers all his sons without exception and speaks to his sons as a community of people, as a newborn people, passes on a blessing to each tribe, to each of his sons.

He begins with Re'uven and says that, although Re'uven has all the legal rights to lead, he should not lead, because he has hastiness, impulsiveness in reaction, and harm will come from his leading.

Then Yaakov says about two other sons of his, Shimon and Levi, that they are good brothers, but good separately. When they are together, Yaakov cannot be among them, Yaakov cannot join either their counsel on the level of thoughts, plans, or their action on the level of carrying out these plans, because they are wrathful and cruel when they are together.

The fourth son, Yehuda, receives a special blessing. Yaakov says that the brothers themselves laid on him the hands of their blessing, enthroned him over themselves, and from above he is blessed for this. Yehuda receives the kingdom as an inheritance, receives all kinds of blessings of abundance, and this is such a very beautiful, poetic blessing that Yehuda receives.

Next, Zevulun receives a blessing. About Zevulun it is said that he will live by the sea, will live by maritime trade, and many deals, everything connected with maritime trade, will be carried out through Zevulun.

About Yissachar it is said that he has a special blessing – a rich, luxurious land, and he loves this tranquility, works long in order to have a calm, boring country, a calm, boring life. Therefore if someone wants to fight, it is better and simpler for Yissachar to pay than to enter into war.

Dan, the first of the sons mentioned who is the son of a slave woman, and Yaakov immediately says that Dan will be like one of all, that is, this division into sons of slave women and sons of wives is canceled, disappears. Dan becomes like one of all, Dan receives a blessing. Yaakov points to his ability to act with such tactical multi-move combinations. Yaakov compares him with an animal that in Hebrew is called shefifon, or the horned viper, which, not having much strength to kill a horse with its bite, stings the horse so that it falls backward and kills its rider. And so at this blessing, at Dan's blessing, we stopped last time, now we can continue.

From verse 19 – the blessing of Gad. It sounds very beautiful in Hebrew, it is an untranslatable play on words, one can hear and feel it.

Gad gedud yegudennu – this is a play on words. Such an unexpected trait Gad has – to win a war at the last moment, to fight back at the last moment, to fix the situation at the last moment. This concerns not only war, it concerns the situation when we put something off for later, cannot cope with something, the bustle arrays itself against us, and at the last moment, on the last night, we finish something. Gad as part of the Jewish people is an instrument, the ability to fix things at the last moment, to carry out certain actions; such is his unusual blessing.

In verse 20 – the blessing of Asher.

Oily bread – bread soaked in oil. Indeed, Asher will be engaged in the production of olives, his allotment will be rich in olives, and everything connected with the production of oil, of olive products, the processing of olive oil – everything will be in Asher's share.

Delicacies are part of the culinary luxury, the culinary abundance that the land of Israel gives: not what gives satiety as such, but what gives taste; not what satisfies simple people, but what satisfies refined, pampered kings. That is, the land of Israel does not simply give bread, cabbage soup and porridge, but through Asher, in Asher's allotment (Asher is also connected with the word ósher, happiness) there is beauty, there are the delicacies of a king.

One of the understandings (and since we have already spoken about the fact that the word bread often recalls flesh or a woman) is that in the tribe of Asher there will be handsome young men and beautiful girls. We remember, when Asher was born, his mom blessed him and said: “What a cutie, all the daughters of the world will bless me,” that is, among other things beauty, aesthetics, all this will be connected with Asher. Such is the blessing he receives.

Naftali. Naftali's blessing is distinguished by the fact that there is a dispute over every one of the words used in it.

Ayalá sheluchá can mean a hind or a doe set free, or a free doe. It can also mean a budding terebinth, the turpentine tree, a tree of the pistachio family, a very beautiful tree from which balsamic remedies were made. Mostly we see that Yaakov uses the names of animals in his blessing, therefore one can say that here, after all, it is specifically a doe that is meant. But perhaps Yaakov departed from this tradition and mentioned here a beautiful fragrant tree.

Here one can understand: Imre-sháfer, imra can be a beautiful shoot, like the shoots on a branch, or it can be a beautiful expression, from the word lemór, to say beautiful phrases. Imre-sháfer – these are winged phrases, this is beautiful speech. And the commentators say that perhaps he will provide fragrances that will anoint people, and people will remember the beautiful, kind feelings will be awakened by the lyre and by the scents that will be produced by Naftali. But perhaps it is a doe, graceful, beautiful, which evokes delight. One can say that, following Asher, Naftali too is connected with a certain aesthetic, with bringing aesthetics into the world.

With verse 22 Yosef's blessing begins. It too is written in very complex language, and some expressions are disputed. So, Yaakov begins and says:

Ben porát can be translated as a wild donkey in light of what we have already said about animals; another meaning of ben porát is a fruitful son, a son who yields the biggest, the most abundant fruits; a third option, ben porát – this is a son of the river Prat, covered by the river Prat, hidden from every evil eye, from every magical influence, protected from people's envy. And the expression ale-áyin can mean by the spring.

The girls' favorite, Yosef. And we have seen this, and we know, we have read that about Yosef, the only boy, it is written that he is a handsome boy (God does not write in vain). Indeed, apparently, Yosef enjoyed popularity with the girls, and this was not very good. Beauty is not always a blessing, and we read in verse 23:

Perhaps there is a hint here at, actually, Potifar's guard service; but most likely Yosef himself always went about with a guard, after he became Pharaoh's right hand. Around him there were always some people who wanted to push him out of his post in every way, to take his place, and many conspiracies were built against him, starting with the conspiracy of Potifar's wife herself and ending with conspiracies we do not even know about; but such is the fate of politicians.

Perhaps the stone of Israel (éven yisraél) is not only a stone, a support of Israel. Perhaps also, as the commentators say: “Even – is av u ben, the bond of father and son, the filial bond of son and father. The word éven, stone consists, as it were, of two words written overlapping: av (father) and ben(son). If you read the first and second letter you get av; if you read the second and third, you get ben”. Yosef's bond with his father, with Yaakov, according to this opinion, strengthened him. One can say that éven, as a stone – is also what symbolizes the bond of father and son, of Israel and the Most High, later also of Mashiach and the Most High. That is, faithfulness, unity with the father – this is, perhaps, what also preserved Yosef's bow, kept Yosef's arms strong. He received his support from there, he received support from that stone. This can also be connected with the stone that Yaakov set up as a matzeva, when he saw the ladder, and when he was returning to Luz, in which this stone was set up. Of course, it was not the stone by itself that helped him and, of course, God is not called a stone in the literal sense of the word.

That is, the whole universe from top to bottom will be a blessing for Yosef, no part of the universe will oppose him. Everywhere the power of the Most High is revealed, there Yaakov gives a blessing to Yosef; this is a very strong, all-encompassing blessing.

The blessing of the breast and the womb – the blessing of what can beget, and of what can nurse, the creative power and the ordering, correcting power. All this Yaakov gives Yosef through the blessing. In some cases later we will read réchem veshadáyim, womb and breast; but here – breast and womb, because poetically it is arranged more beautifully this way, this way the rhythm is kept: the ability to nurse and the ability to give birth; the ability to feed what exists and the ability to bring into the world what exists. After all, Yosef, it is said – is the one who will add, the one who will bring in something new, and this is one of the facets of the name Yosef.

That is one way to translate it. But the Targums translate it like this: “the blessings…will be joined (again yitvasfú, after Yosef's name) to the blessings of my parents”. Not only in space, from top to bottom (not only the anatomy of the earth, the power of the earth, the power that gives birth and the power that nurses), but also in time all the blessings of the fathers will be joined to my blessing.

…and as by the passion of the hills of the earth, to the envy of the earthly hills, this blessing will abide on Yosef's head, on the crown of the most chosen of the brothers.

The most beautiful blessing, the deepest, Yosef receives here. The whole universe blesses Yosef, everything is attuned to his blessing. We know that this is also a prototype of Mashiach, who will abide, “the most chosen of the brothers.”

This is the end of verse 26. In verse 27 we read the blessing of Binyamin. Binyamin is the youngest of Yaakov's sons, and about him it is said:

Binyamin lives by small military operations, by daily work, but on the other hand he does not overwork himself. Early in the morning he will go out, and get his prey.

Many historians say that the tribe of Binyamin lived near the caravan route and was engaged, among other things, in attacking caravans or guarding caravans – as it happened, and was also engaged in all kinds of plundering of the plunderers, and so on. That is, the tribe of Binyamin lives by war, by hired short-term work, but earns pretty decently. This we see, and further on in Scripture we will see, that about the tribe of Binyamin (despite the fact that it is small, despite the fact that, it would seem, well, whom of the brothers here should one call a wolf, after all Binyamin throughout the whole book of Bereshit seems such a weakling), it is precisely about him that Yaakov speaks, reveals in him a wolf's strength, a wolf's grip, it is precisely his descendants who will be warriors.

And with this, actually, Yaakov's blessing ends, and we read:

I have already spoken about this, that it is impossible to bless all sons, all people the same way. What seems a blessing to one will not be a blessing at all for another. Yaakov shows here – maybe it seemed to us that he is detached from his family, does not watch over his sons – Yaakov shows us here that he knows the nature of his sons well, and he is inspired by the spirit of each of his sons, and instructs with a blessing corresponding to each.

In verse 33 we say goodbye to Yaakov. For the greater part of the book of Bereshit he was with us; the greater part of the book of Bereshit is devoted to the story of Yaakov. But we read:

There is such a strange verb: he finished his path, finished his sufferings, and joined his people. The book of Bereshit is coming almost to its very end, and we begin a sad farewell to its heroes.

We are finishing our study of the weekly portion Vayechi. Together with it we are also finishing our study of the whole book of Bereshit, the first book of the Torah. We stopped at the point where Yaakov blessed his children, each with his own special blessing, gathered his feet onto the bed and died.

Many commentators are troubled, because in modern Jewish tradition there is no custom of kissing the dead. It is held that a dead person, however righteous he may have been, is unclean, and this is touching something unclean, and the question is asked why Yosef kissed him. Tradition says that Yaakov, as a righteous man, did not entirely die, that the body of a righteous man does not entirely defile. But one can also say that in those times people did not yet live absolutely according to the Torah. Yosef, in a burst of feeling, kisses his father, who has only just died and is still warm, and there is probably no point in looking for anything surprising in this.

The word chanut means mummy. Literally lachanot means to unfold, to form a bud. When the Egyptians made mummies, they accordingly made something from which new life would later unfold, they made a body that is destined for new life. Hence a certain consonance, although the word is not Semitic. Many commentators say that lachanot – is precisely to prepare a little bud or a little shoot. But all the same the direct, simple meaning of the Torah also remains, that chanita is the preparation of a mummy.

Commentators say, and there is a certain historical truth in this, that when they usually prepared the body of the deceased for mummification, they took out the internal organs: first they pulled the brain out through the nostrils, then they made an incision and took out the internal abdominal organs, filled the space with all kinds of potions and so on. Commentators say: “Since this contradicts the very spirit of Judaism, this is alien to Jews, and since Yosef surely believed in the resurrection of the dead, the embalming of Yaakov followed a special tradition, his internal organs were not taken out.” Such a question is asked, and it is hard for us to accept that Yaakov, the Patriarch of the people of Israel, was and became an Egyptian mummy. Usually one wants this not to have been an ordinary mummy, hence such ideas. It is quite possible that it was so. There is a great deal of varied information about various methods of mummification in Egypt; it is fragmentary, but there is a lot of it, and that makes it all the more difficult to understand.

Herodotus reports that they mummified over the course of seventy days; others give the number fifty days, ninety days. In a rather late period a historian, the author of the first books on world history, a man by the name of Diodorus of Sicily, who, as it is not hard to guess, lived in Sicily, writes in his history of Egypt that they mummified for forty to forty-two days (this is what fits here) and then the mummy was left and given over to mourning for another thirty days. And if we read further:

…and the Egyptians mourned him seventy days

One can say: forty and thirty days of mourning. For thirty days, we remember, they wept for Moshe and for Aharon, this is a well-known tradition. Together that makes seventy days of mourning.

One may ask: why does Yosef not come to Pharaoh in person? Apparently, before, he calmly – well, he did not kick open the door to Pharaoh, but he had access to Pharaoh. Why does Yosef now speak with the house of Pharaoh? Perhaps because 12 years have already passed since the famine, Yosef is no longer such a needed person in the house of Pharaoh, and the connection has weakened. Another reason is also possible: that Yosef is still in mourning clothes, he is in sackcloth, and it is not fitting for him to appear before Pharaoh like that. Therefore he looks for someone through whom to speak, and turns to the servants, to the secretariat of the house of Pharaoh, and says to them:

… if I have found favor in your eyes, speak into Pharaoh's ear, saying (that is, convey this to Pharaoh):

We said last time that Yaakov did not simply ask or bequeath to his son Yosef to bury him not in Egypt but in the cave of Machpela, which Avraham bought, but put him under an oath. Now is just the time to make use of this. To Pharaoh Yosef says: “I swore to my dying father.” This is a valid reason for saying: well, father wanted it so, and therefore we are burying him not in Egypt. What can one do, Pharaoh is after all a man who respects traditions, and besides, the old relationship with Yosef obliges him, and he had seen Yaakov, and Yaakov in his time had blessed him.

The house of the father, we said, is the wives of the sons. So, there went up: Yosef, the Egyptian household servants, the Egyptian elders, all the Egyptian workers and intelligentsia, Yosef's brothers and their wives.

…only their little children, and their small livestock, and their large livestock they left in the land of Goshen.

Here we can see that they still live in the land of Goshen. When we begin studying the book of Shemot, this will be important and interesting for us. It is interesting that the Pharaohs gradually moved the capital to Ramses, closer to the land of Goshen. That is exactly why, as we will read in the book of Shemot, Miryam did not run for long after the ark along the bank of the Nile. If they had cast off the ark in the land of Goshen, and the capital had been the old one, poor Miryam would have had to run some two hundred kilometers. The Jews stayed in the land of Goshen, but the capital moved. Well, this is not really relevant to the matter right now, I am getting ahead of myself.

That is, it is not simply that Yosef takes a little coffin with Yaakov and goes up to the land of Israel to bury him. A huge procession is going, with heavy equipment, with horsemen and, apparently, with a large quantity of valuables. All this sets out in the direction of the land of Israel.

A threshing floor is not simply a place where grain is sifted, that is only one of the meanings. It is a wide place in a valley, always the widest place in a valley, a very convenient place. Many researchers, historians, say that this is in the area of present-day Yericho (and later we will say a little bit more about this).

Here it is not very clear whether they crossed the Jordan, and it was across the Jordan from them, or whether it is the author, who is in the land of Israel, who writes to us that it was at the crossing of the Jordan. But most likely the first. They crossed the Jordan, and had only just entered the land of Israel, and the mourning continued. Why? Because most likely, according to the traditions of that time, the Yishmaelites joined, and the descendants of Esav, and all those who had not been in Egypt joined the funeral procession. When someone joins a funeral procession, the mourning is renewed, some even tear their clothes again. There are such moving moments at funerals, when everyone is again seized by an intensifying pain. So, they crossed the Jordan:

…and there they held a mourning, a lamentation, great and heavy, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

Seven days – these are to this day the days of mourning that a believing Jew sits for people close to him: for a father, for a wife, for a mother, for a son, for a daughter, God forbid. This is connected both with the seven days of Creation and simply with the symbolic number seven, there are many different interpretations of this. And when we get married, we also hold seven days of blessing. The most obvious parallel, as I said, is with the seven days of Creation.

Indeed, in the land of Israel there are several dozen places whose name contains the word avél (mourning). Most often they contain cemeteries, and in this area, which historians have identified as Avél Mitzráyim, and in several other areas nearby there are burials of Egyptians. Egypt occupied the land of Israel for some time, and they did not bury their servicemen, did not bring them down to Egypt, did not bury them in “tombs of the unknown soldier,” but built small burial sites for them, and there are several of these in the land of Israel, including there, near Jericho. Possibly, later on, an Egyptian cemetery arose there after the name of this place.

Why is this important now? We talked about this back then too. Avraham wanted it to be not farmland, which would depend on the cultivation of the soil, but specifically a burial possession. And therefore it could be kept for all that time while Israel was not cultivating this soil and was absent from Chevron altogether.

That is, Yosef, as he had promised Pharaoh, returned to Egypt. It was not as hostages, of course, that they left the children and the livestock behind, but because it was hard for them to go up with children. And a question arises (it actually arises not only here, it arises earlier too): why then did they not go up right away, as soon as the famine ended? The famine ended, it was possible to return to the land of Israel, they even had some property there which could have been used somehow. Nevertheless the people stay, they have settled down in Egypt, and in this there is the design and the providence of the Most High.

In verse 15 we read something strange:

Well, they did not see this only now, they had gone to bury him, after all. What is meant is that as soon as they saw that he had died, they thought what will now be told.

…and they said, they said to themselves: “Now Yosef will surely hate us, and for all the bad that we did to him, now he will surely settle accounts with us.”

We remember that even Esav was tactful enough, and said: “When Dad dies, and when we have mourned him, then I will kill Yaakov.” And the brothers understand that yes, Yosef could hold back so as not to start a vendetta in the family during Dad's lifetime, but now he will certainly take revenge on them. The brothers thought for a long time, probably, and here is what they came up with.

What does they commanded Yosef mean? They do not seem to be in a position to command Yosef. Most likely, they spoke through Bilha, that is, they found some way of getting at Yosef and through Bilha began to pass on to him what Yaakov had never said, this is their own initiative.

… “your father promised before his death, saying:

What was he weeping about? Was he weeping because he guessed that Yaakov had not said any such thing? Perhaps they thought that Yaakov had told him, but he had not told him. And here it is evident that the brothers pulled out this argument because they were afraid that Yosef would take revenge on them, and, most likely, Yaakov bequeathed nothing of the sort. Or Yosef wept because he understood that the brothers still think of him like this. Or Yosef wept simply because he remembered everything that had gone on in his family in general, and there was, there was reason for Yosef to weep.

He said the very same phrase that his father had once said to his mother, when his mother asked, said: “Give me children, or I will die.” And Yaakov said then: “I am not in the place of God, who has closed your womb.” Yosef repeats the very same phrase and says: “I am not in the place of God, to punish you. God governs this world, to him belong vengeance and recompense. I will not in any way either punish you or judge you.”

The root óchel – food, to feed, from here also the root kalkalá -economy.

What a height of spirit Yosef has, that he not only forgives his brothers magnanimously, but also persuades them that he has forgiven them. Here is someone from whom one can learn the power of forgiveness, both when it is needed, and when it is fitting, and when the forgiveness is from God.

Pay attention, the people of that time handed out their testaments, gave their instructions with a warm hand, were aware of the approach of death, were ready for it and settled their affairs before dying. Therefore Yosef, like Yaakov, says:

…but the LORD will visit you with a visitation, will keep you, and will bring you up from this land to the land about which he swore to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.

Yosef often says (he said this to his father too, when Yaakov asked: “Who is this?”): “These are my children, whom the LORD gave me in this, here, in this land”. And here he says: “Bring up my bones ‘from hereabouts,’ one could say in simple language, without mentioning Egypt, saying that this is some intermediate place, some stopover, which one need not even mention, although Yosef in Egypt is an important figure.

The last verse of the book of Bereshit:

Such is the quick end to a long story. The whole history of the universe, and then the history of the creation of the Jewish people, the whole life of the Fathers – in the book of Bereshit.

We will dwell on the conversation of Yaakov and Yosef. Yaakov asks Yosef not to bury him in Egypt. Yaakov says to him: “Put your hand under my thigh.” This means to swear. And when Yosef answers him, Yosef says simply: “I will do as you have said.” Then Yaakov repeats the request to swear, he says: “Swear.” And Yosef swears.

In the Torah, a little earlier, there is a similar request of Avraham. In chapter 24 of the book of Bereshit Avraham says to Eliezer: “Put your hand under my thigh, and I will take an oath from you before the LORD.” And what does the slave do? In verse 9 of the same chapter it is written: “The slave put his hand under Avraham's thigh and gave him an oath.” We see a certain difference. Avraham's slave Eliezer immediately takes the oath. Unlike him, Yosef first simply says: “I will do as you have said.” Only later, at his father's request, does Yosef nevertheless give an oath. Why such a difference?

Jewish commentators say that this is the difference between a slave and a son. A slave is an unfree person. He has to be bound, as with shackles, by the promise of an oath. He cannot do anything freely. Unlike him, a son is a free person and can himself practice obedience, obey his father. Therefore it was enough for Yosef simply to answer: “I will do according to your word.” He did not have to swear. And still, then it is unclear why Yaakov insists on the oath.

In order to find the answer to this question, we need to turn to the conversation of Yosef and Pharaoh later on. Yosef, standing before Pharaoh, is an unfree person. He has very great power, but he is still a slave. Yosef says to Pharaoh, he begins his address to Pharaoh with the words: “My father bound me by an oath.” Yosef could not come to Pharaoh and say: “My father asked me.” He could not even say: “I promised.” This is important, but it is not a sufficient argument for Pharaoh. Therefore Yosef comes to Pharaoh and says: “I am now already not free. My father bound me by an oath.” To Pharaoh this is very understandable. This is one more important argument for Pharaoh. Besides everything else that Yosef will say later so that Pharaoh would agree. That is, the oath that Yaakov asked of Yosef is needed for Yosef's relationship with Pharaoh, and not for the father.

In this one can see a parallel that Yeshua speaks about. Yeshua speaks about slaves and sons. A slave is an unfree person, a son is a free person. Both of them obey their master, their father. So Eliezer did what Avraham asked him, and Yosef did what his father asked him. And exactly the same is the relationship with the law given by the Most High. When the people were in the state of slaves, they were bound by an oath. In Yeshua there is sonship and there is no oath. But this does not cancel obedience, this does not cancel the necessity to keep the law. Only the son keeps the law voluntarily, without being bound by an oath.

What has changed since the moment Yeshua came? Paul speaks about this. A person was a slave of sin, and because of this was in subjection to the sinful nature, just as Yosef was in subjection to Pharaoh. In order to be able to overcome one's sinful nature, one had to say to it: “I am bound by an oath.” The death and resurrection of Yeshua destroyed this dependence, and the relationship became a relationship of God and sons. Therefore an oath is no longer required. Simple promises are enough. As Yosef says: “I will do according to your words.” But this does not mean that there is no necessity of obedience. Therefore we, not being bound by an oath, are all the same obliged to fulfill the law, because this is the will of the Father, whom we love

This weekly portion contains especially many blessings. It is almost entirely devoted to blessings. First we read that Yaakov blesses Yosef, Efrayim and Menashe. Then we read that Yaakov gathers all his sons, who are already no longer young. These are not children, these are already grown sons. One can say he gathers the first assembly of the people of Israel and blesses each tribe with its own blessing.

But these blessings, if we look at them, are not very similar to the blessings we are used to seeing. This is not the blessing: “Be healthy, I wish you happiness in your personal life, may you have a lot of money, so that you prosper or so that your teeth do not hurt.” There are almost no such blessings. The blessings that Yaakov gives are some kind of tools, advice that he gives to his sons in order to unlock their positive potential or, on the contrary, so as not to unlock their negative potential. After all, a person's ability not to harm himself is also a great blessing.

Yaakov begins by blessing Efrayim and Menashe. This is not simply a blessing. Yaakov says: “In all the generations of the people of Israel they will always bless sons: ‘May the Most High set you like Efrayim and like Menashe.’” And to this day it is so. When I come home and my son comes up to me, I bless him: “May the Most High bless you, and set you like Efrayim and like Menashe.” Girls we bless and say: “May you be like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea. May the Most High make you so.” We do not say about sons: “Be like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, like Aharon and Moshe, like King David.” Nothing of the kind. We say, as the Patriarch Yaakov decreed, established the tradition: “Be like Efrayim and Menashe.” What is so special about Efrayim and Menashe that by their name, Yaakov tells Yosef, they will bless in Israel?

We know very little about these people, almost nothing. What do we know about Efrayim and about Menashe? That they are Yosef's children, that they grew up in Egypt. This is the first reason. The ability to raise children who, even in a foreign environment, even among unbelievers, people of other faiths, people who oppose them, keep their faith, keep their upbringing. The strength of Efrayim and Menashe is the ability to be outsiders and to remain outsiders, to keep your culture, your faith, the faith of your people, even when you are a courtier in Egypt. Egyptian culture is so attractive, and it is so great to plunge into it and finally become one of them.

One more reason for the blessing like Efrayim and Menashe, which the sages explain, is that for the first time in history in general and in the book of Bereshit a grandfather blesses grandchildren. They say, and more than once I have had occasion to hear it: “That Jew whose grandchildren will be Jews is truly a believer, he who manages not only to raise his own children as believers, under the stick or somehow, but whose children also manage to raise their children as believers.” Yaakov sees his believing grandchildren. Of course, these are not his first grandchildren. We know that when Yaakov goes down to Egypt, Yaakov's numerous descendants are also listed. But these again are those who kept the faith among outsiders. This is the ability of a generation to preserve itself, the ability of a grandson to come to his grandfather and take over the tradition. And this too is one of the facets of the blessing, of why we bless like Efrayim and Menashe.

One more interesting view, which says that Efrayim and Menashe are different people. There are physicists, there are lyricists, there are humanities people, there are techies, people come in different makeups. When a child comes up to us, we do not yet know who he is, we do not know what soul lives in him, with what talents the Most High has endowed him. Therefore, if my three-year-old child comes up to me and I say to him: “May the Most High make you a dentist or a violinist, or a writer,” I do not know whether the Most High wants this. Whether I am watering the flower that actually grows in my son's soul. Efrayim and Menashe are precisely two opposites. One is a “nerd,” the one who is able to study Torah, entirely immersed in the world of learning. The other is immersed in the embodiment of the idea in this world. He occupies himself with virtue, with charity, he has social programs running. And we bless our children: “If you are Efrayim, may you be blessed like Efrayim. If you are Menashe, then may you be blessed like Menashe.” Each one with his own blessing. Yaakov is the first who gives children different blessings in accordance with their nature, in accordance with the nature of each of them, and he teaches us this too. When we bless, we do not simply bless: “Be happy.” We give a blessing, advice, which with God's help our son (or daughter) will hold to and which will help him (or her) in life.

And one more, a fourth reason. Perhaps the most important. Throughout the whole history of the book of Bereshit we have read how brothers are hostile to each other, beginning with Kayin and Hevel. Then we read how Yishmael had to be sent away, far from Yitzchak, how Yaakov fled from Esav and hid from him. We read how the brothers sold Yosef. The whole book of Bereshit is permeated with the envy of brothers toward one another, with the difficulty of accepting (it is very hard to accept) that someone is loved more than you. Perhaps the first to do this was Yehuda, who, standing before the Egyptian official, not knowing that it was Yosef, said: “Here is our father, and here he has a beloved son. And we are not very beloved, but we love our father all the same. We accept that our father loves his children unequally.” Efrayim and Menashe are the first two brothers who kept peace between themselves, between whom there are no quarrels, no divisions. This is the first generation of people who are not hostile. The first true Israelites, the first true disciples, who have love among themselves and do not have enmity among themselves.

When we bless the children, I say to my son: “May the Most High make you Efrayim and Menashe, able not to be hostile with your brothers, not to envy your brothers.” This is very important advice.

There are also blessings that at first glance seem to us to be curses. For example, we read the blessing of Re'uven. Yaakov says to him: “You are the first of my strength, you are my firstborn, you are my might, but you are spontaneous, hasty, impulsive, unrestrained in your actions, therefore do not lead, do not take leadership positions. Do you see how much destruction you can bring in leadership positions?” This too is a blessing. A blessing is not only when a person is told what he should do, but also when he is told what he should not do. And in this case Re'uven was told: “You cannot be a leader.”

We spoke about two brothers – Efrayim and Menashe. How great it is when brothers are together! But we read in this same portion the blessing (someone will now call this word into question) of Shimon and Levi. Yaakov says: “Shimon and Levi are brothers, into their council my soul will not enter, because they are an instrument of wrath in their hands, because…” And so on. Everyone surely remembers these words. Yaakov says: “Shimon and Levi are brothers. You are wonderful guys, precisely as brothers, but when you are together, you are dangerous for each other. In your joint affairs I do not want to take part, I will scatter you, I will divide you.” Like a teacher separates two good boys who misbehave together. In the end Levi is not that bad after all, he received a huge, important service. I myself, as a kohen, as a descendant of Levi, can say this. From tradition we know that the descendants of Shimon were occupied with teaching children. They too went wandering about among the tribes of Israel. The tribe of Shimon is surrounded on all sides on the map by the tribe of Yehuda. It is as if isolated from everyone. Wonderful guys separately. Together, please, don't be friends. Be brothers, but don't start joint undertakings. This too is important advice, an important recommendation for life. This is the part of the blessings in which Yaakov says how, actually, to remain blessed, how to keep this blessing.

And only to his fourth son, Yehuda, Yaakov says:

Yaakov connects the word Yehuda by a play on words with the word יַד(yad) to lay a hand on someone. “You the brothers appointed as leader. You yourself stood out from the crowd as a leader.” This is not only an instruction to Yehuda. This is an instruction in this case to all the brothers, to all of Israel, that by his leadership qualities, by his abilities to take responsibility, in critical situations a leader is determined. A blessing is thus not the translation, when we read the word “blessing,” the translation of the Russian word, the translation of the Latin word benediction – to bless, to speak good words. “Happy birthday, we wish you happiness in your personal life. Pooh.” That is a blessing in the Russian language. A blessing in Hebrew is the word בְּרָכָה(bracha), the word to join, to be a little knee joint. It is what gives a person the tools to be joined to the Most High.

If for Efrayim and Menashe the main thing is unity, the absence of enmity, between Shimon and Levi there is no enmity, they get along excellently with each other, but this is not good for those around them. Therefore Yaakov says: “You who are so close, I will divide.” And this too is a blessing.

And the nature of blessing lies in the fact that not everyone is blessed in the same way. Some are to be together, some are to be apart. The authority of the father, the leading of the Spirit that Yaakov had, revealed this.

And this portion not only contains blessings that are important, useful, interesting, but also ones that are mysterious and incomprehensible, because, I confess honestly, not only I, but anyone who has read this book can say that the blessings are written in an incomprehensible, very beautiful poetic language. When you read, it takes your breath away, but not everything that is written in them is understandable. A blessing is our vision regarding each of the children, the development of his nature, not ours, but his nature. It is what we have seen in him, it is help for him to find out what he is. And the story is not about what to be, but about how to be, about how to live with God, how to keep the relationship with God and what is needed for this in very, very practical things, on the level of being together or keeping apart, leading or not leading. The most practical advice, which becomes blessings in Yaakov's mouth. Such is one of the important lessons of our weekly portion.

One of the main themes of the weekly portion Vayechi is blessings. And probably this is a good occasion to talk about blessings. We all love it when we are blessed. We love to bless, we want to be blessed by the Most High. As a happy father of children, I want to also be a father of happy children. And I believe that the blessing of the Most High is the key to their happiness.

In a Jewish family it is customary to bless the children every Sabbath. When the family sits down in the evening at the Sabbath table, the children come up to the father and the father blesses them.

Blessing the boys, we say: “May the Most High set you up like Efrayim and Menashe.” This is the fulfillment of a sort of commandment that Yaakov-Yisrael gave before his son Yosef. We read about this in Bereshit (48:20):

Our forefather Yaakov said that this is how we will bless our sons, wishing that the Most High set them up like Efrayim and Menashe.

When we bless our daughters, we say: “May the Most High set you up like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea.” Like our four foremothers.

Actually, it is precisely the life of our foremothers that is described in the book of Bereshit. It is precisely their family life that is described in the greatest detail. Nowhere else in the whole Tanach do we see such great attention to family life. Moshe hardly speaks with Tzippora. And nowhere else can we observe married life as closely as in the book of Bereshit. And it is not surprising that the blessing is based on the life of the foremothers.

We want our children to be like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea. Like all four at the same time. How can that be?

Once my daughter, who had already grown up a bit, asked me: “Dad, really, Sara is a woman with a very hard life, she was barren for a long time. And with Avraham not everything is simple. Rivka, Rachel, Lea – are these women really that happy? Do you really want me to repeat their fate in some way?” And I want to reveal a little the meaning of the blessing, when we bless our daughters and want them to be like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea. We, of course, do not want them to be barren for a long time, or to be given to Pharaoh, or to have to organize some intrigue against their husband, or to be married off by deception, or for something else like that to happen to them.

What, actually, is this about?

Every woman, every person in their family life passes through stages, through situations connected with the union of Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea. One can formulate it this way: before every girl in family life the tasks of Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea may arise. And we want to give her a blessing in carrying out these tasks.

Let's begin and look at what Sara's family life is. What is special about Sara's family life? Well, of course, barrenness, the long wait for a child. Sara followed Avraham. And the sages say that Avraham had a promise, the Most High spoke with him. Sara went even without a promise. Sara went on purely female intuition.

The Most High says to Avraham (Bereshit 21:12):

The sages say: “Sara, the foremother, is greater than Avraham in prophecy.” In the sense that Avraham did indeed receive prophecy and the Most High spoke with him. Sara has an intuition, she is as if, as the sages say, anointed with the Holy Spirit. This is a quote from Jewish sources. She is led by the Spirit and on purely female intuition senses what the Most High wants. In this sense she is greater than Avraham in prophecy.

We can notice one more interesting detail when the Most High gives the spouses new names. (Bereshit 17:5):

About Sara it is said somewhat differently (Bereshit 17:15).

She is already Sara. That you call her Sarai is by mistake. Sarai – it sounds a little bit with a possessive pronoun – my princess. It can also be understood as a diminutive suffix – little princess. And some interpret it from an entirely different root altogether – grumbler, picky one.

Sara is the ruler. She already has power. Do not call her Sarai. This is not her name, it is an optical illusion of sight that she is Sarai, it only seems so to you. She is Sara.

You will only become Avraham, for now you are Avram. You will be Avraham, you are becoming Avraham, she already was Sara. This is Sara's special trait. She is stronger than her husband. As is often said, behind every successful man stands a strong woman. A strong woman – that is Sara, able to stand firm in different situations, able to give support to her husband in different situations, if he needs to be pushed to some action. The price of this strength, as often happens, is loneliness. I think that one of the characteristic features of the relationship between Sara and Avraham is this – Sara is a lonely woman. She often has to stand alone, one on one, against now Pharaoh, now Avimelech.

In Bereshit 23:2 we read that Sara died:

There are midrashim saying that at this time Avraham was at the sacrifice of Yitzchak. One way or another, Sara was alone when she died. Alone. Loneliness is an inseparable part of her life.

What does this mean for us, for our daughters? Is this a blessing at all, or a curse? Sometimes it is necessary, one has to do something alone, so that your husband may succeed. Sometimes, for success, one has to be alone, one has to be strong, to be a dependable home front, if the husband is fighting the right war. And the Most High has to bless it, so that it is not: “Ugh, I'm alone again.” So that it is in love for the husband and in the striving to see in his success her own success. This is a very difficult situation, one in which any woman may find herself, and indeed any man may find himself in it too.

In the Talmud, in tractate Bava Batra, an amazing story is told about Rabbi Bana, who was occupied with painting caves. As they say, painted coffins. He painted the coffins so that those who go from Babylon and from other countries to Jerusalem to worship would not enter an unclean place and become defiled. They are painted. They are beautiful, but one paints them so that people do not come near them; they warn of uncleanness. And so this man, Rabbi Bana, painted coffins and once went into the cave Me'arát ha-Machpelá, where Avraham and Sara are. And here is a scene that he describes from the words of Eliezer, Avraham's servant, whom he sees there. He asks him what Avraham and Sara are doing in that world. And Eliezer says to him: “Avraham lies on Sara's breast, and Sara is checking his head.” Checking the head – this is such an old scene, from when there was pediculosis (lice), and people picked lice out of each other's heads. A very peculiar caress. But what is this midrash saying through such a very coarse, earthly image? Sara frees Avraham from all sorts of trivia. She makes sure that his head is not cluttered with all sorts of trivia, so that Avraham, her husband, could wage that very, let us say, right war, could be occupied with that right work we are talking about. This, of course, is a midrash and a tall tale, but it illustrates well the relationship of Avraham and Sara. A strong woman who is able, precisely thanks to her strength, to be in the second role.

Rivka and Yitzchak have a completely different relationship. We actually know very little about them. The Torah tells us about them sparingly, but there is something we can see. At the very beginning we read about the meeting of Rivka and Yitzchak (Bereshit 24:64):

Or, one can say, she jumped down, leaped off the camel. Again there are midrashim that describe how she fell from the camel. There are beautiful ones, there are not so beautiful ones. We will not go into that now.

If one translates mi-ha'ísh hallazé literally – what kind of man is this, such a man, who is walking across the field toward us.

and the servant said: “this is my master.” and she took a scarf and covered herself.

She took a shawl, one can say, and covered herself. The covering is a very important element. This is not said about anyone else. One can, of course, steer one's thoughts here in the direction of halacha, in the direction of the Law, and say: “Here is an example for you that a woman covers herself when she gets married.”

But this covering has a very important element symbolically. There is a unity, a kind of “wrappedness” of the married couple, Yitzchak and Rivka, in their inner world. Yitzchak brings Rivka into the tent of his mother. One can say, into the dearest, the most intimate place for him. It was precisely there that he came to love her, there his love for her was born. Through the opening of the inner toward the outside. The midrashim speak about this beautifully, that Yitzchak began to recognize outward manifestations in the world as a manifestation of his mother Sara, that the candle did not go out, and the challah did not go stale. These are all only images, everything was so dear, so close, so intimate.

We read further (Bereshit 25:21):

I have often spoken about the word iater – stirred things up with a pitchfork in the heavens, tried to change the situation in the heavens.

(literally) in the presence of his wife, as if beside his wife, because she is barren.

What does it mean, in the presence of his wife? It can be understood in different ways. One can say that she would come to him, he would put his hand on her head and pray: “LORD, have mercy, please, on Rivka!” One can say that Yitzchak prayed with concern for Rivka. But if one looks a little further. Yitzchak constantly felt in his world, in his heart, the presence of Rivka. And in this state he prayed and cried out to the Most High.

Does each of us husbands know the thoughts of our wife, and can he understand what she is praying about when she goes into her room to pray? Do we know her secret, hidden prayers? Or are they a secret to us precisely because her inner world is far from our inner world?

At this moment Yitzchak and Rivka have a unity in their inner world. Commentators say that Yitzchak said to the Most High: “I do not want children from any woman in the world, only from this woman.” And at that moment, in one voice with him, Rivka said: “I do not want children from anyone, only from Yitzchak.” They spoke in one voice. They had a spiritual unity between them. Spiritual unity is a key component of the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivka.

When we bless our daughter to be like Rivka, we bless her ability to open her inner world before her husband and to see the inner world of her husband, so as to be in spiritual unity with him. This is a very important quality. This does not mean that one must agree with the husband in everything and submit to the husband, as we see in the story with the blessings, when Rivka, one may put it this way, intrigues against Yitzchak. But how much she understands him in everything, how much she feels him – we do see this all the same, this feeling is there. Perhaps this is not an entirely right use of this feeling, and we see that our foremothers and forefathers did not always live up to the challenge that stood before himiThe Russian says the challenge “that stood before him” in the singular, although the sentence speaks of the foremothers and forefathers. It is translated literally.. And still we see how much Rivka feels Yitzchak here.

Our forefather Yaakov had family relations with two wives. Now that is where one might well clutch one's head. The family life of the patriarch Yaakov – who, it seems, would you wish such a thing on?

Here is the relationship of Yaakov with Rachel. Yaakov loves Rachel. It seems there is mutual love between them. Everything is fine. This is very much like how marriage looks in our time. A guy loves a girl, they get married and begin to live together. But in the case of the Patriarch Yaakov they have no children. Their challenge, the one this marriage throws down, the challenge that is the goal of this marriage, the lesson they must learn in this marriage – is children.

When a man and a woman love each other and live together, a very important task for them is to unfold the potential of one's spouse, to be a catalyst, to support the spouse in unfolding his potential.

When a Jew takes a wife in marriage, they conclude an agreement, they proclaim before everyone a certain agreement, and by this agreement the man promises to give the wife food, drink, covering, clothing and maintenance. What does maintenance mean? Parnasá lifornésota – to give her nourishment, to sustain her life. Isn't everything listed already parnasá, isn't it that maintenance which the man gives? Of course. But here what is meant is to unfold her potential, to unfold her content, to fill her life with meaning. It is the husband's duty to fill the wife's life with meaning, that is, to unfold her creativity, to unfold her abilities, her potential, to help her potential unfold.

This is very hard. It is simpler to say: sit at home, I'll bring the money; sit at home and watch TV series; read books, or go ahead and give birth to a whole little sack of kiddies. It seems a blessed thing, and good, and righteous. And commandments. For someone this is the unfolding of potential. But the one does not always go together with the other.

This is the relationship of Yaakov and Rachel. Therefore Rachel comes to Yaakov and says (Bereshit 30:1):

Give me some fruits or I will die, give me the realization of myself, or without it I cannot live. These are the tasks of Yaakov and Rachel.

Therefore, in what do we bless a daughter? That her spouse help her unfold her potential and that, accordingly, she help unfold the potential of her spouse.

The fourth pair – again the patriarch Yaakov and Lea. And here, it would seem, Lea is a mistake, a deception. What did Yaakov feel when in the morning he discovered the unloved Lea in his bed? I am not even talking about what Lea could feel, what Rachel could feel. All this – is a very sad situation. And the first thought: “Oh, that Lea! This is a mistake, this is a deception. A foundling in my life.”

When the sages want to say that a person must constantly keep certain thoughts in his head, they give as an example notes in a pocket. A person should have notes in his pocket. For example, one of the Hasidic teachers says: “A person should have two notes in his pocket. On one is written ‘The world was created for me,’ on the other – ‘I am dust and ashes.’ And one needs to know when to use which.” For example, from what is in a person's head, there should be some thoughts, some concepts, some ideas. With regard to family life, the Hasidic teachers say that a person should have as many as three notes in his pocket. Three questions to which a person must constantly give himself an answer in family life. The first: why did I marry this woman? Well, and accordingly, why did I marry this man? The second: why did this woman marry me? Or, accordingly, why did this man marry me? And the third, common to all: why did the Most High join us together? What does the Most High want from us? This is a mystery. A mystery.

After all, if to the question why I married, I can somehow answer. If to the question why she married me, I can also somehow answer. The answer to the third question we receive our whole life long.

In Yaakov's case, he did not know at all why he married this woman. It was an evil scheme on Lavan's part. The Most High had his own plan. And how many children Lea bore Yaakov. And what children will these be? What will their role be in the inheritance in the people of Israel? What is the Most High's design regarding Yaakov and Lea? This is a question as long as a life. I very much want all of us to find the answer to this question.

This is the blessing with which we bless a daughter when we say: “And may the Most High set you like Lea.”

These are four tasks that it is useful to learn to fulfill in family life, useful for happiness. Sometimes difficult, sometimes pleasant. But this is what, in the opinion of the sages, forms a happy person.

This, of course, is exclusively my view, as a father. This is what I heard from other teachers and took. These are all not my ideas, but what is close to me as the father of daughters, what I put into this blessing. Of course, each person again is free to bless and to put in something of his own.

I will sum up, put together the four facets of the blessing. It is the ability to step back into the second role, to see the importance of the family, of the union as a whole, as greater than one's own importance sometimes. Knowledge of the inner world of one's spouse and the ability to open up to him, to entrust to him one's own inner world. Readiness to unfold one's potential together with one's spouse and to help one's spouse unfold his potential. And, finally, the right union – is a union in which husband and wife look not at each other but at the Most High. The most important mystery, the most important task – to understand why the Most High joined us, why the Most High joined two flesh into one.

This in essence is the blessing of daughters, like Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea.

Besides this, we bless daughters with the blessing of the priests. In this case the father – he is the priest, will give to his daughter.

And, naturally, we also pray in our own words for our daughter, for each of the daughters, the way we see, the way we understand in what she needs to be blessed.

Following the blessing of daughters, we will try to work out what a father's blessing of sons is, how to bless children at all, and what is put into this blessing.

How do we bless sons? With the words of our Patriarch Yaakov: “May the Most High make you like Efrayim and like Menashe!” Efrayim and Menashe – the model that we set before our children. If for daughters – it is Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea, our matriarchs, about whom we know a lot, can say a lot of things. Then for sons it is Efrayim and Menashe.

If one of the sons asks you, me: “Dad, Mom, and why, actually, like Efrayim and Menashe, why not like Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Aharon, David? In what do you want me to imitate them? In what do you see the happiness and blessing of these children? Tell me about them!”

About Efrayim and Menashe we can tell very little, but nevertheless we can tell something. And you and I will try to look and understand why we bless children like Efrayim and Menashe, why we want our children to be like Efrayim and Menashe. In order to understand this, we will read from verse 8 of chapter 48 of the book of Bereshit. This, I admit, is a different portion, it is the portion Vayechi. But since the theme of blessings relates to our portion, we will read it.

Yisrael – that is Yaakov

and asked: “who are these children?”

Why does Yisrael not recognize the children? He has, apparently, already been living in Egypt for 17 years by that moment. He must have seen the sons of Yosef. Either these are problems of lighting, or the problem of Yisrael's eyesight, which the Torah speaks of further on. Or the little kids grew up very much during the time they had not seen each other. And Yaakov says like this: “And who is this? And who has grown up so much?” But then it is unclear why the Torah brings us these words. Or all of this is true: both the lighting, and the children have grown, and Yaakov's eyesight has weakened. But the Torah brings us this to show that through these children there will be a great joining of nations to Israel. We will still talk about this.

And Yaakov says mi-élle, surprised to see such a multitude of his children. A somewhat prophetic question on Yaakov's part. So, Yaakov sees someone next to Yosef and asks: “Who is this?”

Yosef took them from his knees. The little kids sat on grandpa's knees, the children are clearly older than 17. And, most likely, this seating on the knees and the blessing has the meaning of adoption. We see here that Yaakov adopts, accepts as sons the sons of Yosef. Actually, Yaakov speaks about this in the 5th verse of our chapter 48, when he says: “Efrayim and Menashe will be to me like Re'uven and Shimon.”

So that Israel would lay his right hand on the firstborn Menashe, his left hand on Efrayim.

and he brought them near to him.

But Yaakov acts contrary to Yosef's expectations.

Although Menashe is the firstborn, Yaakov is about to bless the younger Efrayim as the firstborn; actually, the situation for the book of Bereshit is not at all new and, one could say, routine.

Here we will skip to verse 17 and read on.

Maybe Dad does not see well, and he mixed it up through poor sight. It would be a shame if the sons received the wrong blessings.

Yaakov goes on to speak a prophecy about Efrayim. And we have talked a lot about the fulfillment of this prophecy. Now we will not focus on it. Yaakov says:

and his seed will be the fullness of the nations.

Perhaps Yaakov's not recognizing the sons at first is precisely a hint at this fullness of the nations, at the many who joined. Although “fullness of the nations” is not the only possible translation here either. And here we come to the very essence of the blessing, to where the blessing of the sons came from, with which we bless today.

This is that very blessing that we are talking about. And the first to pronounce it was the patriarch Yaakov, the grandfather of Efrayim and Menashe

and he set Efrayim before Menashe

This is, in fact, the story of the first time people blessed as Efrayim and as Menashe. That is how this blessing arose, which exists in our days too.

What can we learn from this for ourselves, derive from it? And how are we to understand what we should put into this blessing?

First, it all begins with Israel seeing his grandchildren as if from afar. And Yosef says to him: “These are the children whom God gave me here, in Egypt.” Efrayim and Menashe were born in Egypt, but they can come close to Yaakov. They did not go off into other nations, they kept their identity. Whatever names they bore, wherever they lived, they kept their belonging to Israel. This is a great blessing.

When we bless our children, we too want them, despite any surroundings whatsoever, despite everything around them, to keep their faith. This is very important.

The second part of the same thing. The grandfather sees his grandchildren. When we raise our children, we want our children to remain believers, to have the same relationship with God that we have. Or even better than we do. That they come close to the Most High, that they keep our faith. And the best fruit we can see is believing grandchildren. They say: a Jew is the one whose grandchildren will be Jews. This is very relevant to the blessing, that faith be not only preserved but also passed on to the children. This is Efrayim and Menashe. That we may see our own Efrayim and Menashe following our children. This is a great blessing. Efrayim and Menashe are the first grandchildren whom a grandfather blesses.

One more important quality of Efrayim and Menashe. They are the first two brothers in the whole book of Bereshit who do not quarrel with each other. Between brothers, beginning with Hevel and Kayin, there is enmity. And in Avraham's family it is the enmity between Yishmael and Yitzchak, further on – Yaakov and Esav, and the brothers who sell Yosef. And here, in the sons of Yosef, we see brothers who coexist in peace. Peaceful coexistence with the people close to us – this is very important. Also a great blessing – the ability to be at peace with one's brothers. One of the component elements of this is when Yaakov switches the brothers' places. A sore spot in the book of Bereshit, when the younger becomes the elder. What do we see? Menashe has no envy toward Efrayim. He does not harbor anger, he does not envy Efrayim. Perhaps he even rejoices at his success, as we will see later in the case of Aharon and Moshe, when Aharon goes out joyful that Moshe has been set higher than he. Perhaps this is the beginning. Efrayim, on the other hand, has no pride, “because I am cooler.” Not to be proud of your successes, not to fall into pride over your prospering, and not to envy the one who is more successful than you. This is also a very important quality.

Naftali Tzvi Berlin says one more very important thing. According now to the midrash, Efrayim and Menashe are different children. One studies Torah and is strong in Torah, the other is an entrepreneur and lives in the material world and prospers materially, without forgetting the Most High. When we bless children. We must bless what has been put into them, those talents that have been put into them. If our son has a musical talent, bless his musical talent; if a head for business – bless his head for business, everything that is given by the Most High. The blessing must be laid upon that in which the child is already blessed. And here we say ki Efrayim and ki Menashe. If you are Efrayim in your soul, be blessed as Efrayim. If you are Menashe – as Menashe, receive the blessing that the Most High wants to give precisely to you, precisely in that area, precisely there where the Most High wants to bless you, where He has already blessed, where He has put into you riches for fulfilling yourself, there be blessed. This is a very important part of the blessing. And that is also why we bless as Efrayim and as Menashe.

Sfat Emet gives one more reason. Efrayim and Menashe were grandsons and became sons. It can be compared to a person who moved from a dark backwater to the capital and began a life in the capital. People who did not come from a believing family, who came to the Most High from afar, being strangers. And, it would seem, there is what is called a glass ceiling, above which you will not rise. If you are a grandson, you will never become a son. But no, you will! You can overcome all natural limitations as you come close to the Most High. Overcome insurmountable barriers on the way to the Most High. This too is the blessing of Efrayim and Menashe. Two brothers who did the impossible, were grandsons and became sons.

These are the kinds of meanings we can uncover, to begin with, in the blessing of children, when we bless them: “May the Most High make you like Efrayim and like Menashe.”

The Sabbath blessing of children usually concludes with the blessing of Aharon. The father blesses the sons with the blessing of Aharon, and the mother can also bless, if the father is not there. And besides that, there is also a prayer for children (also a very important prayer), which we say. Of course, everyone can and must pray for their children in their own words. Only we receive in our hearts instructions about praying for children. Nevertheless, there is also a prayer that it is customary to pray throughout the whole people of Israel.

Prayer for Children

May it be Your will, LORD, our God and God of our fathers, that we be worthy to raise our sons and our daughters in the most worthy and good way. Each of them in the way most suitable for him. That we may penetrate into the depths of their soul, so as to study their abilities and traits of character and to raise them accordingly. Help us not to make a mistake in a single small thing in raising children. And may we be worthy to see all our descendants without exception walking the straight path, the path paved for us by our fathers. So may it be! And after the children go out from under our authority and from our home, our eyes are turned upward to You in prayer, that You grant us success in raising them. For it is known to You how hard it is to raise innocent and naive children, and how hard it is to guard them so that a strange fire does not touch them, God forbid! And it is known to You how many trials our children go through.

Therefore we ask of You, our heavenly Father, who desires good for every one of his children, to teach us to be an example for them in the most pious life. And also that it be in our power to speak to their heart, and in such a way as to be heard by them. When we instruct them in Your Torah according to Your commandment, so that there be no need of strictness, but that we have influence on them, to move them to listen to everything we say. And let us come to know that great good which is hidden in raising children in the Torah. For each of them is a link in the chain of preserving our Torah, the chain of serving You. That every effort of ours in raising children be carried out with infinite love, with unceasing thanksgiving to You and with the awareness of how great Your mercy toward us is.

Make us worthy and grant us to have children healthy in body and in spirit, that all their organs, their limbs be healthy and sound, and that their soul be healthy and steadfast. And satisfy all their needs in sustenance, in dignity and in favor, that they not be in need of charity, but be fed from Your generous hand.

This is the traditional prayer that it is customary to pray for children. I do not know whether everyone can say amen to it, but I boldly and confidently say amen to it.

Finishing the study of the book of Bereshit, I would like to try to take a closer look at some of its heroes, at the sons of Yaakov. To try to look at some of them and see living people in them, to understand their character, to think about what they lived by, what they were like. I decided to talk about this because I notice that they look too faceless to us – whether because of their heroism, or because scant descriptions tell their story. Still, something we can understand, something we can reconstruct, or at least get food for thought.

And I want to begin with Yaakov's firstborn, with a boy named Re'uven. The story of his birth is this. As we know, Lea ended up married against her will. This is the result of a deception; neither Yaakov wanted this, nor Lea herself, Rachel did not want this. As a result Lea turned out to be the third wheel, a despised, unloved woman. And one can imagine how bitter it was for her. This did not escape the loving eyes of the Most High. We read in Bereshit (29:31–32):

The LORD saw that Lea was unloved, and opened her womb, but Rachel was childless. And Lea conceived, and bore a son, and called his name Re'uven, because she said: “Since the LORD has looked upon my sorrow, now my husband will surely love me.”

The name Re'uven means in literal translation: re'ú – look, from the verb lir'ót – to look, to see in the imperative mood of the plural – you look; ben – son. That is: look, here I have a son.

Some commentators, mainly medieval midrashim, try to give this name a certain prophetic meaning, to say: “Look, this is my firstborn. He will not be like the firstborn of my father-in-law Yitzchak, will not be like Esav, he will not sell his birthright, he will not do many of those foolish things that Esav did. My firstborn is not like his firstborn.” In this way the commentators put a certain spirit of competition inside Yaakov's family, already even at the level of the family line. But if one looks directly at the plain meaning, then it is clear that Lea rejoices that a son has been born to her. I think that very many moms hurry to share with the world the joy of the birth of their first child, and many moms want to shout: “Look, look, I have a son! Look at my son, how wonderful he is!” In my opinion, this is a completely natural impulse of a young mother. Besides, from ancient times (and we are talking about ancient times, after all) a woman who bore a son could count on greater love from her husband. This is what Lea is thinking about, what she rejoices over.

A firstborn was born to Yaakov – Re'uven. A firstborn for a family in ancient times, and what is there to say, even now, means a great deal. Re'uven is the firstborn in a large family, in the family of our Patriarchs. He is the firstborn of twelve. Even in Yaakov's blessing, at the very end of the book of Bereshit (49:3), Yaakov says: “You are the beginning of my strength, you are my firstborn!”, the biological firstborn. But besides the concept bechorá (primacy, birthright) there is also a very similar, very consonant concept bechirá (election). That is, one can become the leader of the family in two ways: through the birthright, since you are the eldest son, if you are able to realize this seniority, and through election, since life does not always follow biology. Therefore the father for his part may decide to pass the leadership, to pass the scepter in the family not to the eldest son, and then this is no longer bechorá (birthright), but bechirá (election). And so, since Re'uven is the firstborn, for him the question of election will be posed point-blank, one could say. Will he prove worthy of primacy? And today, looking from our time, we see that the tribe of Re'uven did not do anything at all significant in Jewish history, except for some small details that we will talk about. Re'uven as a firstborn will not justify himself, and it would be interesting for us to understand how this happens.

But his life, his childhood or early youth, begins with a very interesting event. Re'uven went out in the days of the wheat harvest (that is, this is roughly the festival of Shavuot) and found mandrakes in the field (Bereshit 30:14–16). It is very interesting why it is mentioned here in what period this was. Mandrakes are very rarely found in this period, that's the first thing. Second, if this is Shavuot, then this is the night of the giving of the Torah or the eve of the night of the giving of the Torah, and in this too there may be some special meaning. So, Re'uven, in the days of the wheat harvest, finds a mandrake root. The mandrake root is a little root that looks very unusual and therefore is just right for even a little boy to bring it to his mom to show her: “Mom, look what I found!” Re'uven did just that, and brought it to Lea, his mother. Evidently, he showed it to everyone and said: “Look what I'm bringing to Mom!”, because Rachel too found out about it.

 The mandrake root was considered a remedy for barrenness. Modern research says different things on this. Whether it really is so or not, that is what people believed. And Rachel heard that Lea had such a famous potion. She naturally came to her, as to a sister, and asked: “Give me some of your son's mandrakes!” But she said to her: “Is it too little for you to take my husband, that you would also take my son's mandrakes?” What does Lea say? “Not only is my husband with you all the time, you also want to take my son's mandrakes from me?” Lea is offended at Rachel because her husband, Lea's husband, is constantly at Rachel's. One way or another, Lea was the first to marry him. There are even commentators who say: “Lea knew nothing at all about the plans of Yaakov and Rachel. Lea thought that her father had simply decided to marry her off, this was often done without consent. Lea did not know at all that someone was deceiving someone here, and got into this story by chance.” There is such an approach too.

One way or another, here the story is very tragic, and Rachel makes up her mind and says: “Let him lie, that is, Yaakov, with you this night for your son's mandrakes.” This suits Lea very well. It suits Lea very well above all that in this way Rachel gives Lea the blessing to be with Yaakov. Now this is no longer a deceit, not a deception. One way or another, with her own tongue Rachel said: “Let him lie with you tonight.”

And again the commentators note that now the marriage of Lea and Yaakov is at a completely different stage. This is no longer a stolen marriage, but a marriage with consent and blessing. When Yaakov returns, Lea goes out to meet him, as a bride goes out to meet the groom.

And she said: “Come in to me, for I have hired you for my son's mandrakes,” and he lay with her that night.

Tradition says that this giving up of Yaakov by Rachel became the reason why Rachel is not buried together with Yaakov. Because she so disregarded the night with Yaakov, the night with her husband, she is not buried next to him.

What did Re'uven do here, what is Re'uven's role in all this? Why is it said at all that Re'uven did this? Lea's firstborn, Re'uven, changed the relationship between his mother and his father, that's the first thing. Second, Rachel received the mandrakes and through this also conceived. That is, Lea's firstborn played an important role in the birth of Rachel's firstborn, this too is very important. Through Re'uven, even a very little Re'uven, something is done in Yaakov's family, for there are no coincidences. And after that we part with Re'uven for years, one could say. We do not know what is happening with him.

After Rachel's death, when Yaakov sees in her maidservant, his concubine Bilha, a kind of continuation of Rachel and almost for good moves to live in her tent, a very unpleasant incident occurs (Bereshit 35:22):

It happened, while Israel was dwelling in that land, Re'uven went and lay with Bilha, his father's concubine, and Israel heard.

The commentators, of course, are horrified by this event. It is very hard to explain it somehow, therefore there are interpretations that say: “No, of course, God forbid, he did not actually go in to Bilha. He just stirred up the bed there.” Some say: “He took Yaakov's bed and moved it to another tent.” But the meaning of the Torah is simple and relentless: Re'uven went in to his father's concubine. What then does this mean? Perhaps it is such a desperate, daring act, an attempt somehow to stand up for his abandoned mother, a spontaneous action of a helpless sense of justice. Maybe very youthful, and therefore very spontaneous. A struggle for justice waged in anger.

 One can also see something else in this: a claim to confirm his primacy, the right of inheritance. We see several similar examples in the Tanach. One can take the example of the story of Shlomo and Adoniyahu (1 Melachim 2:12–22), when David dies and leaves the kingship to his son Shlomo – not the firstborn, but the chosen one. And the offended firstborn Adoniyahu, who had already managed to have a livery sewn for himself and was already celebrating his near-accession by right of the firstborn, and not by right of the chosen one, says to Bat Sheva: “The kingship should have been mine, you understand.” That is, Adoniyahu says: “By primacy the kingdom is mine,” but it turned out to be bechirá (by choice), and the kingdom goes to Shlomo. But what does Adoniyahu ask for? He asks Bat Sheva to intercede for him with the newly enthroned King Shlomo, so that he would give him Avishag the Shunammite, he asks to be given David's concubine as a wife. And when Shlomo hears of this request, he understands what Adoniyahu is driving at, and says to his mother: “Then ask the kingdom for him as well, for he is my older brother, both for him, and for Evyatar the kohen, and for Yo'av, the son of Tzruya.” Since Adoniyahu asks for Avishag the Shunammite, he is making a bid for the kingship, trying in this way to confirm his primacy. So, bechorá (birthright) again against bechirá (election).

In the struggle for power the same method was used before this by Avshalom, another son of David. Here is what we read about this in the 2nd book of Shmuel (16:2–22):

And he (Avshalom) said to Achitofel: “Give your counsel, what should we do?” And Achitofel said to Avshalom: “Go in to your father's concubines, whom he left to guard the house, and all Israel will hear that you have become hateful to your father, and the hands of those who are with you will become stronger.”

That is, declare your power, enter into open confrontation with your father in the struggle for primacy, in the struggle for the inheritance of power.

And we also know one more story, when Ishboshet, the son of Sha'ul, says to Avner son of Ner: “Why did you go in to the concubine of my father Sha'ul”? Sha'ul had a concubine whose name was Ritzpa, the daughter of Aya. And Avner did what he did.

One can understand Re'uven's action here as a claim to strengthen his primacy, since he feels that his authority is being completely lost. Yaakov mourns for the deceased Rachel, he has attached himself in soul to Bilha, and we know that he loved Yosef more than all his sons. And we know that the Torah will later give a special commandment precisely about this situation, when a man has two wives: one he loves, the other he hates, and from the unloved one he has a firstborn (like Re'uven). The Torah will forbid depriving the son of the unloved wife of the birthright. Re'uven fears that because of his love for Yosef, Yaakov may perhaps deprive him of the birthright. Therefore (perhaps therefore) he resolves on such a desperate step. Again a kind of helpless attempt to fight for justice, a helpless rebellion.

But, as in all the other cases that we listed, neither Avner, nor Avshalom, nor Adoniyahu achieved anything through such an action. Re'uven covered himself with disgrace in the eyes of his father. We learned about this when we read Yaakov's blessing. Some hasty action, some attempt, perhaps, at fighting for justice, which cannot pour out, cannot express itself in the right way – that is what stands behind Re'uven's actions here. Perhaps what let him down was not knowing how to stop and take three deep breaths, to stop and think.

The next episode that we see is the sale of Yosef. The episode known to everyone, when Re'uven hears how the brothers (most likely it is Shimon and Levi) agree among themselves to kill Yosef. Re'uven wants to deliver Yosef from death, Re'uven wants to save Yosef, and he is the eldest. But Re'uven, having a conscience, having conscientiousness, does not dare to show this conscientiousness. He is afraid of looking, perhaps, too good in the eyes of his brothers, or considers his brothers unworthy of understanding his conscience. But, one way or another, his leadership qualities, his leadership of the firstborn, Re'uven does not show here. He says: “Let us not inflict mortal wounds on him, do not shed blood. Throw him into that pit which is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him (Bereshit 37:21–22).” In other words: “Let's throw him into the pit, and he will die there by himself from the sun, from thirst, from wild beasts, from scorpions, from snakes. He'll die by himself, let's not kill him.” To us, the readers, the Torah reveals a little that Re'uven is being sly, he wants to save Yosef and bring him back home. The intention is good, but he is afraid to say so. Therefore Re'uven is not taken seriously, his conscientiousness does not pour out into truthful words, he could not say and could not even squeeze out of himself: “Brothers, let's not kill him. Let's calmly receive him, eat together with him, tell him how things are with us, and send him home to Dad. Let's not do him any harm.” This is what he himself wanted, but did not dare to say, whether fearing to seem too good, or fearing his brothers. And, as we remember, the brothers listened to Yehuda, who said: “And what's the use to us of just throwing him like that? Let's sell him to the Yishmaelites (Bereshit 37:26–27).”

It is unknown where Re'uven disappears to for some time after that. There are commentators who say: “Re'uven spent the time in fasting and prayer for what he had done with Bilha, and therefore, when the brothers sat down to eat, he did not sit with them, but went aside to pray.” There are also commentators who say: “Re'uven went to his father's home, because it was the time to take care of his father.” This is very strange, because it is very far to go there, and it is unclear how commentators who lived in the land of Israel could allow themselves to write such a thing. But what do both versions speak about? Imagine that the time has come to save Yosef, the time when it is possible to do something and pull him out of the pit. But Re'uven decides: “Now I'll finish my prayer, now I'll finish wearing my sackcloth, I'll just finish my fast and I'll go right away.” How does he set his priorities? And even if we suppose that he had to, for the sake of respect for his father, go and show respect to his father, again, how are the priorities set here? What does Re'uven choose? And why does he go, even if we accept one of these versions. Both of these versions speak well about Re'uven, about his character, about this conscientiousness which does not find proper application and, instead of prompting him to some righteousness, leads him into strange places, because he is afraid of this conscientiousness. One way or another, Re'uven in some incomprehensible way (maybe this too says something about him) was not in the right place at the right time. And when he comes to the pit, does not find Yosef there and, not knowing the whole story, most likely thinks that Yosef simply perished, he tears his clothes, weeps and says: “And where am I to go now?”

The commentators say: “This is the first case when a person does teshuva (repentance) not because the Most High said to him: ‘Now, now, now!’, not under fear of something, but out of a desire to be good, out of a desire to be right.” Midrash Rabba, a collection of midrashim, says on this subject as follows: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: ‘Never yet has a person, sinning before Me, returned, having repented, but you were the first to repent. By your life I swear that your descendant will begin with repentance’, that is, with the preaching of repentance. And who is this? This is the prophet Hoshea, who says: ‘Return, Israel, to the LORD, your God…’.” The commentators say: “There will be a prophet from the descendants of Re'uven. The Most High will not leave this impulse of his without reward. Even if so helpless, even if so harmless, an impulse that could no longer fix anything, yet the Most High will credit it to him many generations later, when from his descendants Hoshea will arise, who will call people to repentance. Re'uven managed to repent, to open up, to show this conscientiousness of his, remaining alone, one on one, with the Creator beside the emptied pit. He never managed to open the door even a little to anyone into this righteousness of his. And for this, for his repentance before the Most High, it is promised to him that there will be someone who will bring this to completion, a prophet from his descendants, who will call to righteousness and simply grieve in his heart with his helpless conscientiousness and righteousness. Re'uven is a kind person, but disappointingly helpless.

Some time later we see Re'uven again: how Re'uven, together with his brothers, comes to Yosef in Egypt, how the brothers say: “Here it is, trouble has overtaken us!” Re'uven remarks (like a Polish mom): “Didn't I say, I did say it, do not sin against the boy. But you did not listen, and now his blood is being required.” This phrase “Didn't I say, didn't I tell you” (probably many have been both in the role of those hearing it and in the role of those saying it) is a meaningless phrase. A phrase that is said to justify oneself: “I did try, I did want to, I did have such an intention inside.” This is an attempt to somehow justify oneself.

If we go a little deeper into this text, the brothers say: “We heard his cries and did not react.” In fact, they did not hear, they sat down probably somewhere not near the pit, in any case, it is not written that they heard any cries of Yosef. But looking back, it already seems to them that they heard. Likewise Re'uven, looking back, reconstructs the past in his own way and inserts there a Re'uven who said something of the sort to the brothers (but what he said to the brothers was something completely different). But what he really said, he does not want to remember. He thinks in his imagined role that everything he wanted to say, everything he was afraid to say, he really said. That is how it exists in his memories. Although again there is this opinion: “By this Re'uven reminds them that he called the brothers back then to teshuva, called the brothers to repentance.”

Well then, I too love Re'uven very much, and I want to justify him, but this harmlessness and helplessness very much prevents him from being as righteous as he wants to be. I often recognize in Re'uven myself. I too am sometimes afraid to say something. I sometimes fear that I will be misunderstood, sometimes I think in advance: “No, these people are unworthy, they will not understand me, they will not agree to do something good.” I am often afraid to be good, often afraid to be conscientious, to say something and seem such a “goody-goody.” This fear exists, it sometimes overtakes me, fortunately less and less. And still I know the Re'uven in myself, and this helps me to love Re'uven.

Some time passes, and it is necessary to go to Egypt for food. As we remember, Yosef, who for the brothers is simply some noble Egyptian dignitary, demanded that they bring Binyamin. Yaakov does not agree, the brothers begin to negotiate with him. Still partly as the firstborn, Re'uven is the first to start the conversation.

And Re'uven said to his father, saying: “My two sons you shall put to death if I do not bring him (Binyamin) to you. Give him into my hands, and I will return him to you. (Bereshit 42:37).

Re'uven makes an interesting offer: “If I do not bring him back, then kill my two sons.” Will Yaakov feel any better from this? If, say, something happens to Binyamin in Egypt, Yaakov will rejoice and, as a consolation to himself, kill Re'uven's two sons. Well, it is hard to believe such a thing, it is hard to believe at all that this is a serious offer. And the commentators say: “This is a kind of rhetoric. Here Re'uven wants to say: ‘Binyamin is dearer to me than my two sons. Binyamin is more important to me than my two sons.’” Naturally, Yaakov does not react to this, because there is no practical benefit, no thought, no plan behind it.

Translated into practical language, Re'uven says: “I love Binyamin very much.” And that is all he can say. And this is like when we say to a person: “God loves you.” That is true, God loves, but we ourselves do not show this love in any way, no practical activity of ours follows it, and Re'uven has a similar situation. He plans something good, but does not dare to take on himself the responsibility of doing this good. Again he has the very same problem: he wants good, but it does not work out for him. The one who can persuade Yaakov is the one who is already beginning (perhaps unwittingly) to wage a struggle with Re'uven for the future birthright, for the future primacy.

And Yehuda said to Israel, his father: “Send the lad with me, we will rise, and go, and live, and not die – we, you and our children. I vouch for him. From my hands you will require him. If I do not bring him to you and do not set him before your face, then I will be guilty before you all the days (Bereshit 43:8–9).

What distinguishes Yehuda's words from Re'uven's words? Well, first, Yehuda is more persistent, and he knows how to work with objections (as one would say today) in order to convince Yaakov. Second, Yehuda takes the responsibility upon himself and says: “I will be answerable for him.” Not simply “I love him,” but “if anything happens to him, then here, you will do such and such.” Yehuda says: “I! I will protect him. I am responsible for him! That is, I will watch over him in practice, and if something happens to him, I will be guilty before you all my life.” Re'uven cannot say this, because he is already guilty before Yaakov. After the story with Bilha, which Yaakov did not forgive him to the end of his life, he has nothing to lose, he does not have this reputation that Yehuda has. Therefore here again Yehuda takes the primacy, and, one can say, from this moment on Re'uven moves completely into the background.

When the people are already returning from Egypt, the tribe of Re'uven sees the water meadows even before entering the land of Israel and again hastily says: “I want it! I will settle here!” And in this way it as if partially cuts itself off from the land of Israel. The good side of this haste was that while Moshe was still alive, for the first time, precisely on the territory of the tribe of Re'uven, cities of refuge appeared. And it seems to me that this harmonizes very well with Re'uven's personality. On the other hand, having ended up cut off from the main land of Israel, from the main part of the land of Israel, this tribe was also the first to fall under the blow of the dispersion. Everything has two sides.

In the book of Shoftim we will read the song of Debora after the victory over the Canaanites. Debora says: “And the tribe of Re'uven never did come out to battle. It could have come, but it did not come” (Shoftim 5:15–16). A separation takes place, and the tribe of Re'uven moves farther, and farther, and farther away.

And before this, blessing his sons, Yaakov said this to Re'uven: “Re'uven – my firstborn you are, my might and the beginning of my strength” (Bereshit 49:3–4). The expression reshit oni (the beginning of my strength) is an expression that always corresponds to the firstborn. That is, Yaakov confirms that Re'uven is the biological firstborn, who laid claim to the birthright, he had the birthright – bechura, but he could not make use of this birthright, could not become the firstborn, fulfill the role of the firstborn. And therefore instead of bechura (birthright), on the principle of bechira (election), his place was taken by Yehuda. Yaakov speaks thus about Re'uven's potential: “The height of dignity, the height of might.” What does all this mean at all?

In tradition it was held that the firstborn really gathers all the strengths in himself. As if a person's body stores up some kind of treasure for the birth of the first child. And the first child could be born (in those times) when the dad could be fourteen, maybe fifteen, maybe twenty years old. But an enormous amount of time passes while the strength accumulates for the first child, and afterwards the period of time gets shorter. Reshit oni – the first shot, my first beginning of strength. The most important one is the child in the family, the firstborn, this is so to this day (I tell you this as the youngest son of a large family).

But right away Yaakov says: “Impetuous (pachaz – fussy) as water, you will not have preeminence, for you went up onto your father's bed. You thereby defiled the one who went up onto my bed. In other words, because of your haste, because you strive to hurry events, you will not be able to be the firstborn. You will not be the leader of our family, you will not manage our family, you will not cope.” Yaakov says that Re'uven's main trouble is his haste. Full of good intentions, Re'uven is in such a hurry to realize these good intentions that he forgets about everyone around him, about those to whom, actually, he wants to do this good. And therefore he will not succeed in leading the family, he will not succeed in being a leader. A kind man, Re'uven. Most likely, we will not see that anywhere he really wanted to do something bad, he always wanted it “the good way,” but always – on his own. He could not discern other good people next to him, trust them to do something good together, and this hindered him from being good and certainly hindered him from being a good manager, a good leader for the family. Hence also this haste that Yaakov speaks about. If you are the only good one and everything can depend only on you, then of course you have to hurry. We wanted the best, but it turned out as always. I know this from myself, from my own life.

Things did not turn out simply with Re'uven. Well, such is his life. This is Re'uven. Please love and favor him. Precisely both the one and the other I ask: both to love and to favor.

I would like to talk about the second son of Yaakov and Lea, about Shimon. When we talked about Re'uven, the firstborn of Yaakov and Lea, we read that the Most High saw that Lea was despised, and opened her womb. Lea bore a firstborn and called him Re'uven, which means: look, here I have a boy. She was full of hope that, since she had been able to bear Yaakov a firstborn, now Yaakov would notice her and love her, and their relationship would get better. And she put all her hopes into this name, into this joy about the birth of the firstborn.

And so time passes, maybe a year or a year and a half after Re'uven's birth, and Shimon comes into the world. Here is what we read about the story of his birth: “And she conceived again, and bore a son, and said: ‘The LORD heard that I am unloved, and gave me this one too.’ And she called his name Shimon.” (Bereshit 29:33)

So, in a few words, the Torah tells about Shimon's birth. The Torah itself does not say that Lea gave birth because the LORD heard that she was unloved: that was said about Re'uven. But it is precisely with this that Lea herself connects Shimon's birth. Moreover, here the LORD did not see, but heard, that is, penetrated into the very, very depths, into the whisper of Lea's heart, into this bitterness of her heart, and gave her a boy named Shimon. Here there is no longer the hope and trust that the husband will see, or that the attitude will somehow change. “Gave me this one too” – one can understand it this way: so that He would comfort me in this hatred, in this contempt toward me, in this lack of recognition of me, estrangement, lovelessness... Such is the amazing, not simple prophecy, such is the not simple task, the program that Lea lays into Shimon's birth. This is a defender boy. A boy who must defend his mama Lea, undeservedly hurt, undeservedly hated. Well, and not only mama Lea, but everyone who is with her. The midrashim say that Shimon grew up a very big and strong boy, which again fits the general outline of the narrative.

What does the name Shimon mean? The simplest and most correct understanding is that the name Shimon comes from the verb shma (to hear), and means hearing or the listening one, that is, God's hearing, an answer to my prayers, or the one who listens. The one who listens – here the understanding is, of course, broad. First of all, probably, it is the one who obeys his father, who obeys God. But perhaps there is also the meaning here: the one who will listen to me, the one who will hear this bitterness of mine and protect me. These are the understandings that concern the direct meaning of the name.

The sages in the midrashim, proceeding from the history of the tribe of Shimon, said that Shimon also means sam avon – the one through whom sin will come. What is meant here is that later the tribe of Shimon sinned through Zimri ben Salu at the time when Israel was fornicating with the Midyanite women in the desert. Another understanding is sam ayin, that is, an envious eye, and here the sages hinted at Shimon's envy toward Yosef. All this is commentaries and midrashim, and of course this may be an attempt to find the roots of Shimon's actions in the name, but this is not the direct meaning of the name. In the Christian milieu there is one more interpretation, that the name Shimon is connected with a reed. This interpretation arose by mistake. The thing is that one of the apostles is called Shimon Zealot (or Kana – zealot). The word kana (zealot), really is close in sound to the word kane (reed). That is where the translation of the name Shimon as reed comes from. But the name has no such meaning.

So, Shimon is the one who hears, sensitive, answering every offender of his mother, perhaps reacting sharply to every offense, a defender; a boy who grows up to be a very strong person.

We will right away read the first story from his biography, this is the story with Dina. About Dina we read that this girl – Yaakov's daughter, the only daughter in the family, Lea's daughter, most likely – is a beloved child, “daddy's little sweetheart.” She went out for a walk, was raped, was abducted to Sh'chem, and the brothers achieved by deceit that the inhabitants of Sh'chem were circumcised. And further we read a story that we already know, but we will read it once more.

“And it came to pass: on the third day, when they (that is, the inhabitants of Sh'chem) were in pain, two sons of Yaakov, Shimon and Levi, Dina's brothers, took each his sword, and attacked the city confidently, and killed all the males. Chamor and Sh'chem, his son, they also killed with the sword, and took Dina from Sh'chem's house, and went out. And the sons of Yaakov came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had dishonored their sister. They took their small and large livestock, and their donkeys, and what was in the city, and what was in the field, and all their wealth, and all their children and their wives they took captive, and plundered everything that was in the houses.” (Bereshit ch. 34)

In response to Sh'chem's vile deed, Shimon, the defender of the offended mother, of the offended family, overflows with a sense of justice and with anger. Together with his brother Levi he attacks the city of Sh'chem. It must be said that this is a very bold deed. The brothers at that moment are teenagers. Maybe they are 13–14 years old. Maybe they are a little older – teenagers who attack a whole city, slaughter a whole city. Then, apparently, the other brothers come and plunder everything. But besides the city being plundered, all the surroundings were plundered too. As an acquaintance of mine said: “When you chop wood, chips fly.”

This provokes Yaakov's indignation: “And Yaakov said to Shimon and Levi: ‘You have blackened me, making me hateful to the inhabitants of this land.’” If literally, Yaakov says evíshu – you made me stink (bo'ésh in modern Hebrew is a skunk, a stinker): “You have made me foul-smelling to all the inhabitants of this land and hateful to the Canaanites, to the Perizzites. They will come now, and I have few people, and they will be able to destroy me.” And the brothers say: “Shall they really deal with our sister as with a harlot?!” Most likely, it was not the brothers' defense of Dina that outraged Yaakov, that provoked his anger.

We remember that when Yaakov blesses Shimon and Levi, he says arúr apám, cursed be their anger (we will still talk about this). When an avenger, when a person fighting for justice, is overflowing with righteous anger, then the anger can make the person unclean. As a consequence, his deeds also become unclean. I can say that Shimon and Levi are very close to me; I too, perhaps, would sometimes like to take a sword in hand (well, I cannot slaughter a whole city, I am not a great warrior), and their desire is close and understandable to me.

So, the young Shimon is strong, just, hot-tempered, loving, caring. But this hot temper of his is dangerous in that he may thereby turn out to be wrathful. In the family of Re'uven, Shimon, Levi, of all the brothers, there is also a young youth named Yosef, about whom we have spoken and will speak more. And it is clear that Yosef will perhaps anger Shimon more than anyone else. First, he is the beloved son of the beloved wife, as compared with Shimon's unloved mother. Second, at the time when Shimon and Levi as teenagers were already in the field, Yosef exerts himself much less, he has a dress shirt, he is close to his father, and on top of that he is a dreamer.

In general, Shimon has every reason for very “unbrotherly” feelings toward Yosef. And when we read about the sale of Yosef, the Torah says nothing about Shimon's role in this story. Although it is clear, if one reasons, that in Dotan most likely only the sons of Lea are pasturing. The sons of the slave women pasture separately, and the sons of Rachel, Yosef and Binyamin, they, naturally, are with their father in Canaan. Re'uven and Yehuda, the two other sons of Lea, as we see, do not regard this scheme (to kill Yosef) very favorably, and it becomes clear that (and the midrashim say so) it was precisely Shimon and Levi who, most likely, ran this whole story with the thought of destroying Yosef. One of the midrashim says that Shimon was the one who made up his mind and, let us say, with his own hands pushed Yosef into the pit. On the whole, this suits Shimon.

In the 2nd century BCE there lived an unknown but very interesting person who collected all the material about the sons of Yaakov, about the twelve Patriarchs, and wrote such a midrash, such a work, which is called “The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.” According to the text of this midrash, each of the sons of Yaakov, from Re'uven to Binyamin, gathers his sons before his death. Each tells his sons about his life, about some of his problems, some of his difficulties in his relationship with the Most High, in his relationship with his brothers, the difficulties of his life, and gives them instruction. Regarding Shimon, this midrash says an amazing thing. It says that Shimon tells his children that he hated Yosef, and hated him so much that (the Torah says this too) he could not speak with him peaceably, could do nothing with him, and wanted to kill him. It so happened that at the moment when Yosef came to Dotan, Shimon had been sent to Sh'chem to buy ointments for the sheep, and in the meantime Yosef was sold, and Shimon could not take part in it. Shimon wanted to kill him, perhaps would have pushed him into the pit (according to this midrash), but God protected him. We see here two approaches to looking at Jewish history, two views of Jewish history. Some say: “The Most High acts through people, through Re'uven, through Yehuda. And Yosef was saved from immediate murder through Re'uven and Yehuda.” Others say: “The Most High acts covertly, and therefore Shimon – and he would not have been stopped, he is strong after all, he is full of hatred, full of anger, he would have killed Yosef – the Most High sent away.” From the fact that Yosef later takes precisely Shimon as a hostage (Bereshit 42:24), one can conclude (and this is done too) that it was precisely Shimon who pushed Yosef into the pit. And so, when we tell the story of how Shimon was held hostage, we see that Yaakov was not in much of a hurry to free him, perhaps, once again, because he remembered the story with Dina and with Levi. With this, it would seem, the whole story of Shimon that is told in the Torah comes to an end.

We have already read Yaakov's blessings before his death. Yaakov blesses his children – yes, we remember, precisely blesses, that is, he does not curse any of them and does not punish them. And everything that is said in doing so, even if it is perceived as sharp and painful, is a blessing. And here is what Yaakov says to the brothers, Shimon and Levi: “Shimon and Levi are brothers, weapons of plunder are characteristic of them.” (Bereshit 49:5–7).

One can translate it like this: the instruments they possess, all their property – is plundered property. Or one can understand it differently: they act in this world predatorily. That is, they are inclined to robbery, to displays of violence, to taking things by brazen pushing or by force, even if they base themselves on a sense of justice. And further: “Into their council let my soul not enter. With their assembly do not unite, my honor.”

That is, when some common affairs bind Shimon and Levi, Yaakov says: “I am not answerable for them.” And we will see later in the Torah that when certain stories are described, for example, about Korach from the tribe of Levi, it is not said that he is a son of Yaakov. When there is the story about Zimri ben Salu from the tribe of Shimon – there too it is not said that he is a son of Yaakov. That is, Yaakov says: “I do not want to link my name with any deeds of these people.” And further Yaakov says: “Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their fury, for it is heavy.” The word apám (anger), if translated literally, is their nose. The word af (nose) also has the meaning anger or nostrils. Wide nostrils, long breath, the one who is able to breathe long – érech apáim (long-suffering God, God with long nostrils). Here, though – wide nostrils, flared with anger, overfilled with air, and this oxygen rings so that it does not let a person breathe; this anger deprives a person of reason.

Further on we will see that a separation will take place between Shimon and Levi. One of them, Levi, who became the forefather of the priestly line, the Levite line, will learn the very important skill of seeing uncleanness and not becoming unclean himself. Seeing when something unclean happens, being indignant at it, reacting to it, opposing it, but not falling into anger, not becoming unclean oneself. This is important, this is an important quality for a kohen. To have compassion for a person's weaknesses, and not to be indignant at them, not to browbeat a person with them, that is, to be indignant, but without anger. Shimon manages this much worse, and we will see this later precisely in the story with the Midyanites. But let us finish reading Yaakov's blessing.

 Yaakov says: “I will divide them in Yaakov and scatter them in Israel.” That is, the Levites, as we will see later, will have no allotment, they will be scattered, without land of their own; the tribe of Levi has no allotment. The lot of the tribe of Shimon, we read about this in the book of Yehoshua ben Nun, fell within the tribe of Yehuda, and the sons of Shimon, the whole tribe of Shimon, will live in the southern part of the territory of the tribe of Yehuda, in the dull, dull south of Israel (Be'er-Sheva and Ruchama – these are modern areas too), therefore some have interpreted the name Shimon from the word shi'amúm – boredom, dreariness; the dull tribe.

Both tribes are deprived of some independence. The Levites, clearly, will go about and teach Israel, they will be dependent on Israel. On the one hand, teachers of Israel, on the other – dependent on the favor of the Israelites. About the tribe of Shimon such an example is given, that they became tutors of little children and scribes, that is, these are crafts that do not bring particular wealth and require constant, constant contact with people.

When a person is prone to anger, or when a person is zealous to the point of anger, zealous in such a way that it goes beyond the bounds of righteous zeal, then it is good for such a person not to have wealth, not to have influence, not to have power, otherwise he will simply burn up everything around himself. If such a person had some estate, some land where he hired workers, he would wear these workers out with his nitpicking and his anger. In order to calm the anger, the tribes (this is how it is explained) must be scattered, must come into dependence on people. This is not a punishment for anger, this is a path of correcting this very anger, fury, haste, perhaps. At one time Shimon and Levi did not consult with Yaakov, did not consult with their father, hastily took up arms. Anger, again, puffs a person up and presents him as some kind of ruler, equal to God, therefore it is often said that “he who gets angry is like an idol worshipper.”

And here the story of Shimon in the book of Bereshit ends. And further on we can, naturally, only read about the tribe of Shimon. And what do we read about the tribe of Shimon? We read a story, a very sad story about how the tribe of Shimon turned out to be involved in one of the most terrible sins that happened in the wilderness, in the sin with the Midyanites. We read about Zimri ben Salu: “And the name of the slain man, who was slain with the Midyanite woman, the one whom Pinchas killed – Zimri ben Salu, a chief of a father's house of Shimon.” (Bemidbar 25:14).

Precisely the chief of a father's house of Shimon, the leader of the tribe of Shimon, was killed by Pinchas from the tribe of Levi. Pay attention to how the paths of the brothers divide here: he was killed by Pinchas from the tribe of Levi. We, probably, so as not to get ahead of events, will analyze this whole situation when we talk about Levi and about Pinchas – both how Shimon ended up in it and how Pinchas ended up in it, but for now we will simply take it into account as a historical event. And it is from here that this very interpretation of the name Shimon comes, as “the one through whom sin will come.” The one through whom sin will come upon the people of Israel, sin through the Midyanites. The whole tribe of Shimon, most likely, was involved in this. We can see this from the book of Bemidbar (1:22–23). At the very beginning we read that those counted from the tribe of Shimon were 59,300, and after the story with Zimri we read that in the tribe of Shimon there are 22,200 souls (Bemidbar 26:12–14). That is, simple arithmetic says that more than 27 thousand people from the tribe of Shimon perished for this very sin with the Midyanites, the whole tribe turned out to be destroyed.

And again, the commentators say: “When some person is filled with righteous anger, when anger is mixed into righteousness, then he and his descendants will be tested in this.” I can say about myself that very often I denounced some sins and some problems in other people, foaming at the mouth, overflowing with righteous anger. But afterwards it was hard to stand firm myself in the same situations, in very similar problems. This happens often. And maybe you too will find in yourselves both righteous anger and the account one has to give for this righteous anger, for anger that, not being righteous, rides on the feeling of righteousness. Therefore there is a certain kind of pattern in the continuation of the story of the tribe of Shimon. And a division took place, when Pinchas from the tribe of Levi was able this time to show precisely pure zeal without an admixture of anger (apparently so, because afterwards a priestly covenant is made with him), and Zimri from the tribe of Shimon was not able to do this.

Later, in the blessing of Moshe that is given to the tribes, we no longer encounter the tribe of Shimon. Some commentators say that the tribe of Shimon is included here in the tribe of Yehuda (as we said, later the lot of the tribe of Shimon will be among the tribe of Yehuda). And, on the whole, one can imagine it this way, that the blessing of Yehuda includes the blessing of Shimon as well. But, one way or another, Moshe did not forgive, did not erase this crime of the tribe of Shimon, and the tribe of Shimon remained without Moshe's blessing, that is, it did not receive some separate mission upon entering the land of Israel. For a long time representatives of this tribe lived next to Yehuda. We know that at the time of the division of the kingdom, as the book of Divrei haYamim says, many from the tribe of Shimon went over to Yehuda, and therefore they survived the exile, that is, not the whole tribe of Shimon was exiled, not all of it went into galut. Later we see that the tribe gradually dissolves both in the neighboring peoples and in the tribe of Yehuda. And today there is no tribe of Shimon as such.

There was also a story when a representative of the tribe of Shimon ended up on the throne for some time. This man's name was Zimri. Here is what the Tanach tells about it: “In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, king of Yehuda, Eila son of Basha became king over Israel in Tirtza, and reigned two years.” (1 Melachim 16:8–20). That is, when Asa was king in Yehuda, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, in the neighboring country, in Israel (these are, unfortunately, already two different kingdoms), Eila came to the throne and reigned in Tirtza for two years. And further: “And his servant Zimri made a conspiracy against him.” Zimri from the tribe of Shimon, a servant of this very king Eila, made a conspiracy against his master. And he was not just a servant, that is, not a cleaner, not a janitor, not a cook, but was in charge of half of all the chariots, that is, he was a high-ranking man, though a servant. “And when Eila, king of Israel, got drunk in Tirtza (he was drinking in the house of his chief – the steward of the court, whose name was Artza), then Zimri came in, and struck him, and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, king of Yehuda, and became king in his place.” That is, by way of a conspiracy the servant rose up against his master. This servant is from the tribe of Shimon, and he became king. But it did not last long. It is written that the people were encamped at Gibton, at the Plishtim: “When the people who were encamped heard that Zimri had made a conspiracy and killed the king, then on that same day in the camp all the Israelites made Omri, the army commander, king, and Omri went up with all of them, and they besieged Tirtza.” They entered, and Zimri was burned alive in his palace for all the evil that he had done in the eyes of the LORD. Only a week was Zimri from the tribe of Shimon able to reign.

No one else outstanding from the tribe of Shimon appeared in the whole of history. When the sages say: “There was no one from the tribe of Shimon either among the judges, or among the prophets, or among the kings,” they are met with the objection: “Well, there was Zimri, wasn't there!” But Zimri was there for only a week, and what is a week for a reign, it sort of does not count at all.

Can one say that Zimri somehow reflects the nature of Shimon? One would like to say no, that this is a random figure and it just happened by chance that he is from the tribe of Shimon. But this very same anger, haste, zeal does show itself here in Zimri after all, and therefore it is no accident that this man is from the tribe of Shimon, and this quality remains in the tribe of Shimon.

To be clear, we do not mean to say by this that Shimon is an angry, jealous, such a mean person. He is a believing person, a person who tries to serve the Most High, but he makes characteristic mistakes, typical of him, and this is what does not work out for him. This is what may not work out for us either, we too can end up in his place. That is, one should not draw from this the conclusion that Shimon is somehow bad, unworthy, mean. But Mom gave him a certain task, and in this task there are different ends, different facets. And sometimes, overflowing with a sense of hurt for Mom, for justice, for the homeland, for the kingdom, Shimon can commit deeds in anger about which Yaakov said: “Cursed be his anger.”

This is what Shimon can teach us, or what we can learn together with Shimon: while showing concern for justice, for the law, for righteousness, for purity, not to get angry, not to overflow with one's own, human anger, not to let one's breathing lose its rhythm, not to become a malicious grumbler. That, probably, is what was dangerous for Shimon, and what can be dangerous for us. Such is the story of the second son of our Forefather Yaakov and Foremother Lea.

In this talk we will try to take a new look at Yaakov's blessing to Yehuda. Here is what we read in the Torah in chapter 49 of the book of Bereshit. Yaakov says to his son:

Yehuda, a young lion, you just stood over your prey, and now you have already stretched out and lain down like a lion, and who will dare to disturb him?

Such is this blessing, and it would probably be much more understandable if Yaakov had stopped in the middle, if Yaakov had said: “Yehuda, you tear the prey like a lion,” and had pictured Yehuda as a lion that tears apart its prey or puts its paw on an animal it has just killed, as is sometimes drawn very beautifully. But Yaakov says something else, he adds two important things. First, you are גּוּר אַרְיֵה (gur aryé), you are a lion's cub, you are still only a lion cub, all the lion's qualities are manifest in you, but they still have to grow and grow. Second, Yaakov does not end his blessing with the lion tearing the prey, but after that the lion also lies down and stretches out like a lion. Why and for what purpose does Yaakov add this? Here is one of the facets of understanding, but in order to understand it, let us first try to digress and talk a little about something else.

On the dashboard of most cars there is an instrument that almost nobody uses. This instrument is called a tachometer. It shows how many revolutions per minute the car's crankshaft makes. In essence, it shows how much the car is giving its all, how much it is working at full power. Many tachometers have a red zone, which shows that the car is running at very high revs, running itself to wear and tear. It can work in this mode, but if it works in this mode for a long time, it will not end well. We people also have some kind of invisible tachometer. And although today nobody looks at the tachometers in cars, there are expressions in our speech that have remained from those times: at full revs, or to lower the revs, or is picking up revs, when we work ourselves to the bone, when we work at full revs, when we sense danger to ourselves, when we fight for ourselves, when we feel a wave, when we preach, teach, speak, celebrate, when we are at the center of attention, when people look at us, when people admire us, when we feel that the Most High is doing some good deed through us, even the very smallest. Here is the time for us to work at full revs, and our tachometer is in the red zone, here we fight like a lion. There are situations when we have offended someone, committed some sin, maybe a grave sin, and it is time to come and ask forgiveness. If we sinned, if we performed this action at full revs, if the accusations that we hurled at other people were on the front pages of our personal wall newspaper, then, when we ask forgiveness, it will be somewhere on the last page in small print. To apologize, to ask forgiveness, to work on ourselves – this we often can, or want to, or are ready to do only at low revs. And even that not always.

Yehuda has a certain different quality. We read about this when Yehuda gets into a story and his sin with his own daughter-in-law Tamar comes to light. As chapter 38 of the book of Bereshit relates, Yehuda went in to his daughter-in-law Tamar, having taken her for a harlot. And here is how it is told how this whole matter came out: “And it came to pass after three months, and they told Yehuda, saying: ‘Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the harlot, and even, behold, she is pregnant from harlotry.’ And Yehuda said,” – here Yehuda judges like a lion and says: “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” Short, clear, emotional, here is the decision of a lion, and not of a lion cub. “But as soon as she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law to say: ‘By the man whose these things are, I have conceived.’ And she said: ‘Recognize, please, whose are this seal, and cord, and staff.’” Yehuda recognizes, recognizes with horror, whose are this seal, and cord, and staff. “And Yehuda recognized and said: ‘She is more right than I, because I did not give her to Shela my son.’” Yehuda, with the same intonations, before the same people, completely honestly, like a lion, can say: “She is more right than I.” This phrase is very hard for a person to say. Very hard to say out loud. One can whisper it somewhere, one can mumble it somewhere. Yehuda says it completely clearly, loudly. He is a lion, and when he lies, when he has lain down on the ground, when he has fallen, he still remains a lion. When it is no longer a fight for prey, but when it is a fall. And in this fall of his he lies not like a badger, but like a lion. And a lion will always differ from a badger, even lying down. This is the essence of Yaakov's blessing. Yehuda can be a lion not only in the state when he attacks the prey with a roar or tears the prey with a roar, but also when he wants to change, when he repents.

We have seen what happened between David and the prophet Natan. And one can also, speaking in worldly language, say: “He is a king, like a lion, the king of beasts, who has stretched out. Who will raise him up?” Who, it would seem, can make a lion repent of something with leonine zeal, before whom will he repent? He is a lion, after all. David could have given an order, and nobody would ever have seen the prophet Natan anywhere again. David could have become indignant, but David, with the same fervor with which he says: “A son of death, he deserves death, the man who did what you, prophet Natan, have told me,” in exactly the same way, with the same fervor, with the same leonine zeal, David utters a prayer of repentance and says: “I have sinned before the LORD.” The quality, the ability to be a lion when you say: “She is more right than I.” Or when you say: “I have sinned before the LORD.” The readiness to say this, despite the fact that you are king, and you can simply destroy the accusers, and no one, to put it in the language of Yaakov's blessing, will raise you up.

This is one of the facets of the blessing that Yaakov gives Yehuda, and may God grant that all of us have it too. To be able sometimes to admit that we are wrong before our children, before our wife, before our subordinates, before someone who is weaker than us or dependent on us, to be able to admit our guilt and try to correct ourselves, to strive precisely for correcting ourselves, paying no attention to what anyone will think and who will think it. To be a lion in such a way that our tachometer goes off the scale. This is what one wants as a blessing.

Our weekly portion tells how the Patriarch Yaakov, before his death, gathered all his sons in order to bless each of them. As the Torah says, “each according to his blessing.” That is, each son received a blessing and instruction in accordance with his nature. That which reflects his inner nature, his potential, that which will allow him to develop this potential, to grow strong in service. That is, Yaakov does not bless everyone with one single blessing, but finds for each one his own blessing.

But when we look at this blessing, we understand that it differs greatly from the way we are prepared to bless our children and our loved ones. We wish our children, our loved ones, some concrete things. We say: “Be successful in your work, good health to you, long years of life, lots and lots of money to you, happiness from your children, and so on.” We wish our children, our loved ones, quite concrete things. And Yaakov's blessings differ so greatly from the way we are used to blessing that it is sometimes not entirely clear: is this a blessing at all, and where is the blessing here?

Here is what Yaakov says to his son Yissachar:

One can translate between the bundles of his load, one can translate between the livestock pens. There are different translations, but such is the blessing Yissachar receives.

Yissachar was told: “Yissachar, my little son, you are a donkey.” Far from everyone today would be pleased to hear such a blessing. Everyone knows that we call a donkey a person who is hapless, slow-witted, the one who gets into various unpleasant, stupid stories. And what kind of blessing is it to say to your son: “You are a donkey, sonny.” What, in general, is the service of the tribe of Yissachar?

Tradition says that the tribe of Yissachar has a special agreement with the tribe of Zevulun. Actually, Moshe also speaks about this agreement in chapter 33 of the book of Devarim. Here is what is said there. Moshe also blesses all the tribes of Israel. And here is how he blesses the tribe of Zevulun:

There is some special agreement, as we see, here, between Zevulun and Yissachar, some special symbiosis between them, which makes it possible to bring the nations of the world to the mountain. The sages say that Yissachar sits, works in the Holy Land, studies the Torah and applies its knowledge to his work in the Holy Land. Zevulun travels around the world, engages in trade and promotes Yissachar's achievements and products. And, seeing those wonderful curiosities that Zevulun brings to other countries from the land of Israel, the nations of the world are puzzled: where do these ideas come from, where do these fruits come from, and thereby they are drawn to the Holy Mountain, where they will offer sacrifices to the Most High.

In the first book of Divrei haYamim (12:33) it is said of the sons of Yissachar that they

That is, these are people who know what needs to be done. Therefore the tradition came to the conclusion that the tribe of Yissachar is the main core of those who study the Torah, of those people who study the Torah, understand the will of the Most High for the people of Israel and can give, pass on this will to the people itself and, through Zevulun, to other peoples as well. That is, this is the capital, as it were the capital of divine knowledge, the capital of the Torah, the center of the Torah in the people of Israel, which studies the Torah. This is mainly the tribe of Yissachar. Of course, the whole people is called to study the Torah, but there is this kind of special academy, as the book of Divrei haYamim says.

After the scattering of the ten tribes we understand this in a spiritual sense, that those who today study the Torah and are engaged in the study of the Torah need the same tools that the tribe of Yissachar carried, and the blessing of Yissachar to the one who works in the same line of work, who has taken up the baton from Yissachar and continues his work. Of course, the question remains with regard to the tribe of Levi, which serves Israel as teachers. These are two somewhat different services. Of course, the tribe of Yissachar does not replace the tribe of Levi, and the tribe of Levi does not replace the tribe of Yissachar. And their services are close, but still different.

And it is precisely this Yissachar, precisely this academic, that Yaakov the Forefather calls a donkey, and one needs to understand why. And the answer that is given is this. A donkey is one that carries its load, does not kick and does not butt, does not attack its masters, like another animal would. One could, of course, have found a more beautiful animal, such as, for example, a horse or a lion. But a lion submits to no one, and a horse can, after all, at some moment feel, show its strength, its character. Whoever has worked with horses knows this. It is precisely the donkey that carries its load and does not resist.

Some data say that a donkey can carry by weight even more than a horse carries, but slowly. A horse cannot walk as slowly as a donkey with a load. A donkey can walk slowly, can walk at a speed suitable for women and children. That is, the donkey is patient enough with this load, can carry it gradually. As Yaakov said to Esav: “We will go at the speed of our women and children.” And the donkey can go at the speed of women and children, it is patient enough to carry its load patiently too. One can put it this way, that Yissachar teaches Torah to those who have fallen behind it, those who for some reason have fallen away, those who need it slower, simpler, more understandable, or the very, very distant ones, the very distant peoples living far away, they too need to be told about the Most High. But sometimes in Israel too, in a state of trouble, in a state of alarm, Yissachar's instruction is needed, and sometimes Yissachar is the adviser on what Israel needs to do.

And one more peculiarity of the donkey. The donkey is an undemanding creature. It really can lie down anywhere, therefore the donkey is often looked down upon. But in this case the one lying between the livestock pens or sprawled among the bales is a donkey that has lain down, rested somewhere, and it is good that it lay down, good that it rested. The donkey in this respect is not picky about places to spend the night. It does not always need especially comfortable conditions. The donkey does not seek this honor. The donkey simply carries its load. Therefore Avraham travels on a donkey, and Moshe travels on a donkey, and Mashiach travels on a donkey.

About the donkey of Mashiach there is one amazing midrash which says, when Mashiach rides into Jerusalem and the crowd greets him, they throw palm leaves, someone throws clothes under his feet. The donkey thinks that it is the one being greeted, that everyone is glad to see it. Such a thought may creep into the donkey. Now, the whole appearance of the donkey, the fact that it is a donkey, does not allow it to rejoice with this joy. And any person, any one of us, when we share Torah, some knowledge, so much wants to say: “Look, this is me sharing. It is listening to me that people now open their mouths in amazement. It is when they listen to me that their eyes light up. That which delights them is mine.” And one can fall into the ambush of this little donkey. Well, that is probably why the little donkey is so plain-looking as it is, so as not to fall into this ambush, so as not to get caught in this trap.

Such is one of the facets of understanding the blessing of Yissachar, as of a little donkey that spends the night between the livestock pens or between the bales.

How can being called a donkey be a blessing for you? For a person who teaches Torah to simple people, perhaps far from Torah, perhaps fallen away from Torah, it is very important at times to be a donkey, that is, to possess these qualities of a donkey. And it is these qualities of Yissachar that Yaakov blesses. Therefore if you have been called a donkey, it is not always bad.

I would like to talk about the amazing tribe of Dan. Here is how Yaakov blesses Dan:

For now we will translate this as will judge, but later we will still look more closely at this verb.

as one of the tribes of Israel

Here is such a blessing, one that is not at all understandable right away. Let us first deal with the word יָדִין (yadin). The root יָדִין (yadin) is from the root דִין (din), judgment, from the same root from which the name דָּן (dan), one who judges, also comes. דָּן יָדִין (dan yadin) – this is a kind of play on words. In Russian one could say: “Dan will dan.” The word יָדִין (yadin), however, also means to fight for, to repay, to render judgment for. So, for example, in Psalm 135 (in the Masoretic, Hebrew numbering): “For the LORD will judge his people and will comfort his servants.” Or, for example, in Psalm 110, in verse 6: “He will judge the nations, will fill with corpses, will crush the head of a great power.” To judge is also to intercede, to render judgment, to execute retribution on someone's behalf. And, most likely, it is precisely this function of Dan that is meant here.

What does כְּאַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (keachád shivté yisraél) as one of the tribes of Israel mean? Even though Dan is the son of a maidservant, does not descend from one of the foremothers (from Rachel and Lea), he became the commander of one of the four camps. In the second chapter of the book of Bemidbar we read: “The banner of the camp of Dan to the north, by their hosts, and the chief of the sons of Dan, Achi'ezer, son of Amishadai.” That is, Dan is the commander of a camp, and next to him in his camp, under his command, are the tribe of Asher and the tribe of Naftali. Dan is the only one of the sons of the maidservants who is placed in such leadership.

It is also worth paying attention to the chief of the sons of Dan, his name is Achi'ezer. The name Achi'ezer can be translated as little brother, let me help you, or a brother who will always help, a brother-helper, a brother ready to come to help. Precisely as a brother. Not looking down from above, not puffed up by his help. A brother who is ready to come to help.

In chapter 10 of the book of Bemidbar we read the following about the camp of Dan: “Then the camp of the sons of Dan moved, the rear guard of all the camps.” The word מְאַסֵּף (me'aséf) here is rear guard or gathering. And Achi'ezer is mentioned again, this very man about whom we said that his name is translated brother, let me help you. So, Dan is the leader of the camp that moves as the rear guard. The word rear guard here, as we said, also means gathering.

The Talmud gives two opinions, two views or two images of bringing up the rear. Some say: “It went like a box,” that is, it went and at the back collected all the lost things. Others say: “It went like a log,” like a kind of log that goes and pushes from behind, nudges, nudges everyone who falls behind.

What can one lose on the way? One can lose a shoe, one can lose a phone, one can lose an umbrella. People used to say that umbrellas get lost more often, now phones get lost more often. But one can, God forbid (and we saw such a case last summer), forget a child in the car. One can lose oneself, one can simply fall behind the camp. And all this is under the charge of the tribe of Dan, as one of the commentators in Da'at Zkenim says: “He stopped and lingered with those who are late.” This speaks of all those teachers who work with children who lag behind. Children who cannot keep up with learning like other children. There are teachers who devote their lives to learning, to working precisely with these children. There will be no awards of any kind there. They, perhaps, will never win at the Olympiads and, perhaps, will never get a gold medal. But there are teachers who work precisely with them, work with them. Perhaps they prepare them for school, prepare them for normal studies. There are people who work with autistic children. And if before the boy could not hold a spoon in his hands, and now he holds a spoon in his hands, that is a great victory. Recently I read a post by a man who told about how a whole group worked with an autistic boy, what achievements they saw and how disappointed the mother was. Very often the heroic deeds of these people, the achievements of these people are not even visible to the gaze, not visible to the eye. So invisible are these heroes of the tribe of Dan. But they are Achi'ezer, who says: “I will help you, little brother. Let me stay behind, let me stop behind you.” If a group of children is walking and we want to find out which of them is, so to speak, accepted, which of them is popular in this group, then if a boy or a girl stops to fix something, to tie their shoelaces, and everyone stops together with her (him), then this is the one who is accepted in the group, the one whom everyone loves. But if they mock him, say: “Again this homely, clumsy one, there he has stopped again.” Well, that is a completely different matter. And Dan is the one who walks at the back and stops with those who have lingered, stops with the lost and helps them move on. This is Dan's calling, this is what he is appointed to, as we see the manifestation of the quality of the tribe of Dan in different people.

There is a story in the Talmud about a man whose name was Rabbi Preida. He was a great, well-known, very authoritative rabbi in Babylonia, but he got a student for whom it was very hard to understand anything whatsoever. They tell (and, possibly, this is an exaggeration, but it is such an instructive story) that something had to be repeated 400 times to this student for him to understand. And Rabbi Preida, despite the fact that he is so authoritative, that he is so important and so, perhaps, busy, he studied with this student and went through this or that text with him 400 times, so that the student would understand. We want to associate with intellectuals, we want to talk in our little kitchens in a narrow circle. Far from everyone will love a student who understands on the four hundredth time. Once it happened that Rabbi Preida came to the house of study and said to the student: “Sorry, today I am in a hurry, we will go through these 400 times with you, but simply.” And at the end, when the rabbi had studied with the student 400 times, the student suddenly understood nothing. And the rabbi asked: “What happened today? What special thing happened today?” And the student said: “Well, I thought that you were in a hurry. The whole time I was afraid that you would leave. I thought only about that, and therefore I was not able to understand.” And Rabbi Preida came back and studied with him once more. This is the special feature of what is called מְאַסֵּף (me'aséf) – the one who walks at the back and returns what was lost, gathering, returning the lost and those who fell behind.

He is also the one who holds the line of defense. When Israel had only just come out of Egypt, had not yet received the Torah, had not yet received the land of Israel, still just on the way out of Egypt, Amalek attacked Israel and, as it is said: “Struck them in the tail.” Struck them at those who walked מְאַסֵּף (me'aséf), at those who walked as the gatherers. They repelled the attack. To hold the defense. To hold the defense for those who, perhaps, have fallen behind society, have gone off the track, as it is customary to say in the religious world, perhaps have been drawn to drugs, perhaps have been drawn to some bad culture, to some company. And here comes Dan, who, like a snake, bites the rider, who does not let anyone get near precisely these, on whom, perhaps, everyone has already given up, stands up for them and fights for them. The blessing of Yaakov ends with an amazing phrase:

This is the first time in several weekly portions, in six or seven portions of the book of Bereshit, that the name Adonai, the name the LORD, appears for the first time. Before this, Elohim is written. The name Adonai traditionally speaks of rachem, a quality of God – mercy. But this is not quite the mercy that is spoken of in the Russian language. This is a quality of God that speaks of long-suffering. It comes from the root רֶחֶם (rechem) womb. When an embryo appears in the mother's womb, it needs 9 months to grow, to become a little human being. 9 months of patient, painstaking work on a tiny, tiny embryo, 3 little tubes that will become a human being. This human being can be discerned, so to speak, only by the mother's womb, only it can take care of him. Slow, gradual, caring nourishing of those who lag behind everyone. This is a special kind of leadership, and it is not for nothing that perhaps a man who came from the milieu of a slave womaniThe Russian word here most naturally means “a slave woman” (Dan's mother Bilha was a maidservant), but it could also be a slip for “slaves”. It is translated literally. was put in charge of this leadership.

A train has a head car that can push the train from behind. In many Western models, in some Russian models of trains, there is a car that can push the train from behind. When the train has to turn around, it simply goes backward. And one can say: “Dan is the locomotive that pushes the train from behind.”

What else can the tribe of Dan be compared to, this work, the invisible work of Dan? Which ward is the most popular, the most heroic in any hospital? It is the maternity ward. There the joy of children being born takes place. There is the surgery department. There are the successes of neurosurgery, which are well known. There are famous operations. There is abdominal surgery. Neurosurgery. Wonderful, miraculous things happen there. And somewhere over there is a ward where a young girl works with a grandpa. And the grandpa, in order to be a little independent, needs, excuse me for such a technical detail, to get to the toilet by himself. And so she works with the grandpa and says five times: “Raise your hands, raise your leg, raise your left leg, raise your right leg. Well done!” She looks at him with admiring eyes. One could also bring in here from Kabbalah that Dan is connected with the right eye, with the eye that looks kindly, with the ability to look kindly. But let us leave Kabbalah. She looks at him and says: “Well done!” And at the end of a month of work with these small successes she says: “Your Fima, a 92-year-old grandpa, can return home, and now he will be able to get to the toilet by himself, will be able to wash his hands by himself, will be able to get out of bed by himself, get into bed, can go to the kitchen, bring himself food.” This is her achievement, this is her victory. No one, except perhaps grandpa Fima's relatives, will rejoice with her in this achievement. They will not put her up on the honor board, they will not display her as a heroine. This is small, painstaking work, small, painstaking tasks, without which the existence of a people is impossible, without which all of medicine is useless.

In chapter 52 of the book of Yeshayahu it is written that God Himself, too, is a Gatherer. Here is what is said in verse 12: “For you will go out unhurriedly and you will not leave running, for the LORD will go before you, and as a guard behind you.” The same word which here for some reason, and in all other translations, is translated as guard, but מְאַסֵּף (me'aséf) the Gathering One, behind you is the God of Israel. God reveals Himself, perhaps, as the one leading in front, like the tribe of Yehuda, in front of all the camps. And God reveals Himself like the tribe of Dan, which goes behind all the camps.

When the tabernacle was being built, we know that the LORD appointed Betzalel as the chief craftsman and the chief master, but it is said that Betzalel also had a helper. It is written: “Behold, I will appoint to him Oholi'av, son of Achisamach.” Pay attention, Achisamach from the tribe of Dan. Achisamach. How is this name translated? It is a brother one can rely on. Look how important the names are here. So, Achisamach from the tribe of Dan is presented to him, “and in the heart of everyone wise of heart I have put wisdom, and they will make everything that I commanded you.” The LORD appoints a pair of masters – Betzalel and Oholi'av, son of Achisamach from the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Yehuda and the tribe of Dan work as a pair.

In the collection of midrashim Midrash Tanchuma, corresponding to the weekly portion Ki Tisa, in section 13 it is said: “Rabbi Chanin ben Pazi said: ‘There is no tribe greater than the tribe of Yehuda. The tribe of Yehuda is the most glorified tribe. And there is no tribe more despised than the tribe of Dan.’ The Most High said: ‘So that there be no pride in him, in Yehuda, and so that they know that all the tribes are equal before the Most High, I will join them in the work.’ Rabbi Chanina said: ‘This is an example of the fact that one must never despise any tribe, because the tabernacle was created by this pair, and likewise the Temple.’”

What is said about the Temple? About the Temple it is said that Shlomo from the tribe of Yehuda built it. And it is said in Divrei haYamim: “And now I have sent a skillful man, possessing knowledge, Churam Avi, son of a woman of the daughters of Dan. His father is a man of Tzor.” That is, Shlomo from the tribe of Yehuda had, in building the Temple, a helper from the tribe of Dan.

The author of the book Tiferet Shlomo, the rabbi from Radomsk, says that when the Mishna says: “Judge every person toward justification, try to justify every person, then one can understand this: ‘Be like Dan, who justifies every person.’ This does not mean that he says: “This person is innocent, and you are innocent, and you are innocent, and you are right.” No, this means that a person looks for merits and simply proceeds from the fact that before him is a person who is not lost. Despite all the guilt, all the deeds, all the, perhaps, troubles, a person looks at another and says: “This person is not lost.” Let it be a grandpa of 92 who has survived a stroke, but we will teach him to get up and get to the kitchen. Let it be a child who lags behind, who does not yet understand everything, we will stop and work together with him. Let it be a person who stutters badly, we will stop and listen to the end of what he wants to say, perhaps smile at him, support him, so that he will even stop stuttering.

There is also this understanding, that Dan who judges is the one who judges his yetzer, his evil inclination, that is, turning judgment upon himself and saying: “I am, after all, one of the people. I am as one of the tribe of Israel. I check myself to what extent I am simply one of all, to what extent I am not some special one who needs a special approach.” We can sometimes judge ourselves in a special way. Here it is said: “No, the qualities of Dan are the ability to look into oneself and see oneself.”

Very many believers ask the question of why the tribe of Dan is missing in the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation. This has given rise to much speculation, such as, for example, the idea that the antichrist will arise from the tribe of Dan, or, for example, that, well, it is not for nothing that Dan is like a snake: he will be a snake, and the snake will be the antichrist, and he will attack the rider, who symbolizes Christ. And very many different other ideas. In parentheses I will say that precisely in the Jewish tradition there is a thought, it is not the only opinion, there was such an opinion, there was such an expectation, that the father of Mashiach would be from the tribe of Yehuda, and his mom from the tribe of Dan. That is, the Jews had the directly opposite expectation.

And, naturally, when we try to find an answer to this question, we search and easily find that the tribe of Dan, despite all its exalted purpose, despite everything we talked about, fell into idolatry, and was corrupted by idolatry, and committed many things, but one needs to remember, after all, this concerns the whole people of Israel as well. The whole people of Israel was, let us say, deeply mixed up in idolatry, there is nothing to be done, that is how it was. Why precisely the tribe of Dan, with the purpose we talked about, with the functions that were entrusted to it, which we talked about, why is precisely it suddenly punished for idolatry?

I always say that commentaries say more about the commentator than about the text. And I understand well that precisely now is the moment when my commentary, my understanding will say more about me, perhaps, than about the text, but still this is my understanding of the text, I see this in the text, myself in this text, this text in myself. And I want to say that in Revelation (7:9) it is written: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude of people, which no one could count, from all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb in white garments and with palm branches in their hands.” I think that this great multitude of people are those whom, well, figuratively speaking, Dan brought in wheelchairs, those who did not get into the front rows, those whom Dan brought, those who got lost, fell behind or were not standing nearby at all, or were far away altogether, or could not come at all. There are those who are sealed, imprinted, and those who in this way fell behind the camp have come, they stand in a great multitude nearby. And next to him the tribe of Dan. This is the celebration of the tribe of Dan. The tribe which, like a snake, fought against everyone who tried to attack, who tried to cut off, who tried to strike at the weakest. It is very hard, very hard to fight for the weakest. But the mercy of the LORD is upon his long-suffering, upon his desire, upon his readiness to take trouble with us, to place us as in a womb, to raise us like embryos. For this I hope.

And with great blessing to all those who perhaps want to become such a teacher for children with special development. To those parents who raise autistic children, to those who, like my daughter, for example, work with autistic children, to all those who labor with the elderly, with the weak, with the fallen away, with teenagers who have ended up on the street or ended up in bad company, with great blessing. You carry the banner of the tribe of Dan!

In our portion Yaakov, before his death, blesses his sons and gives a last instruction. Together with this weekly portion it is customary to read a passage in which David, before his death, gives a last instruction to his son Shlomo. These are the first 12 verses of chapter 2 of the first book of Melachim. 

A little needs to be said about the numbering of the books of Kingdoms. In the Hebrew text there are two books of Shmuel, which in the Synodal translation correspond to the first and second books of Kingdoms. Therefore, when we speak about the first book of Kingdoms in the Hebrew translation, in the Synodal translation this is the third book of Kingdoms. 

So, we read from the first book of Melachim (2:1–12) the Testament of David to his son Shlomo. 

We said recently (when we spoke about the judgment of Shlomo) that Shlomo sat on the throne of the kingdom as a teenager. And David, before his death, says to him: “You, my son Shlomo, will have to grow up early, become a man early, because the kingdom will lie on your shoulders. You must become a man in order to rule Israel.” And the first thing David says to Shlomo: “Grow up, become a man.” 

חֻקֹּתָיו (laws) – the word chok – something that we do not understand, but accept. There are certain commandments whose meaning is incomprehensible and inaccessible to us, but we know that the One Who gave them to us is wiser than we are, therefore we keep these commandments. These commandments belong to the category of chok. מִצְוֹתָיו (mitzvotav) – commands, tzav – this is an order. Mitzva – command. Commands are what concerns the relationship between a person and the Most High. For example, Shabbat, the tithe, kashrut, family purity and so on. וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו (umishpatav) – His judgments. Judgments are what concerns the relationship of a person with his neighbor. The word lishpot, shiput – this is the ability to reason. Shofet is a judge, the one who, again, knows how to judge, to reason, the one who can choose the right conduct, in holiness, toward his neighbor. So, one must keep the statutes of the Most High, His commandments concerning Him, the laws, the relationships in society, and עֵדְוֹתָיו (edotav) – His testimonies. What we do, what we keep, we do not simply keep for the sake of keeping, we are also appointed in many respects to be witnesses to Him. Certain commandments, certain traits of our character, what we achieve, how we live, must be a testimony to other peoples about Who the Most High is, what He is like and what He does in his people. This is how David tells Shlomo what one must hold on to. 

…As all this is written in the Torah of Moshe, so that you may succeed in everything that you do and in everything to which you turn (to which you address yourself). 

Sometimes a person undertakes some matter. He does not know whether this matter is from God, whether he is really doing it rightly. And here David says to Shlomo: “If you follow everything that I say, then all your undertakings will be successful as well.” That is, you will not take up a matter that is displeasing to the Most High. 

If you keep all this that has been said, and your descendants keep it, then the oath of the LORD will be fulfilled, that our seed, our line will not leave the throne of Israel. This is David giving instruction to Shlomo, this is a general instruction about how to live and how to rule. 

And next comes a list of tasks, a list of particular matters. 

That is, instead of killing those who are at war with us, he shed the blood of allies. One can also put it differently: he acted as in war in a time of peace. And by this he stained himself with blood. 

…and stained with the blood of war the belt that is on his loins, and the shoes that are on his feet. 

There are many midrashim about this. We will not go into it. One can say simply: Yo'av ben Tzruya stained himself with blood. 

David is silent here about one more murder that Yo'av ben Tzruya committed, when he killed David's son – Avshalom. Why does David not speak about this? We will try to think it over.

What kind of man is this, then? We read about him that he was the commander of the whole army of David. We read about this several times in the second book of Shmuel (8:16 and 20:23), that Yo'av was set over the whole army. Yo'av displayed mighty heroism. We read about this in the first book of Divrei haYamim (11:6): “And David said: ‘Whoever strikes the Jebusites first will be its head and chief (that is, head of the army in Jerusalem).’ And Yo'av ben Tzruya went up first and became its head.” That is, one can say that Yo'av ben Tzruya is a companion, a comrade-in-arms of David, a warrior-hero who has combat decorations. Very early he joined David. Tzruya is the half-sister of King David, and her children are called by the name of their mother (a case rare in the descriptions, which points to how strong, strong-willed a woman she was). This is a close relative of David, he joined because, apparently, Sha'ul was hounding David's relatives. 

Yo'av had a brother named Asa'el. During the clash with Avner, when Avner was still David's enemy and was on Sha'ul's side, here is the story that happened during the battle: “And Asa'el (this is Yo'av's brother) pursued Avner, and did not turn aside either to the right or to the left from Avner's tracks. Avner looked back and said: ‘Is that you, Asa'el?’ And he said: ‘I am.’ And Avner said to him: ‘Turn aside to the right or to the left, and seize for yourself one of these young men, and take for yourself his armor.’ That is, Avner said to him: ‘Do not touch me, chase someone else, why are you chasing precisely me?’ But Asa'el did not want to turn away from him. And again Avner said to Asa'el: ‘Turn away from me, why should I strike you dead to the ground, and how could I then show my face to Yo'av, your brother?’ But he did not want to turn away. And Avner struck him with the back end of the spear in the belly, and the spear went through him, and he fell there and died in the same place. And it was so: everyone who came to the place where Asa'el fell and died stood still.” Naturally, Asa'el's corpse drew people's attention, everyone knew whose brother he was, everyone knew this man, and this slowed the course of the battle. As today, if there is an accident on the road, onlookers stop, so also the people who were going into battle stopped and looked at Asa'el. 

“And Yo'av and Avishai pursued Avner. The sun had already set when they came to the hill of Amma, which is opposite Gecha on the way to the wilderness of Givon. And the Binyaminites gathered behind Avner, and formed one troop, and stood on the top of the hill. And Avner called to Yo'av and said: ‘Will the sword kill forever? Do you not know that the consequences will be bitter? And how long will you not tell the people to stop pursuing their brothers?’ And Yo'av said: ‘As God lives, if you had not spoken, then already from the morning each of these people would have stopped pursuing his brother.’ And Yo'av blew the shofar, and all the people stopped, and they no longer pursued Israel, and they no longer fought.” 

There was a battle in which Asa'el, Yo'av's brother, pursued precisely Avner, having decided to kill precisely him. But Avner killed Asa'el, although he had warned him several times. Then at the end of the day Avner called to Yo'av with peace, Yo'av blew the shofar, and peace was restored. 

Some time later Avner goes over to David's side. We read thus: “Avner came to David in Chevron, and with him 20 men. And David made a feast for Avner and for the people who were with him. And Avner said to David: ‘I will rise and go, and gather to my lord the king all the Israelites, and they will make an alliance with you, and you will reign as your soul desires.’ And David let Avner go, and he went away in peace. And behold, David's servants and Yo'av came from a raid and brought with them rich spoil. But Avner was not with David in Chevron, for he had let him go, and he had gone away in peace. When Yo'av came and all his army with him, they told him that Avner, the son of Ner, had come to the king, and he had let him go, and he had gone away in peace.” So, Avner made an alliance with David when David's army was somewhere in battles, fighting for David. When Yo'av comes, he learns that Avner was feasting here with David and David calmly let him go. “And Yo'av came to the king and said: ‘What have you done? Avner came to you. Why then did you let him go, and he went away? You do know Avner, the son of Ner. He came to flatter you, to find out your goings out and your comings in, to spy out everything you do.’ And Yo'av went out from David and sent messengers after Avner. And they brought him back from Bor Hasira. But David did not know this. And when Avner returned to Chevron, Yo'av took him aside inside the gate to speak with him quietly. And there he struck him in the belly. And he died for the blood of Asa'el, Yo'av's brother. And David heard about this and said: ‘I and my kingdom are innocent before the LORD of the blood of Avner, the son of Ner.’” 

On the whole, the story is understandable. Yo'av learns, apparently, after that battle, that Avner killed his brother. Now Avner comes, makes an alliance, and not only does he make an alliance with David, there is a serious danger that now this murderer of his brother will become commander instead of Yo'av, and Yo'av will have to submit to him. And Yo'av, of course, is afraid. Besides that, possibly, it is the most complete truth that Yo'av is a fighter devoted to David. And he really thinks that this Avner cannot honestly enter into an alliance with David. And therefore he decides to decide in his own way for the king and at the same time to avenge his brother, and kills Avner. David is shaken by this, turns to the LORD and says: “I am clean of this blood, I really did not know about this.” Before his death, as we see, he says to Shlomo: “What Yo'av ben Tzruya did to me.” Why to me? Because these people – both Avner and Amasa (about whom we will still read) – really were David's envoys, they were occupied with carrying out David's assignments. And therefore, whoever did something against them also did something against David. 

The second commander about whom David speaks here is Amasa ben Yeter. The king sent him with a certain assignment to gather people, gave him a deadline of three days. Amasa did not manage it in these three days. And the king, having devised other assignments, sent, among others, Yo'av ben Tzruya. And on the way Yo'av ben Tzruya and his army, his group of people, meet Amasa, and by deceit, having dropped his sheath, Yo'av ben Tzruya bends down, as if trying to kiss Amasa's beard. He thrusts a knife into him under the fifth rib, and Amasa also perishes. He perishes here, apparently, because Yo'av ben Tzruya again quite sincerely sees in this delay of Amasa, in what Amasa is doing, sabotage and betrayal. And therefore he kills him, and the one who accompanied Amasa immediately says: “We are for David, and we are for Yo'av.” That is, this action of his finds support among the masses. Indeed, he is not the only one who thinks so, that Amasa, because of his delay, is a traitor and a saboteur. This is the second case when David sends someone with a mission. Yo'av ben Tzruya – a faithful servant, a faithful ally of David – takes too much upon himself and as a result kills the one who should not be killed, and again by this stains the honor, stains the dignity of David. 

At the same time we see in all the texts (when the Tanach speaks about Yo'av ben Tzruya) that this man enjoys enormous popularity in the army and among the people. A decisive man, and one who dares to take some unusual actions. A man who has a heap of merits, and in David's shadow, perhaps, he is not so authoritative, and his authority does not threaten David. With Shlomo a completely different story may happen. Most likely, it is obvious to David that such an authoritative, decisive, experienced warrior and politician as Yo'av ben Tzruya will be a serious opponent for Shlomo, and, as long as Yo'av ben Tzruya is alive, he will not achieve the authority that he must achieve, being after all in the shadow of Yo'av ben Tzruya, in the shadow of a seasoned old soldier, a hero, who at the same time is a spontaneous and uncontrollable man. And therefore, possibly, here it is not about revenge. For if it were about David's personal revenge, then first of all David would have mentioned, as we said, Avshalom, his son, whom Yo'av killed. But David speaks about the commanders, David speaks about the fact that Yo'av ben Tzruya has such an inclination – to seize power, to take power into his own hands. And he has already made an alliance with Adoniyahu, Shlomo's brother and his rival in the struggle for the throne. Therefore he says to Shlomo: 

David says: “You are a clever boy, contrive something, find some claim, find some pretext against Yo'av ben Tzruya, find something to destroy him for, do not let him grow old in peace, because he will be a rival to you. Do it according to your wisdom.” This is the first command from the private list of tasks that David gives his son Shlomo. 

It is very hard, of course, to justify David here, and part of these instructions seem simply like a kind of human revenge. Well then! David is, of course, a human being, and perhaps this is a lesson for us, that until the end of his life he remains a human being. Some human qualities, including vindictiveness, are characteristic of him. One can and must remember that there is also such an understanding. 

At the same time one can also see political concern or, let us say, mixed feelings, both concern for Shlomo's future and the evil accumulated against Yo'av ben Tzruya. And here is the second instruction. 

And indeed, when David with his men flees from Avshalom, we read: “And it was, when David came to Machanayim, that Shove, son of Nachash from Rava of the Ammonites, and Machir, son of Ami'el from Lo-Devar, and Barzilai the Gilaadite from Rachli brought bedding and bowls, earthenware, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched ears of grain, and beans, and lentils, also parched, and honey, and oil, and sheep, and cheeses of cow's milk (that is, these people brought very much food) to David and to the people who were with him, for food, for they said: ‘The people are hungry, and weary, and tormented by thirst in the wilderness.’” These few people, among them Barzilai from Gilad, decided to show kindness toward David's people, of whom there were very many, and brought them quite a lot of food, without stinting, brought varied food.

After the whole tragic story with Avshalom had ended, when David crosses the Jordan, we read the following story. “And Barzilai the Giladite came down from Raglim, and crossed second over the Jordan, to escort him across the Jordan. (That is, Barzilai also shows honor, pays respect to David and crosses the Jordan with him.) And Barzilai was very old, eighty years of age, and he had provided for the king during the whole time of his stay in Machanayim, because he was a very wealthy man. And the king said to Barzilai: ‘Come with me, and I will provide for you with me in Yerushalayim.’ But Barzilai said to the king: ‘How many years do I still have left to live, that I should go with the king to Yerushalayim? Eighty years old am I today. And can I tell good from bad? (Here, literally, the knowledge of good and evil, as in the book of Bereshit.) Will your servant taste what he eats and what he drinks? Am I still to listen to the voices of singing men and singing women? And why then should your servant be a burden to my lord the king? Only because your servant will cross over the Jordan. Why then should the king reward me with such a reward? Let me return, then, and I will die in my own city by the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Kimam (here he speaks about his son), let him go with my lord the king, and do with him whatever pleases you.’ And the king said: ‘Let Kimam go with me, and I will do for him whatever pleases you, and everything you may desire from me I will do for you.’” David knows how to be grateful, and he accepts the request of Barzilai the Giladite and says: “Your son Kimam is my eternal guest, I will forever provide for him and supply him with everything necessary.” And this commandment, this instruction, he also passes on to his son Shlomo. 

One of the three private instructions that David gives Shlomo in the hour before his death is to be grateful for good, to keep gratitude for good once done in the following generations. Already David's son, perhaps, will do good to the descendants of Barzilai the Giladite by letting them eat at his table. Not only to remember evil, but to remember good too. This is the second task, the second instruction on the list. 

And again one can ask: well, but what about Yo'av ben Tzruya? After all, this man has an enormous number of merits, he did much good for David, and, one can say, in many ways, in the material world, David owes his kingdom to him. It is his merit that David came to reign. Why then such ingratitude toward Yo'av ben Tzruya? Because with his hot-tempered character, with his unrestrainedness, and with the fact that he made the decision to take the side of Adoniyahu, David has no way out. There is no particular way out, if he understands that the will of the Most High is that Shlomo should reign. In order to preserve Shlomo's kingdom, David has no way out except to seek ways, to charge Shlomo with seeking ways to destroy Yo'av. 

Here is the story of Shim'i ben Gera. “And when David came to Bachurim, then behold, from there came out a man of the family of Sha'ul by the name of Shim'i ben Gera. He came out, and cursed, and threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all of David's brave men were to the right and to the left of him (that is, they protected David). And thus said Shim'i, cursing: ‘Get out, get out, you murderer and scoundrel. The LORD has turned against you all the blood of the house of Sha'ul, in whose place you became king. And the LORD has given your kingdom into the hands of Avshalom, your son, and behold, you are in trouble, for you are a murderer.’ And Avishai the son of Tzruya said to the king (again we see a son of Tzruya – this is the brother of Yo'av, the son of Tzruya): ‘Why does this dead dog revile my lord? Let me go and take off his head.’ And the king said: ‘What do you have to do with me, sons of Tzruya? Let him revile. Surely the LORD commanded him to revile David. Who then can say, why do you do so?’ And David said to Avishai and to all his servants: ‘Behold, if my son, who came out of my bowels, can seek my soul, then all the more now this Binyaminite. Leave him alone, let him revile. Surely the LORD commanded him. Perhaps the LORD will see my humiliation, and the LORD will repay with good for his cursings of this day.’ And David and his men went along the road, and Shim'i went along the side of the hill opposite him, and cursed, and threw stones at him, and showered him with dust.” 

Clearly, David is persecuted, pursued, with a small group of people he passes through the town of Bachurim, and here a man by the name of Shim'i ben Gera came and mocks him. It is very hard to imagine how heavy David's heart is. He is forced to flee from his son. His people are divided, his soul is also divided, and he worries about his son and says: “Go gently with my son.” On the other hand, he understands the whole horror of what his son has done, and David understands that, apparently, he has some difficulties in his relationship with the Creator, and, possibly, it is none other than the Creator who creates this whole situation for him. Therefore, against this whole background, what Shim'i ben Gera does is no longer as painful as everything else that is happening around. 

When everything ends the way it ends, David again crosses over the Jordan. We saw that Barzilai the Gileadite came and what happened with him. Shim'i ben Gera also came. “When the ferry crossed over to bring over the king's household and to do his will, Shim'i the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he was about to cross over the Jordan, and he said to the king: ‘Do not reckon guilt to me, my lord, and do not remember how your servant sinned on the day when my lord went out of Yerushalayim, and do not take this, O king, to your heart, for I, your servant, know that I have sinned. And behold, today I have come first of all the house of Yosef to go out to meet my lord.’ And Avishai the son of Tzruya answered and said: ‘Shall Shim'i, then, not be put to death just because of this, he who reviled the anointed of the LORD?’ Avishai the son of Tzruya (again a son of Tzruya, the sons of Tzruya – are wild guys) says: ‘Will you really forgive him just because of this?’ And David said: ‘What do you have to do with me, sons of Tzruya, that you should be a hindrance to me today? Is it today that a man should be put to death in Israel? For I know that today I am king over Israel.’ And he said to Shim'iiIn Russian the name Shim'i does not change its form, so the sentence could read either “Shim'i said” or “he said to Shim'i”. It is translated as “he said to Shim'i”, as the context (the king swears) requires.: ‘You will not die.’ And the king swore.” David says: “Today is a celebration, I have won, I know now anyway that I am king. What now, what difference does it make how and when this man cursed me back there? Let's not spoil the celebration.” 

But the turmoil of David fleeing from Avshalom, and the celebration of David celebrating the victory, came to an end. And King Shlomo takes over the kingdom, the everyday life of a king awaits him. Possibly, that is why David remembers that story and here wants, after all, retribution. Again, this is very hard to understand and accept, unless one understands and accepts that David is a human being like us, and he has his own human qualities. 

Again David says to Shlomo:

This is the end of the list of matters, private matters, that David bequeaths to Shlomo. Yo'av ben Tzruya, who must be destroyed, the sons of Barzilai, who must be provided for at the king's table, Shim'i ben Gera, who must also be destroyed. It is somehow difficult to judge from the outside what David asks of Shlomo in his last hour about Yo'av ben Tzruya. We said that, possibly, this is a political necessity. With the sons of Barzilai everything is clear, with Shim'i ben Gera everything is more complicated. But, possibly, indeed, this gnawed at David for long years, he was bound by an oath, and here he asks Shlomo to settle accounts for him, considering in what situation, in what state he received the blow from Shim'i ben Gera. 

Such, then, is the story of David's testament to his son Shlomo. 

Read also: Vayigash, Shemot, the twelve tribes of Israel and the weekly portions of the Torah.