4. The Blessings of Ya’aqov to his Twelve Sons (chap. 49):I – Introduction to the blessing “And Ya’aqov called to his sons, and said: ‘Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days”. This is a regular feature on IsraelSeen by Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. An innovator, futurist, visionary and Bible scholar. I have the utmost respect for the man I consider a friend. He is among the few that is courageous enough to allow the “open source” of the Torah-Bible to be presented in new and interesting ways for our greater understanding. for more go to his web site:The Hope and the sculpture is by Phillip Ratner ratnermuseum
Meanwhile, all the brothers are summoned and come together for a public transmission of the blessings and the vision for “the last days”. Ya’aqov apparently promised to predict the future for them, but did not do it. The sages explain that, when he pretended “to reveal the End” (legalot et haQetz) the Shekhinah (the divine presence) flew and left him. It is possible that Ya’aqov deliberate confounding his sons, so that within their interest in the revelation of the future the rejected sons would not grasp immediately the changes of power around the table. But it is possible that the text deals with things that are meaningful only in our generation and former generations have not noticed them. There are among the traditional interpreters some who see in the prophecies to the sons of Ya’?qov a prophecy about the two Messiahs – Messiah Son of David from the tribe of Judah and Messiah Son of Yoseph. At least one figure, that of “Messiah Son of Yoseph” seems well described in the Parashah.
In the course of the blessings, there is equality between the name “Ya’aqov” – five instances – and “Yisra’el” – five instances. We have already seen such a division of five and five at the Aqedah (the Binding of Yi??aq), where first the name “Elohim” (God) appears five times and then the Name of YHWH (The Lord) five times. Such a division is very common in the Qabbalah, where the 10 Sephirot are generally divided to five compassions (Chesed) and five judgments (Din).
Ya’aqov-Yisra’el is thus about to follow his parents, Abraham and Yitz?aq, and transmit the blessing that was given to Abraham as “father of many nations” (17:5). Abraham did not bequeath a blessing directly to his sons. He too did not receive a pure blessing till after the ?qedah. God made covenants with him, and promised him blessings – but only if he fulfils certain conditions. The first of Abraham’s family whom God clearly blessed was Yishma’el: “And as for Yishma’el I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation” (16:20); and indeed he would succeed to complete the pattern of the Twelve already in the first generation. Yi??aq, on the other hand, does not receive God’s blessing at that point, but God aims for a covenant with him: “… thou shalt call him Yitzhaq, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him” (17:19). Yitzhaq was later to be blessed by God, but only after the death of his father Abraham. It was Yitzhaq who, at the waning of his days made a ritualized last blessing ceremony, which as we know, got turned around. Esav was to gain a blessing for material riches and dominion, the blessing that Ya’aqov obtained by cunning. It was then that Yi??aq added a blessing of material riches for Esav as well, with the addition of the hope that one day Esav will be liberated from the yoke of Ya’aqov. Only then, when the blessings of Yitzhaq have seemingly ended, then came the moment of truth, the moment of the transmission of the Abrahamic blessing, which – it turns out – he has long intended to give to Ya’aqov: “And God almighty (El Shaday) bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayst be a multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayst inherit the land in which thou art a sojourner, and which God gave to Avraham” (28:3-4). This is the important blessing: the promise of the land to the seed of Abraham, the promise of everlasting life for the people that issued from him – the People of Israel, as it is written in the psalms (133:3) “… on the mountains for there of Tziyon, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”.
And here Ya’aqov’s twelve sons stand in front of him, to hear his last words. Will he tell tham, as his fathers before him: “I will multiply your seed exceedingly” or perhaps “I will give to your seed all these countries”? Seemingly, this is not the case. Ya’aqov does not start with a blessing, but comes “to settle accounts” with three of his sons about what they did to him in his life. This would be similar to the testament of Moshe (Deut. 27:11-13): “And Moshe charged the people the same day, saying: ‘These shall stand upon mount Gerizzim to bless the people, when youe are come over the Yarden: Shim’on, and Levi, and Yehudah, and Yissakhar, and Yoseph, and Binyamin; And these shall stand upon mount ?val to curse: Re’uven, Gad, and Asher, and Zevulun, Dan, and Naftali”.
II – Detailed analysis of the blessing
“And Ya’aqov called to his sons, and said: ‘Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days”.
The ceremonial expression “The Last Days” is used for a ceremonial occasion. This expression appears 13 times in the Hebrew Bible: 4 times in the Pentateuch, 8 times in the books of the Prophets and once in the Ketuvim (the Holy Writings, from the Psalms to II Chronicles). This expression serves there as a prophetic sign, whether of prophecies of doom, or of repentance or of blessing.
There is a strange detail in that Ya’aqov does not actually promise to tell them about what will happen (???? – Yiqreh) to them, but “that which will call (???? – Yiqare) you at the last days”, as if the destiny of each tribe is that God would call him to an examination, as He called the forefathers – or even that the Lord will read them (???? – Yiqra) like reading a text, will read their book of life or their verdict. Ya’?qov now calls his sons and tells them – how, why or to whom – they will be called in the future. Such a reading of the text that we are examining is confirmed when Ya’?qov starts in a judgmental mode, and what is told to the sons is initially like judgment and reprimand more than a prophecy.
The best known prophecy about “The Last Days” (Acharit haYamim) is the one that repeats both in Isaiah (2:2-3) and (with minor changes) in Mikhah (4:1-2): “And it shall come to pass in the last/end of days (Acharit haYamim), that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say: ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Ya’?qov; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For out of ?iyon shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Yerushalem”. The prophets seem to attribute this expression to Ya’aqov, by characterizing the temple of “the Last Days” as “the house of the God of Ya’aqov”, and characterizing the acceptance of the God of Ya’?qov by the nations by their agreement that “He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths” – namely that all the nations would follow (Ya’aqvu) the ways and the paths of the God of Ya’aqov, and thereby they would actually become “Ya’?qov”, namely “future followers (of the Lord)”.
“Gather and listen the sons of Ya’aqov and hlisten to Yisra’el your father”
In this one sentence there is found the duality that followed Ya’aqov for half of his life, the tension between “Ya’aqov” and “Yisra’el”. the two terms are employed on this one occasion: Ya’?qov the grumbling father who cannot forgive and cannot rise over the favoritism of the loved sons over those who were not – and Yisra’el, the father of the eternal nation, who knows how things would develop. He calls his sons to hear, simultaneously, two “prophecies”: one directed to the past, “listen the son sof Ya’aqov”, the sons who continue and follow their father, who was all his life drifting and following; the second one is orientated to the future – “listen to Yisrael” – shim’u el Yisra’el – as “el” is a directional call to the future, a call that is also built inside the name Yisra’el, which is a verb in future tense. We shall try to follow the two overlapping prophecies: first we shall analyze the message to “the sons of Ya’aqov, and then survey the blessing from the complete perspective of “Yisra’el”.
From the perspective of “Ya’?qov”, it can be claimed that the game is rigged and that Ya’?qov has decided to transfer the seniority and the blessing to Yoseph. This involves removing the first three sons of Le’ah from the list of candidates for seniority and the limiting of Yehudah’s seniority “until Shiloh comes”. Yet Yehudah already has his own standing, and from his mention on, the blessings start coming to all the other sons.
In the beginning of the ceremonial occasion, however, the father still functions as “Ya’aqov” – complaining about the sons of Le’ah, the unloved wife and favors Yoseph the son of Ra?el, the beloved wife: “Re’uven, thou art my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength; the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then thou didst defile it; he went up to my couch.
Shim’?n and Levi are brothers; Instruments of cruelty are their swords. Let my soul not come into their council; to their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they lamed an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Ya’aqov, and scatter them in Yisra’el” (49:3-7).
Ya’aqov reprimands his three senior sons. Re’uven was disqualified because of his affair with Bilhah, Shim’on and Levi – for the affair of Dinah and Shekhem. In fact the two are punished, as no estate is allotted them, and Shekhem – which they took by violence – was not allotted to them but became a part of the estate of Yoseph, as he was already promised privately before: “
“Moreover I have given to thee one Shekhem more than thy brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Emori with my sword and my bow” (48:22). Ya’aqov relates to Shim’on and Levi as to one person – “Shim’on and Levi are brothers” – abd it seems as if he even punishes them: “I will divide them in Ya’?qov and scatter them in Yisra’el”. It could be concluded that since Ya’aqov had already given the blessings and estates to his two grandchildren from Yoseph (“Ephrayim and Menasheh… are mine, as Re’uven and shim’?n they shall be mine”), he might not have enough estates to bequeath to all the twelve, and he dispossessed the two sons who were implicated in destroying the local people.
Yet, because the future Israel would be so vast and include twelve tribes – there will be the possibility of dividing them in Ya’?qov and scattering them in Yisra’el. Observing the historical progression, it would appear that this was not a punishment, as might be surmised from Ya’?qov’s words.
When we compare this round of blessing to the blessings imparted by Moshe to the tribes in Parashat “veZot haBerakhah”, we find that Moshe blessed Re’uven: “Let Re’uven live, and not die, and let not his men be few” (Deut. 33:6); he ignored Shim’?n altogether and gave his place in the twelve for Menasheh; whereas to Levi (the tribe that Moshe came from) he multiplied the blessings. Levi indeed got scattered in Israel – but did it as a religious mission of th highest importance, serving the sacred.
About the tribe of Shim’?n we have but scarce knowledge and already in the blessing of the tribes in parashat veZot haBerakhah he is not mentioned at all. But this disappearance allowed in historical course to absorb another people or tribe – the Edomites – who in due course settled in the region of Shim’?n and eventually got converted by the Hashmonites.
“Yehudah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Yehudah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? The staff shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the specter from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and the obedience of the peoples be his. Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk” (49:8-12).
After Ya’?qov has already exhausted most of his bitterness over his three senior sons, he arrives at Yehudah, to whom he owes a lot – for it was Yehudah who lead the tribes (“I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him”) and who enabled their descent to Egypt, where he confronted Yoseph who appeared like an alien ruler who schemed to take Binyamin for a slave. Ya’?qov’s gratitude turns into a personal recognition: “Yehudah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise…”.
The word “thou” – atah – is special and is not told to any one of the twelve brothers but Yehudah. With this word Ya’aqov establishes the senior status of Yehudah.
It should be noted that the experience of the divine may manifest in three modalities – as the hidden “Him” or “Who”; or as the present “Thou” (atah); and even as the “I”, in the case of prophets of Messiah. In modern times, social philosopher Martin Buber characterized the essence of divine experience as relationship to “The Eternal Thou”. It is from this significant Atah that derives another recognition of Yehudah’s leadership: “… thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies”. Let me explain:
We have already mentioned the semantic fact that the letters of the word HaORePh (????) – meaning “the Neck”- are the same as those of the name PaR’OH (????) – Pharaoh. Turning the neck signifies rejection and alienation, while turning the face signifies relationship and concern. “Yehudah atah…” signifies excellence in the quality of turning to the other. Yehudah aught to be the mesanger/apostle to the messianic mission of eliminating all the “Par’?h” quality of this world, all the rejections in the world, and the establishment of the “I-Thou” quality. Not only your brothers will thank you – even your enemies will losen their customary turning their neck.
Just before the blessing to Yehudah comes the word “Yisra’el”. The past-oriented and avenging “Ya’?qov” turns – when it comes to Yehudah – into “Yisra’el” – which is a future-oriented name.
“thy father’s children shall bow down before thee”. The root cause for the contention among the brothers was when Yoseph told his brothers how in his dream how all the sheaves of the brothers bowed down before him and even the stars that represent his brothers and the sun and moon that represent the parents. And here, at the end of the contention, Ya’?qov promises that the brothers would actually bow down before Yehudah. (It should be noted that, by then, Yoseph has already actualized the potential bowing down of the brothers before him.)
The prophetic blessing to Yehudah contains both the promise of dominion over the Land of Kena’?n, “The staff shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the specter from between his feet, until Shiloh comes”, and the material blessing that was snatched away from Esav, “His eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk”.
But what we generally do not notice is that also the blessing to Yehudah is limiting. Ya’?qov, who tells Yehudah “that which shall befall you in the last days”, is in an inner conflict, and gives something of the kind of blessing that Yi??aq gave to Esav to try to appease him after the seniority blessing had already been usurped by Ya’aqov: “… and thou shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck”. In the words “The staff shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the specter from between his feet”, there is seemingly an eternal seniority. But in effect it is a blessing for a limited time – “until Shiloh comes”.
Who, or what is Shiloh? Is this a historical figure? Jewish and Christian interpreters often identify him with the future “Messiah Son of David”. But from the plain text, the term that precedes the mention of “Shiloh” is “Mechoqeq“, which the Koren translation we used (as do most other translations) translated as “specter”. But the plain meaning of this Hebrew word is “Law-Giver”, and the use of “Mechoqeq” here foretells of the ultimate law giver for the entire Nation of Israel. Who is the law-giver for Israel, whose authority exceeds that of Ya’?qov or of Yehudah, if not Moshe (Moses)? Ya’?qov did try to exclude the tribe of Levi from the estates of all Yisra’el, but Moshe the Levite came later and returned the Levites to the center of the action at the Tabernacle and the Temple, where there was also enacted the work of the Law and the judgment of the Sanhedrin.
But if the meaning of “Shilo” is a place, to which Yehudah and his brothers would go, then Shiloh was the place of the Tabernacle for many decades, and it is mentioned in the context of the settlement of the land (Yehoshu’a 16:5-8) as actually in the domain of Ephrayim: “And the border of the children of Ephrayim according to their families was thus: the border of their inheritance on the east side was ?troth-addar, to upper Beth-horon. And the border went out westward, Mikhmethat on the north side; and the border went about eastward to Ta’anat-shiloh, and passed by it on the east of Yano?a. And it went down from Yano?a to ?tarot and to Na’?rat, and came to Yeri?o, and went out at the Yarden. From Tapua’ch the border went along westward to the wadi Qana; and its terminations were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families”. From this it is possible to understand that the seniority of Yehudah would hold till the Tabernacle would come to Shiloh – something that apparently happened long time ago and since then there were many developments that fixed the seniority of Yehudah and the place of the Temple at the border of Yehudah and Binyamin. If that is the case, then Ya’aqov has been continuing here to prefer Yoseph-Ephrayim over Yehudah.
From all this it appears that “the last days” for Ya’?qov do not reach a future farther than Moshe’s time. The seniority of Yehudah was marked in history by David and his kingdom, and even though the Kingdom of Yisra’el kept the practical seniority till the exile of the tribes, eventually it was the Tribe of Yehudah that survived, the kingdom of Yehudah survived last and there formed “The Jewish People” of today. As long as “Yisra’el” has not been re-established and no other tribes appeared, Yehudah was necessarily the senior. But “the Last Days” of the prophets is still waiting to beyond our times – and today, when the State of Israel has been established, necessarily the question of the seniority of Yehudah may rise.
“Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk”. The continuation of th prophetic blessing to Yehudah is connected with vines and wine (five mentions!) and is fitting for the estate of Yehudah at the Hevron region, which has always excelled in its vines. In the following we’ll see that Ya’aqov requested in his testament to be buried at the Makhpelah Cave in ?evron, in the area that would become the estate of Yehudah, and thus the father gave a special blessing to Yehudah. The issue of the vine also begs a favorable comparison between Yehudah and No’a?.
“Zevulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, and he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall be upon Tzidon. Yissakhar is a strong ass couching down between the sheep-folds. and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute”. The order of the blessings here is not the order of birth (as did Yoseph), because the the sons of the maids were born before Zevulun and Yissakhar (see amplification about the order of the tribes below). The seniority here is indeed to the sons of Le’ah, the mistress who is buried at the Makhpelah Cave. But the tendency to criticize is still affecting and the regard to Yissakhar is actually negative.
“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Yisra’el. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I wait for Thy salvation, O LORD”. Here is again a prophetic issue: “Dan shall judge his people” – this apparently refers to the judge Shimshon from the tribe of Dan, whose war against the ruling Philistines was by cunning like a serpent’s. The blessing to Dan is as to the senior among the sons of the maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. Dan is the firstborn among them, who eventually attained leadership as one of the four tribal standard-bearers – “the standard of the Camp of Dan”. There is thus importance to the emphasis “as one of the tribes of Yisra’el” and not of a lower status. From this follows the prophetic blessing to the other three tribes. It is apparent inthese short blessings that Ya’?qov-Yisra’el is obliged to say something, just to asert that they are counted among the twelve–fold “Yisra’el”. “Gad, raiders shall maraud him; but he shall overcome at the last. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words”.
It is then that arrive the blessings to Yoseph, and they are the most plentiful and detailed of all the blessings: “Yoseph is a fruitful bough (Porat), a fruitful bough by a well; its branches run over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him, and shot at him, and hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made supple by the hands of the Mighty God of Ya’aqov, from thence, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Yisra’el. By the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. The blessings of thy father are potent beyond the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Yoseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren” (49:22-26).
The blessing to Yoseph contains the promise for great numerical increase. The tex. t repeats twice about the fertility “Ben Porat Yoseph, ben Porat ale Ayin” – the word “Porat” (translated in the Koren Bible as “bough”) has to do with Piryon – Fertility. This repetition can also be explained in that “the House of Yoseph” has already contained two potential tribes – Menasheh and Ephrayim – and each one of them was considered “Ben Porat”. Also, in the blessings for Yoseph there appear explicitly the two names of the father – Ya’?qov and Yisra’el. This is only his beloved son Yoseph that Ya’?qov explicitly blesses (by using the word “Blessings” – Berakhot): “by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. The blessings of thy father are potent beyond the blessings of my progenitors”. Altogether, Ya’?qov gives unequivocal clear blessings only to Yehudah and Yoseph.
“Binyamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil”. Thus, in a minor key end the blessings to the tribes. For some – it is doubtful if they are a blessing or perhaps a curse, some are short and non-committal sayings about material wealth (Asher), cultural endowment (Naphtali) and jurisdiction (Dan). Seemingly they are not significant, but it is clear that in order to attain the blessing, the twelve aught to cleave together. That which is not so significant when standing alone – joins together into a blessed whole.
The Significance of the Twelve
At the end of the ceremony comes a kind of “editorial comment”: “All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’el, and this is that which their father spoke to them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them”. Whatever he spoke to them, was their blessing, as Ya’aqov had to divide the blessing of Abraham not between two, but also not between thirteen or forteen (if we include also the sons of Yoseph whom he promised earlier to bless) – but to a dozen.
The importance of the Twelve Tribes – and specifically twelve and not another number – is so great, that quite a few Midrashim see them as the goal of the Creation. Thus, for example in the Psikta (4): “All that the holy One created – for the sake of the tribes he created. You find twelve months in the year, twelve constellations in the heavens, twelve hours in the day and twelve hours of night. Said the Holy One: ‘Even the higher and lower (worlds) I created only for the sake of the tribes’, as written ‘For all those things (Kol Eleh) has my hand made’ (Isaiah 66:2), for the merit of ‘All these – Kol Eleh – are the twelve tribes of Yisra’el’ (Gen. 49:28).
In the following table the tribes are presented by their order in Ya’?qov’s blessing. Not only the chronological order but also their place according to Ya’?qov’s regard to the mentioned son and the images that serve to tell his destiny. The relative “status” is indicated from the number of words and sentences that the dying father assigned for each one of his sons.
| The son | Regard of the father | Image | # words/ sentences | Status | ||
| Re’uven | Negative | Unstable as water | 11/2 | 4 | ||
| Shim’?n | Negative | Instruments of cruelty are their swords. … in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they lamed an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel | 32/3 | 6-7 | ||
| Levi | Negative | |||||
| Yehudah | Very good | Yehudah is a lion’s whelp… He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? … Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine… His eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk | 55/5 | 2 | ||
| Zevulun | Positive | Haven for ships, and his border shall be upon ?idon. | 10/1 | 8 | ||
| Yissakhar | Negative | strong ass couching down between the sheep-folds | 20/2 | 5 | ||
| Dan | Excellent | A serpent in the way… that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward | 23/3 | 3 | ||
| Gad | Positive | Gad, raiders shall maraud him; but he shall overcome at the last. | 6/1 | 11 | ||
| Asher | Positive | Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. | 7/1 | 10 | ||
| Naphtali | Positive | Naphtali is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words | 6/1 | 12 | ||
| Yoseph | Excellent | a fruitful bough (Porat), a fruitful bough by a well; its branches run over the wall… | 61/5 | 1 | ||
| Binyamin | Positive | Binyamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil | 9/1 | 9 | ||
Altogether, there are 25 sentences and 250 words in these blessings, so it is easy to calculate the percentage of each tribe in the blessing.
Seemingly, Yoseph has the first relative place (with 61 words, versus Yehudah with 55, and the same number of sentences). But in effect Yehudah is the first among the tribes, because the blessings to Yoseph are actually blessings to two tribes (as was already promised to Yoseph earlier, and as would be stated explicitly in the blessing of Moshe). The part of the four sons of the maidservants is significant, when taken as one group whose members all receive a positive regard. While the blessings to Gad, Asher and Naphtali are short and almost just to have mention for all the twelve, and while the total number of words in the blessings for these four sons is just 42 words, compared with 61 for Yoseph and 55 for Yehudah, they nevertheless receive 6 (=24%) sentences in the blessings, more than Yoseph or Yehudah, who only receive 5 (=20%) each, so that they are a considerable balancing factor in the competition between Yoseph and Yehudah.
Ya’?qov was the first to deliver a “testament” to the Tribes of Yisra’el. In the course of the generations there would appear in scriptures other “Testaments to, or of, the Tribes” that become increasingly detailed. Moshe engaged in them in parashat “veZot haBerakhah” – the last parashah in the Pentateuch, and the Apocryphal scriptures, written at the end of the 2nd Temple period, long after the disappearance of most of the tribes, include several versions of such testaments.
The blessing of Ya’?qov to his sons is very biased and uneven. It is worthwhile to compare it with the mention of the tribes at the dedication of the Tabernacle (Numbers 7), which details the sacrifices brought by the princes of the 12 tribes. The scriptures repeat the verses with ceremonial formality 12 times in exact repetition, and no tribe has a word more or less than another. We learn that only when there appears the additional and central element – the Tabernacle (or the Temple) can all the 12 tribes attain fully equitable ceremonial status.
The Blessing to the Twelve Tribes and the Spiritual Order of Israel
What is the special significance of the Twelve First, the twelve is of practical significance in that it allows an equal (and thus fair and equitable) division according to many methods, thereby the twelve harmonizes the contradictory needs of diversity and unity. The twelve can be divided into two, three, four or six equal parts – and thus replace the dominance and polarity of the division to two in a more flexible and sensitive structure of changing coalitions.
Yet these practical attributes derive from a special mathematical-geometrical order that is characterized by the Twelve – an order that is also “heavenly order” and “spiritual order”. The goal of the Book of Genesis is to form the Nation of Israel – and the objective is not to make a nation like any other nation, but to create a Holy Nation, as Moshe declared twice “For thou art a holy people to the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God has chosen thee to be a special people (Am Segulah) to Himself, above peoples that are upon the face of the earth” (Deut. 7:6 & 14:2, also Exodus 19:5). The structure of the Dozen comprises an important means for this aims, only like that would the Nation of the Israel form “a special people for all the peoples”.
One of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, Abraham Joshua Heschel, dedicates the last chapter of his book “God in search of Man” to the essence of the People of Israel[4] (see appendix ‘D’, containing the section about “The People of Israel – a Spiritual Order”). Heschel proclaims: “Israel is a spiritual order in which the human and the ultimate, the natural and the holy enter a lasting covenant, in which kinship with God is not an aspiration but a reality of destiny. For us Jews there can be no fellowship with God without the fellowship with the people of Israel. Abandoning Israel, we desert God”
In the rest of the books of the Pentateuch, the tribes are recalled repeatedly – and it is interesting that their order is not identical but leaps in various ways (leaps that resemble changes of seats by a round table). Throughout the Pentateuch the tribes are enumerated in 16 occasions in 14 different orders. Even the identity of the tribes may change. Shim’?n soon disappears (and in Moshe’s blessing he does not appear any more), Levi did not receive an estate, whereas Menasheh and Ephrayim appear. The impression that is derived is that the aim is to preserve the basic pattern – the pattern of the Twelve – whereas the identity of the tribes is secondary. (the contentions and struggles between the tribes were determined primarily by the mother, namely the biological-ethnic belonging. Inside the large group of the sons of Le’ah there was an additional contention, over seniority and ability).
In the following table appear all the listings of the tribes in the Pentateuch, 16 in all (they are colored by their mother: Blue – sons of Le’ah; Green – sons of Zilpah; Grey, sons of Bilhah; Purple – sons of Ra?el):
| 1 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Dan | Naphtali | Gad | Asher | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Yoseph | Binyamin |
| 2 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Yoseph | Binyamin | Dan | Naphtali | Gad | Asher |
| 3 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Gad | Asher | Yoseph | Binyamin | Dan | Naphtali |
| 4 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Zevulun | Yisakhar | Dan | Gad | Asher | Naphtali | Yoseph | Binyamin |
| 5 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Binyamin | Dan | Naphtali | Gad | Asher | Yoseph |
| 6 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Levi | |||||||||
| 7 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Ephrayim | Menashe | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | Gad | Naphtali |
| 8 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Gad | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Ephrayim | Menashe | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | Naphtali |
| 9 | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Gad | Ephrayim | Menashe | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | Naphtali |
| 10 | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Gad | Ephrayim | Menashe | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | Naphtali |
| 11 | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Gad | Ephrayim | Menashe | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | Naphtali |
| 12 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Binyamin | Zevulun | Ephrayim | Menashe | Dan | Asher | Naphtali | Gad |
| 13 | Re’uven | Shim’?n | Gad | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Zevulun | Menashe | Ephrayim | Binyamin | Dan | Asher | |
| 14 | Yehudah | Shim’?n | Binyamin | Dan | Menashe | Ephrayim | Zevulun | Yisakhar | Asher | Naphtali | ||
| 15 | Shim’?n | Levi | Yehudah | Yisakhar | Yoseph | Binyamin | Re’uven | Gad | Asher | Zevulun | Dan | Naphtali |
| 16 | Re’uven | Yehudah | Levi | Binyamin | Yoseph | Zevulun | Yisakhar | Gad | Dan | Naphtali | Asher |
1) vaYetze, by birth; 2) vaYila?, at Ya’?qov’s return; 3) vaYigash, going to Egypt; 4) vaYe?i, Ya’?qov’s blessing; 5) Shemot; 6) vaEra; 7) baMidbar, census; 8) baMidbar, according to families; 9) baMidbar, according to the standards; 10) Naso, offrings of tribal leaders; 11) beHa’?lotkha, march by standards; 12) Shelach, the spies; 13) Pinchas, division of the land; 14) Mas’e, leaders f tribes; 15) Tavo, appointed to bless; 16) veZot haBerakhah, order at Moshe’s final blessing.
What, then, is the ideal ordering of the twelve?
The most common order is that of the tribes’ camps around the Tabernacle, and it is the likely ideal order according to the Torah: in the center – the Tabernacle with the tribe of Levi that service it, and around it at the four cardinal directions the rest of the Twelve Tribes, divided into four groups of three, of which the first is the leading tribe, the standard-bearer.
In the table below, the tribes are arrayed by this preferred order, along with the arrangements of the Twelve according to other common systems: 1) the Tribe of Israel according to the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle; 2) The months of the year, like a round table or returning wheel, associated with the tribes; 3) the Astrological sign for that month; 4) The astrological-alchemical “element” of that sign; 5) the complementary element of that sign; 6) according to the 12 permutations of the Tetragrammaton, as attributed by the holy ARI; 7) the corresponding letters according to the Sefer Ye?irah; 8) according to the mothers of the tribes; 9) according to the cardinal directions (which is the common concept of the divisions of humankind, ”West” “South” etc. ) facing out from the center.
| Tribe | Month | Sign | Element | Affinity | Tetra-grammaton | Letter | Mother | Side |
| Yehudah | Nissan | Aries | Fire | Water | YHWH | ? he | Le’ah | East left |
| Yisakhar | Iyar | Taurus | Earth | Water | YHHW | ? waw | Le’ah | East center |
| Zevulun | Sivan | Gemini | Air | Water | YWHH | ? zayn | Le’ah | East right |
| Re’uven | Tammuz | Cancer | Water | Air | HWHY | ? ?et | Le’ah | South left |
| Shim’?n | Av | Leo | Fire | Air | HWYH | ? tet | Le’ah | South center |
| Gad | Elul | Virgo | Earth | Air | HHWY | ? yud | Zilpah | South right |
| Ephrayim | Tishre | Libra | Air | Earth | WHYH | ? lamed | Ra?el | West left |
| Menasheh | ?eshvan | Scorpio | Water | Earth | WHHY | ? nun | Ra?el | West center |
| Binyamin | Kislev | Sagitarius | Fire | Earth | WYHH | ? samakh | Ra?el | West right |
| Dan | Tevet | Capricorn | Earth | Fire | HYHW | ? ?yin | Bilhah | North left |
| Asher | Shvat | Aquarius | Air | Fire | HYWH | ? ?adi | Zilhpa | North center |
| Naphtali | Adar | Pisces | Water | Fire | HHYW | ? qoph | Bilhah | North right |
The Principle of the Dozen in the Scriptures and the Sages
We have examined cases of the principle of the twelve in the Book of Genesis and mentioned a few cases also in other books of the Torah. But this principle appears in additional places in the scriptures, from which we can learn additional aspects of this principle.
Thus, for example, the set of the prophets’ books in the Hebrew Bible includes three major prophets and twelve (tre-asar) minor prophets. Since the sages claim that there were myriad prophets in Israel, the presentation of the phenomenon of prophecy in this particular pattern has a special symbolic significance. Just like the the emergence of the entity called “Yisra’el” was achieved through three fathers (as well as four mothers) and twelve sons of Yisra’el, so does the Prophecy contain three “major “father prophets” and twelve minor, who together represent the direct communication – Yahsar-el – with the El (God) that is potentially available to each person of the Community of Yisra’el.
Each one of the Hebrew prophets has a different style of prophecy. The Hebrew Bible thus aims to demonstrate to us the availability of twelve communication channels between God and Yisra’el, each with different emphases and sensitivities. The communication reaching through prophets aims at “mid-course changes” of the moves of Yisra’el in history. The pattern chosen for the books of the prophets implies that these twelve communication channels can also change direction – to re-turn Yisra’el to our Father in Heaven.
The sages have an image of “the Twelve Camps of the Shekhinah” (the living Divine Presence) as twelve camps of angels that surround the Shekhinah, just as the tribes surrounded the Tabernacle in the Sinai desert. These are then the twelve types of angels, that is messengers or intermediaries that mediate the connections between the human and the divine.
The Tribes and the Holy Tree
In the beginning of this chapter we showed that Parashat Vayechi closes a circle that opened at Bereshit. We bring now another element that connects the beginning and end of the Book of Genesis, which is “The Tree of Life”. Parashat Bereshit tells how was a dynamic barrier put to bar “the way of the Tree of Life” (3:24). At parashat vaYera we found at the story of the ?qedah something about “the bright blade of a revolving sword” on the way to the Tree of Life, and in parashat ?aye Sarah we touched upon the subject of the eternal life (Chayim) of Kenesset Yisra’el. Now here, at parashat vaYe?i, we can find more clues to the Tree of Life (Etz ha?ayim) as a tree that is also the assembly of the twelve tribes of Israel. Note that such a reading is strongly suggested in the Hebrew language, as the name “Shevatim” – Tribes – actually mean “branches”, and therefore the association of the assembly of the tribes and a tree is natural.
This conceptual association between the tribes of Israel and the Tree of Life already appears in the first book of the Qabbalah, Sefer haBahir, which quotes from the ancient book, Sefer Yetzirah, where the concept of “twelve diagonal boundaries/edges” issued. The Bahir brings the issue of the tree right after discussing the twelve tribes (within a discussion of the 72 Names of God):
94 – “Rabbi Amora’i set and taught, why is it written “Behold, the heaven and heavens cannot contain thee” (I Kings 8:27). This shows that the Holy One has 72 names and he tied them to the tribes as written, “Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names on the other stone, according to their birth” (Exodus28:10), and it is written, “and Yehoshu? set up twelve stones….” (Joshua 4:9). Like those (two) stones are memorial stones, so these (twelve) stones are memorial stones, and the twelve stones are 72, corresponding to the 72 names of the Holy One. And why did He start with twelve? To teach that the Holy One has twelve leaders and each one has six potencies and what are they? Twelve words”.
95 – “And the Holy One has one tree, in which there are twelve diagonal edges – north-eastern, south-eastern, upper-eastern, lower-eastern, south-western, north-western, upper –western, lower-western, upper-southern, lower-southern, upper northern, lower-northern and they extend outwards forever, and they are the arms of the world, and in their midst is that tree…”.
98 – And all the sacred figures (Tzurot – forms, hieroglyphs) rule all the (72) nations and the holy people of Yisra’el took the trunk of the tree and its heart/ Jusst like the heart, that is the glory (hadar) of the fruit also Yisra’el took the fruit of the citrus tree (Etz hadar). Like the palm tree whose fronds are around and its Lulav (the palm heart, used in Jewish ceremonies) is in the middle, also Yisra’el took the body of this tree which is its heart (letters L B W => 32, 6) and parallel to the body (of the tree) the spin in the human body, which is the base of the body. And like the Lulav is written “Lo Lev” (?? ?? – meaning “heart for him”), also the heart is given to him and what is Lev/LB? This is (by Gematria) 32 paths of wondrous wisdom (an expression at that opens the Sefer Ye?irah), also at each of the paths there is a guardian figure as is written “to guard the way to the Tree of Life” (Gen. 3:24)
99 – And what are these figures (Tzurot)? As is written there “and He placed the Keruvim (cherubs) at the Qedem (“east”, but also “before” or “earlier”) of the Garden of ?den and the bright blade of the revolving sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life”. What means “placed before the Garden of ?den”? Placed them in those paths that came before the place called “Garden of ?den”, which came before the Keruvim.
The Book of the Zohar regards the Tree of Life itself as created in the pattern of the Twelve: “We have learned, by the power of the king’s will (Sefirat haBinah) there was planted a tree, huge and stupendous. This tree is planted among the supernal plantings, it turns around in twelve domains, and its legs are spread to the four cardinal directions…. From it the sea is filled and it is the source for all the water fountains. All the waters of Genesis divide under it, all the irrigation of the Garden depends on it. All the souls of the world fly and issue from it, and these souls enter the Garden of Eden in order to descend to this world” (Zohar, Sitre torah for parashat Lekh Lekha). In a discussion about the order of the tribes and their standards the Zohar says: “it is written ‘Every man of the children of Yisra’el shall pitch by his own standard (al diglo), with the (en)sign (otot) of their father’s house’ (Num. 2:2) – these are the four camps of the Assembly of Yisra’el (Knesset Yisra’el), which are twelve tribes, twelve domains around her. All these are like it is above, as written ‘there the tribes used to go up, the tribes of the lord…’ (Psalm 122:4). “There the tribes used to go up”, these are the twelve tribes, which are twelve domains on the earth below” (Zohar baMidbar, page 118b). This association continues in Qabbalah and ?assidut writings. Thus it is included in Rabbo Moshe Cordovero’s authoritative compilation, the Pardes (garden of secrets, gate 21, chapter 6) and so also Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of the Chabad movement) specifically compares the twelve tribes to the twelve branches of “the holy Tree” (Liqute Torahfor Mas’? concerning the borders of the land of Israel): “and as we find in the Book of the Zohar on baMidbar (see above) “twelve tribes, twelve domains around her” this is the Holy Tree that is my seal, and this is like what is written in the book of the Pardes that quotes Sefer haBahir, ‘the Holy One has one tree, in which there are twelve diagonal edges…’.”
Also the modern Jewish theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel, in his above quoted passage (more at appendix D “Israel – a spiritual order”) wrote: “Israel is a tree, we are the leaves. It is the clinging to the stem that keeps us alive”.
Parashat vaYe?i that closes the Book of Genesis closes, therefore, the cycle of human life, which starts at the Garden of ?den and the Tree of Life and ends with the promise of eternal life for that Tree of Life of the Twelve Tribes.
From our exegesis of the Book of Genesis as a prophetic book that aims for our times, we can claim that the reconciliation and restitution to what happened to Adam facing the Tree of Knowledge, would come by the restoration of the Twelve Tribes, and the Tree of Life would reappear. The restoration of the Twelve Tribes of Israel is at the heart of the global restoration (Tiqqun Olam) that is presently required.
The pattern of the Twelve serves Moshe (or the editors of the Torah) for creating the restored new nation of Yisra’el from the Egyptian “mixed multitudes”. If that new nation would have been formed by the pattern of Egypt, as one monolithic political entity, the absorption would have been much more difficult. Since each group of entrants was given a tribal identity, which bonds him to his tribal brothers, the original children of Yisra’el the integration was likely much easier.
Moreover, this is the way how the People of Israel would be able to become “treasure from among all peoples” – Segulah mikol haAmim – and “people of the Lord’s possession” – Am Segulah – (Exodus 19:5; Deut. 26:18). It is important to know the full meaning of this special term – Segulah.
This Hebrew word Segulah is related to two additional Hebrew terms: Segol, which is the sign for a vowel (the sound of ‘e’), and the reflexive form histaglut, meaning “adaptability”.
The Segol is a vowel whose pronouncement has the quality of a middle path. While the vowels of Qamatz(sound ‘aa’) or Pata? (sound ‘a’) have to do with expansion, the opening of the lips and exhalation of much air from the throat, whereas the pronouncement of shuruq (sounds ‘u’) and ?olam (sounds ‘o’) demand tightening the lips and a short economic exhalation – the Segol is intermediary between them. Even its graphic form recalls compromise and the middle way. It has a point to the right and a point to the left and below and between them a balancing point. We can adopt the cybernetic language and see in the Segol a “unit of Control” between the unit of “positive feedback” that leads to expansion and “negative feedback” that leads to contraction. This is the only way to form a dynamic balance, which allows a healthy controlled growth. In other words, the Segol is the symbol for a control system that promotes histaglut (adaptation).
If we return now to the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle and facing it – we can say that each triplet of tribes form a Segol. Namely, the standard-bearer tribe, the initiator-leader stands at the right hand and represents the expansive positive feedback (the side of Chesed {Mercy}) in the Qabbalah), whereas the other two tribes, in the middle and to the Left – are for balancing and for the contractive and punctual negative feedback (side of Din {Judgment} in the Qabbalah).
Returning to the Tree of Life, this tree ought to be planted in the earth. The next part of the parashah and the end of the book of Genesis is dedicated to the assurance of the planting of the tree, which is the People of Yisra’el, in the soil of the Land of Yisra’el.
The Pattern of the Settlement of the Tribes in the Land of Israel.
As shown in the chapter of Parashat Lekh Lekha concerning Abraham as investigating the powers of the earth and the sacred sites for healing, the Land of Yisra’el seems to have been formed in order to accommodate twelve tribal groups and give each one its own character. The land is divided by nature to three lateral climatic bands: the North that has much precipitation and water; the center, which is moderate in fertility; and the South, the Negev, which is arid. Between the Mediterranean Sea and the trans-Jordanian plateau, the land is divided by another clear division – in this case a morphological division – to four longitudinal bands: the coastal plain, the western hills, the Syrian- African Rift that creates the Jordan valley, and the Trans-Jordanian plateau. So these three lateral and four longitudinal bands create twelve natural regions that are different, both ecologically and – as consequence – culturally.
When we consider the means of transportation in those days of the Israelite settlement of the land, we see that the land was large enough to effect adaptive changes, namely, to form twelve distinct cultural units. This way, Yissakhar, who lived in the fertile Galilee, “he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant”. Zevulun, whose estate stretched from the sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea, “would dwell by the shore of the sea, and he shall be a haven for ships” and raise seamen. Compare with them, the crowned rulers of the tribes came from the tribes that were situated for hardy living – Binyamin and even more Yehudah. There was a need for the cliffs of Ein-Gedi to strengthen David to become a king over the twelve tribes. The two locations that Ya’?qov singled in his testament – Shekhem and ?evron – are the controlling locations inside which there grew the competing kingdoms of the People of Yisra’el, and Jerusalem – which is on the border of Yehudah and Binyamin the son of Rachel – is the place for joining them.
“And he charged them, and said to them: ‘I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of ?fron the ?ittite, in the cave that is in the field of Makhpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Kena’?n, which Avraham bought with the field from ?fron the ?ittite for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Avraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Yitzchaq and Rivqah his wife; and there I buried Le’ah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is in it, from the children of Cheth.’ And when Ya’aqov had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his people.” (49:29-33).
This testament is aimed to orient the sons of Ya’aqov to return to the land. Whithin the global vision of the torah, here is the beginning of the orientation for moving the sacred center of all the continents (which signals the center of all humankind) from Egypt (the Great Pyramid) to the Land of Yisra’el. After the description of the realization of the testament and the burial of Ya’aqov, we shall read about another claimed testament of Ya’aqov, about which Yoseph would hear from his brothers.
The planting of “The Tree of Life” of Yisra’el entails the return to the cave of the Makhpelah, the opening to the Garden of ?den according to the legend. Much as Sarah took care of the purchase of the place and its sanctification due to fixing her own burial and that of the other forefathers there, Ya’aqov-Yisra’el assures this again by completing the pattern of the Makhpelah (the multiplication).
5. The burial of Ya’aqov in the Land of Yisra’el and the promise to Yoseph to be buried there (chapter 50)
“And Yoseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Yoseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. And the physicians embalmed Yisra’el”. We have seen that the father died as “ya’?qov”. But here, when he is prepared for burial in the Land of Kena’an/Yisra’el, he returns to be called “Yisra’el”. Evidently, only the Par’?hs and the higher functionaries attained embalmment (mummification), and it is required the influence of Yoseph, the highest officer, to embalm a man who was a stranger to the Egyptians. The embalmment was needed to enable the transport of the corpse from Egypt to Kena’?n, which would demand a journey of several weeks (or even 40 years!). But the move also is a hint about moving the global sacred center from Egypt to the Land of Yisra’el, since the center in Egypt, which was connected to the rituals for the dead Par’?hs, was renowned for the attempt to sustain the life of the Par’?hs for eternity with the help of the mummification. But it is evident by now that the mummification of the Par’?hs in Egypt did not help them much, and over the time their memory became largely extinct – whereas the memory of Ya’aqov-Yisra’el was fixed to eternity in the consciousness of humankind through the Torah.
“And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed. And Mi?rayim wept for him seventy days”. The embalming of Ya’aqov and his morning required 110 days. The number 110 appears in the parashah twice. The very last verse of the Book of Bereshit (Genesis) states that Yoseph lived for 110 years.
“And when the days of his mourning were past, Yoseph spoke to the house of Par’?h, saying: ‘If now I have found favour in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying: My father made me swear, saying: Lo, I die; in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Kena’?n, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come back.’ And Par’oh said: ‘Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear’”. We may surmise from this that the burial of a mummy outside of Egypt was an exceptional event that needed the permission of Par’oh, and Par’oh would have likely refused. Yoseph did not ask for it directly, but through “the House of Par’oh” (but recall that actually the word “Par’oh” meant “The Great House”), and he justified it that his dying father made him swear and he had to keep his promise. This incident should be seen as a comparative introduction to what would happen centuries later, in the Exodus, when Moshe and Aharon would ask Par’?h permission to the going away of the people for a three days journey for a religious ceremony (Exodus 5:1-5), and Par’?h would refuse vehemently.
“And Yoseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Par’oh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Mitzrayim, and all the house of Yoseph, and his brothers, and his father’s house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Yarden (Jordan), and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father of seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Kena’?ni, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said: ‘This is a grievous mourning to Mi?rayim.’ So that the name of it was called Avbel- mitzrayim, which is beyond the Yarden”. The burial journey of the children of Yisra’el is related to two other journeys described in the Torah: The journey of Avraham, Yitzhaq and Avraham’s servants to the Land of Moriah, and the journey of the Children of Yisra’el through the desert, on their way to the Land of yisra’el. In both journeys there is a crooked spiral course – “Ya’?qov-like” – that only at its end one can see the direct trajectory – the “Yisra’el-like” – that ceremoniously connects the marking points (Tziyun-Zion) of the beginning and end. The exit from Egypt was in a large caravan, which recalls the exodus journey of the Children of Yisra’el. In the case of the regal funeral, there was no apparent need to avoid the shorter way, through the Land of the Plishtim (Philistines/Palestinians). But it seems that it was important for the scriptures to mark a course that is similar to the exodus journey that Moshe led and finished it beyond the Yarden (where he got mourned over). From there, from the same place that the desert generation would not come beyond, also the mourning Egyptians stopped “and there they mourned”.
“for his sons carried him into the land of Kena’an”. This recalls the journey to Mount Moriyah where, “On the third day Avraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Avraham said to his young men: ‘Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come back to you” (Gen. 22:4-5). The Egyptians stayed and did not enter the Land of Kena’?n, so to instruct the reader that they have no rule and part of the Land of yisra’el.
“and buried him in the cave of the field of Makhpelah, which Avraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of ?phron the Hittite, in front of Mamre”. The end of the journey, in the ceremonial burial, fixed the global axis along which human history would later take place, and even the journey of passing the world’s ceremonial center from Africa to Asia took place here. This major axis is from the mark (Tziyun) of Egypt as the center of the earth – the Great Pyramid – to Tziyon, which is Jerusalem. This exis that leads mainly eastwards is characterized by a “rise” to the north of about 26 degrees off the cardinal West-East axis. It is interesting that such an axis is already marked and hinted in the structure of the geometrical wonder of the Great Pyramid, where the path to its center (usually called “the King’s Chamber”) is an ascent of 26 degrees. The axis of this direction is exactly that of the axis of the directions of Yehudah the camps of Yehudah and Yoseph (Ephrayim) in the camping of the tribes and their ceremonial arrangement according to the New Jerusalem Diagram (See appendix ‘A’ and appendix ‘C’ to Genesis). This axis of the relationship of Yehudah and Yoseph is the major dynamic axis of the Tribes of Israel.
The burial here is not in Jerusalem, but in ?evron in the domain of Yehudah. In the sequel we’ll see that Yoseph, commanding to bury him too in the land of Kena’an, but in a different place, established an axis for the relations of Yehudah with the House of Yoseph. But before that, the Torah ascertains the return of amity between the brothers.
“And Yoseph returned into Mitzrayim, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. And when Yoseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said: ‘what if Yoseph will hate us, and will pay us back the evil which we did to him.’ And they sent word urgently to Yoseph, saying: ‘Thy father did command before he died, saying: So shall ye say to Yoseph: Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brothers, and their sin, for they did evil to thee. And now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.’ And Yoseph wept when they spoke to him. And his brothers even went and fell down before his face; and they said: ‘Behold, we are thy servants.’ And Yoseph said to them: ‘Fear not; for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it to pass at is this day that much people should be saved alive. Now therefore fear not; I will nourish you, and your little ones.’ And he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them” (Gen. 14-21). The fear of Yoseph’s brothers is understandable. It reminds us of Esav’s plan, “And Esav said in his heart: ‘Let the days of mourning for my father be at hand; then will I slay my brother Ya’aqov” (27:41). The brothers are exercising a typical “Ya’aqov-type” tactic, and tell Yoseph a rather strange story about their father’s testament, which was not mentioned about Ya’aqov (this is akin to the case of Ya’aqov telling his wives about his dream, which was not told in the scripture; Gen. 31:4-13). Perhaps the Torah did not tell us of this testament to keep the dramatic suspense, and perhaps the brothers went through this session secretly from Yoseph, much as Yoseph’s bringing Menasheh and Ephrayim to the ailing Ya’awas apparently in secret from the other brothers – all in the style of the snatching of the blessing to Ya’aqov from Esav. But it is also possible that they simply made up this story. The Savvy Yoseph could have suspected, for he was with them in the event of his father’s testament just before his death, and these words were not uttered there. But his response was cordial, just as then – “And Yoseph wept when they spoke to him”. The brothers are still worried (which is likely to show what they would have done at his place), and again offer themselves as servants to him (as Ya’?qov had done trying to reconcile with Esav who was much stronger than he: “say to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Ya’?qov” (32). But Yoseph relates to the past from the perspective of a divine plan, which dwarfs the considerations of personal injury rendering them irrelevant, and in this he takes here the seniority – “And he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them” in the Hebrew vayedaber al libam “spoke to their heart”.
From here issues the major message about the reconciliation of the bothers/tribes of the future – be they Jews and Christians, or Israelis and Palestinians, or any other forgotten brotherhood. The reconciliation is also ??????? that must reach the place of the heart.
“And Yoseph lived a hundred and ten years. And Yoseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation; the children also of Makhir the son of Manasseh were born upon Yoseph’s knees. And Yoseph said to his brethren: ‘I die; but God will surely remember you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which He swore to Avraham, to Yi??aq, and to Ya’?qov. And Yoseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying: ‘God will surely remember you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Yoseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Mi?rayim”. The fertility blessing that Yoseph received has already been realized in his lifetime. The last story in the Book of Genesis is the story of Yoseph who pledges his brothers to bring up his bones for burial in Kena’?n, just like Yisra’el; made his sons swear. It is actually Yoseph, who was the first to be brought down to Egypt, who was the only one of the fathers of the tribes who keeps the right to be buried in the Land of the Forefathers. The pledge is kept, and in the sequel (Exodus 13:19) we learn: “And Moshe took the bones of Yoseph with him; for he had straitly sworn the children of Yisra’el, saying: ‘God will surely remember you; and you shall carry up my bones away hence with you”.
Also the place for Yoseph’s future burial has already been fixed in Parashat vaYechi, after that in his blessing to Menashe and Ephrayim promises to Yoseph “And Yisra’el said to Yoseph: ‘Behold, I die; but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. And Yisra’el said to Yoseph: ‘Behold, I die; but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee Shekhem E?ad (one portion) above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow”. Shekhem, the navel of the land of Kena’?n, was promised to Yoseph and there he would get buried: “And the bones of Yooseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shekhem, in the parcel of ground which Ya’aqov bought of the sons of ?amor the father of Shekhem for a hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of the children of Yoseph” (Joshu? 24:32). By fixing the marking points (nequdot ?iyun) of the tombs of the forefathers in Hevron (which is in the domain of Yehudah) and in Shekhem (in the domain of the sons of Yoseph), the main axis of the relationship of Yehudah and Yisra’el was established within the real geography of the Land of Yisra’el in the South-North axis. The foundation of Yerushalem (Jerusalem) as a center point upon this axis balances it, and there the tribes would find the center point for the ceremonial and complete reconciliation between them: “Jerusalem, that art builded as a city that is joined together. Whither the tribes went up, even the tribes of Yah, as a testimony unto Israel, to give thanks to the name of YHWH” (Psalm 122:3-4).
Thus the goal of the Hebrew Bible (miqra) is that “Testimony for Yisra’el” (?dut leYisra’el) to be performed by the tribes that make pilgrimage to Yerushalayim. Rabbi shne’ur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the ?abad (Chabad) ?assidut explains that only the joining together of the tribes and their ascent in Jerusalem would constitute a testimony about the highest potential of humankind, the image of “the Supernal Human” (Adam del’ila) upon the throne of glory in Ezekiel’s vision “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it above” (Ezekiel 1:26), which is also like the view of “the Glory of the God of Yisra’el” that would be revealed at the future Temple (43:5-22). And to affirm this, the first three words of the Book of Genesis – beReshit Bara Elohim, already contain the expression “Be(resh)yt (bara) Elohim” – namely “The House of God”, whereas the last scene of the Book of Genesis, the testimony of Yisra’el to his twelve sons, is the beginning for the processes of “Testimonies to Yisra’el” which is performed around this House.
[1] In Hebrew there is a connection between “Creation” – Bri’ah ????? – and “Health” – Bri’ut ??????.
[2] Using Indian terms, this is “the Karma of humankind”.
[3] 137 is also the Gematria value of Qabbalah (????), meaning “Reception” or “Acceptance” and the common name for Jewish mysticism.
[4] We should comment that Heschel, as almost every Jewish thinker or Jews in general, identifies (unwittingly) “The Jewish People” with “The Nation of Israel” and does not consider the (non-Jewish) tribes of the Assembly of Israel, a question that is becoming an existential question for us in the contemporary State of Israel.
