Simchat Torah - 5786

Simchat Torah - 5786

V'Zot Ha'Beracha

Rabbi Hal Miller

At the end of his life, Yaakov gave blessings to each of his sons. At the end of Moshe's life, he gave blessings to each tribe descended from those sons. There are a large number of differences. What can we learn from those differences?

Yaakov lists all twelve of his sons, Moshe lists only eleven, but that includes Ephraim and Menashe. Usually when we count tribes, we either count as did Yaakov (all twelve of his sons) or we leave out Levi and Yosef, replacing them with Ephraim and Menashe to maintain the number 12. This latter practice is centered around inheritance of the land, to which Levi is not a participant and Yosef gets a double portion. But here in Devarim, Moshe includes Ephraim and Menashe, then includes Levi and excludes Shimon. In Bereishit, Yaakov stated, "Shimon and Levi are comrades", blaming them together for their actions in Shechem. By the time of Moshe, Levi appeared to have done teshuvah, earning a permanent place as "holy to God", but Shimon apparently did not, rather was involved in other wrong acts. Moshe is teaching us about the power of teshuvah.

Yaakov called Yehudah a "lion cub" (Ber 49:9), but Moshe uses that expression for Dan (Dev 33:22). Sforno explains Yaakov's use of lion cub as indicating that Yehudah is not yet a king, but will be when he matures. Rashi notes that one of the two locations for the tribe of Dan was up on the northern border, thus they were guardians of the rest of the nation, so perhaps Moshe was signalling where Dan's lot was going to fall. Or HaChayim writes that Shimshon, who was of the tribe of Dan, was able to defeat a lion.

The two listings are in different orders. Rashi ​c​ites Sifrei that Moshe "juxtaposed Yehudah to Reuven because both of them confessed to a corrupt act which was in their hand." Moshe listed Levi next because of the holiness of Levi's job. Binyamin is connected because the Temple will be in his territory. Since the location of Shiloh is of lower sanctity, Yosef follows Binyamin for Shiloh will be in the territory of Yosef's sons. Rashi says of the last five (Yissochar, Gad, Dan, Naftali, Asher) that they were the weakest, the ones that Yosef presented to Pharaoh when trying to keep the family together and avoid Pharaoh conscripting the brothers.

Nachshoni notes that Yaakov's blessings related to events of the past, and in birth order by mother, and that Moshe's related to the ​future settling of the land. Reuven (with Gad and half of Menashe) took their inheritance first, and Yehudah took first once they conquered west of the Jordan.​ Thus these two are listed at the beginning of Moshe's list.

​Yaakov curses Reuven over the incident with moving his father's bed. Moshe seems to reverse it. Perhaps since Reuven matured from his early days and became a leader, quick to agree to lead the two and a half tribes in the forefront of the nation during the conquering of the land, Moshe recognized teshuvah, teaching that when one grows, one can elevate himself from prior behavior. This also applies to Yissachar, who Yaakov calls a strong-boned donkey with faults, but Moshe notes his partnership to allow Zevulun to learn Torah full time.

Yaakov calls Binyamin a predatory wolf, but Moshe calls him God's beloved. Certainly Moshe understood something about Binyamin since the Temple was to be built in their territory, but how did Yaakov see his youngest son? Perhaps this was an allusion to the future battle between Binyamin and the rest of the ttribes over the concubine of Giveah where Binyamin defeated the others militarily, but by doing so cut themselves off from the nation for an extended period. Moshe's view was of the purity of the tribe that earned them the right to host the Temple.

​People, and even entire tribes, can change and grow. The Torah recognized some that did grow, and at least one that did not. Those who do, profit by it, while those who do not will fall behind.