Simchas Torah - V'Zos HaBeracha - 5780

Simchas Torah - V'Zos HaBeracha - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

May Reuven live and not die, and may his men be in the count. [Devarim 33:6]

Most of this parsha entails Moshe giving a blessing. But the style of the language

keeps changing, and it seems Moshe keeps changing who he is speaking to. In

order, his comments about Reuven, Yehudah, Levi, and Binyamin seem to be

addressed directly to God. But with Yosef there is a difference. The verses say,

"Blessed by God is his land", and "by the good will of Him Who rests in the

thornbush", in other words Moshe is not speaking to God, rather to some third

party about what God will do for Yosef. Next we see, "Rejoice Zevulun in your

departure, and Yissachar in your tents", where Moshe seems to be directing his

speech to the tribes themselves. For Gad and Dan, he returns to the third

person, but for Naphtali he goes back to a direct command to the tribe. He

wraps up with Asher, in the third person approach. Shimon is not mentioned

here, but that is a different subject.

Is there a lesson in these changes? I have not found anything on point, so if

anyone out there has references, please send them to me.

In the mean time, we look at the relatively equivalent blessing by Yaakov on

his deathbed to see whether we can learn anything. He begins by addressing

his sons directly to come listen. Then, "Reuven, you are my firstborn", also

direct. But "Shimon and Levi are comrades", and the rest of that paragraph is

entirely in the third person form. "Yehudah, you your brothers shall

acknowledge", and Yaakov is back to direct address. He does go back and

forth between that third person and direct, but the thrust of his words are

directly to Yehudah. Then, Yaakov goes over completely to this third person

format for the rest of his sons. We do not see any words directed to God,

only to the sons or to this unknown third person. There is no commonality

with the method Moshe uses.

Moshe uses three groups: addressing God, addressing the tribe, and the

third person. Speaking to God he mentions Reuven, Yehudah, Levi, and

Binyamin. Speaking to the tribe, it's Zevulun, Yissachar, and Naphtali. To the

unknown third person, he lists Yosef, Gad, Dan, and Asher. What are the

common factors in each group?

From the action of Reuven upon the death of Rachel, Moshe here may

have felt that the tribe deserved forgiveness from God, that they had

already done teshuvah. Binyamin, not being one of the brothers that sold

Yosef, was already in a Godly position. Levi was chosen by God as His

servants. Yehudah was chosen by God for leadership. These four could

be brought directly for blessings from God as they demonstrated levels of

merit above this world.

Zevulun and Yissachar had a deal. Zevulun worked and supported Yissachar,

who dedicated themselves to learning Torah. This partnership shared the

merits of each and served as an example to others. Naphtali was already

satisfied with their share of inheritance, not jealous of the others. These three

tribes were on a high level of behavior in this world.

Yosef, himself in Egypt, and his progeny on both sides of the Jordan,

occupied himself in the dealings of others. Although he did this well and

with good intentions, thereby earning blessing, he was not at the same high

level as the above tribes who were inward-looking. Gad and Dan are both

here compared with lions, warlike as had Shimon and Levi been under

Yaakov. Certainly they earned merit by being the defensive line for their

brethren, but at the cost of that high level of introspective behavior. Asher

is said to have had beautiful daughters, thus the phrase, "he shall be

pleasing to his brothers" later in our parsha. This, coupled with the comment

on dipping his foot in oil, may indicate that Asher was more materialistic

than some of the other tribes, even if in valuable pursuits.

All were necessary, all were meritorious. But perhaps these classes

were to teach us that there is more merit in approaching life with the

intent of maximizing spiritual merit, rather than physical accomplishment.