Sukkot - V'Zos HaBeracha - 5781

Sukkot - V'Zos HaBeracha - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

  May Reuven live and not die, and may his men be in the count.

  [Devarim 33:6]

The first two words of our parsha, v'zos ha'beracha, mean "and this is the

blessing", referring to the words Moshe used to bless the nation immediately

prior to his death. In verses 6 through 24, he goes one tribe at a time, but

unlike all the other times this has been done, here he lists only eleven tribes,

keeping Yosef as one, including Levi, but excluding Shimon. His reference to

Yissachar is at a lower level than what he applied to the others. In addition, this

is a highly unusual order for listing the tribes. What did Moshe have in mind?

Although Moshe begins with Reuven, clearly this blessing is not in birth order.

It is not, as some suggest, in the order of inheritance, as here Levi is included,

plus Shimon, who is not mentioned, does inherit. It is not in the order of march

across the desert nor the order in which they went to war with the Canaanites.

Some have indicated that the first ones were the sons of the primary wives,

Leah and Rachel, followed by the sons of the maidservants, but not all.

Commentators each try to explain Moshe's order, but in the end, as Nachshoni

says, we cannot definitely say why Moshe chose to do it this way.

Malbim gives us one interesting answer as to Zevulun and Yissachar, that

even though Yissachar is the Torah scholars, who we might think should be

mentioned first, since Zevulun is sacrificing to provide for Yissachar, that

sacrifice is of huge merit and they are mentioned first--a great argument for

giving tzedakah. Rashi explains that Yehudah comes right after Reuven

because both of them had done teshuvah for great sins. Rashi also notes

that the last tribes mentioned here were the ones that Yosef presented to

Pharaoh, being the weakest in order to convince Pharaoh not to draft them

into the Egyptian army.

Moshe's blessing is often compared to how Yaakov blessed his sons as he lay

dying. But there are many differences as well as similarities. Moshe left out

Shimon entirely. Yaakov paired Shimon with Levi. Does this indicate a weakness

in Shimon, that he cannot stand alone? All the other tribes seem to stand on

their own merits or deficiencies. Yaakov censured his sons, Moshe pointed out

their strengths. Nechama Leibowitz explains what these mean. Yaakov's

criticism of Shimon and Levi was based on the incident at Shechem which

reflects these two "borrowing" on their merits. Later, when Moshe came down

from Mt. Sinai and called for those who stood with God, Levi responded,

which was a repayment of that borrowing. Shimon not only never repaid, but

borrowed further in the incident of Pinchas and Zimri, the latter being from

the tribe of Shimon. Moshe here is teaching about teshuva, in that Levi was

able to not only get back to even, but was rewarded with greatness. The

zealousness that Yaakov criticized was later used for good by Levi, but

Shimon, who did not return, ended up being punished.