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  • When Jacob sensed that he was about to die, he sent for Joseph. Jacob instructed Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, fearing that the Egyptians might turn his grave into an object of worship since it was his blessing that had ended the years of famine. Instead, Jacob instructed Joseph to bury him in the family tomb in Hebron. Some time later, when Jacob became ill, Joseph took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to Jacob in order for them to receive his final blessing. Jacob surprised Joseph by informing him that he was making Joseph’s sons the heads of two separate tribes, on an equal footing with Jacob’s own sons.
    The Reward of Loyalty
    וַיֹּאמֶר . . . אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֹה פָנֶיךָ לֹא פִלָּלְתִּי וְהִנֵּה הֶרְאָה אֹתִי אֱלֹקִים גַּם אֶת זַרְעֶךָ: (בראשית מח:יא)
    [Jacob] said to Joseph, “I dared not even hope to see your face, yet now G-d has even shown me your children.” Genesis 48:11
    Jacob intimated why he considered Ephraim and Manasseh his own sons by referring to them as “your two sons who were born to you in Egypt before I came to you.” Even though Ephraim and Manasseh were born and raised in Egypt before Jacob’s arrival, they grew up true to their grandfather’s ideals. Therefore, Jacob considered them as loyal to him and his ideals as his own children.1

    FOOTNOTES
    1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 15, p. 435.

    When Jacob sensed that he was about to die, he sent for Joseph. Jacob instructed Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, fearing that the Egyptians might turn his grave into an object of worship since it was his blessing that had ended the years of famine. Instead, Jacob instructed Joseph to bury him in the family tomb in Hebron. Some time later, when Jacob became ill, Joseph took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to Jacob in order for them to receive his final blessing. Jacob surprised Joseph by informing him that he was making Joseph’s sons the heads of two separate tribes, on an equal footing with Jacob’s own sons. The Reward of Loyalty וַיֹּאמֶר . . . אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֹה פָנֶיךָ לֹא פִלָּלְתִּי וְהִנֵּה הֶרְאָה אֹתִי אֱלֹקִים גַּם אֶת זַרְעֶךָ: (בראשית מח:יא) [Jacob] said to Joseph, “I dared not even hope to see your face, yet now G-d has even shown me your children.” Genesis 48:11 Jacob intimated why he considered Ephraim and Manasseh his own sons by referring to them as “your two sons who were born to you in Egypt before I came to you.” Even though Ephraim and Manasseh were born and raised in Egypt before Jacob’s arrival, they grew up true to their grandfather’s ideals. Therefore, Jacob considered them as loyal to him and his ideals as his own children.1 FOOTNOTES 1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 15, p. 435.
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  • II KINGS CHAPTER 1

    The Book of Kings is conventionally divided in printed Bibles into Parts I and II for the sake of convenience, but in handwritten parchment scrolls of Sepher Melakhim, it is all one continuous book. The division in the printed Bible at this point is relatively arbitrary since it happens to come near the middle of the book (and it actually comes in the middle of a parshah=paragraph of the Hebrew text). However, the subject matter at the beginning of II Kings is a direct continuation of the narrative at the end of I Kings telling how Ahab's son Ahaziyahu came to the throne of Israel and continued in exactly the path of his father and mother.

    "And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab" (v 1). After their subjugation by King David, the Moabites had been a client state within the Israelite sphere of influence and paid Ahab 100,000 sheep annually in tribute (II Kings 3:4). When the Moabites rebelled, the new king literally FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR – i.e. through a thin wooden lattice-work screen that covered an aperture in the floor of his upper storey chamber (Metzudas David) through which one could presumably look down unseen at what was going on below. Apparently the king tripped over it and fell through – showing further how weak were the foundations of Ahab's dynasty!

    The king must have been seriously injured. True to form, he sent not to an Israelite prophet to find out his prognosis (he probably feared the answer he would receive) but to priests of the cult of ZVUV, the "fly" god of the Philistine city of Ekron. (Similarly, in recent generations many alienated Jews have been searching for spiritual meaning in every tradition except their own.)

    For an Israelite king to do such a thing was a serious affront to the honor of the God of Israel and His prophets, and this itself sealed the sick king's fate. In what was to be the last public mission of his ministry, Elijah the Prophet was sent to intercept the king's envoys and tell them to tell him he was going to die.

    When the king heard the news and asked his envoys to describe the man who told them this, they said he was "a man of much hair with a belt of leather girded around his loins" (v 8). The abundant hair alludes to the exalted heights of Elijah's perceptions of God (each SE'AR, "hair", is a SHA'AR, "gateway" of apprehension). His "girded loins" indicate his supreme moral purity and sanctity: the "leather" was said to have come from the ram of Isaac (Gen. 22:13). On hearing these signs, the king immediately knew the prophet's identity and sent a captain with a squadron of fifty soldiers to order him to come down from his mountain to the palace in Shomron.

    The captain brusquely ordered the prophet to go down, as if the honor due to his king was greater than the honor due to God's prophet. God Himself sent fire to burn up the captain and his fifty men in order to avenge the insult to the prophet, and lest the king should interpret this as a mere coincidence, He did the same to his second captain and squadron of fifty. Only the more respectful attitude of the third captain mollified Heaven sufficiently to send prophecy to Elijah to appear before the king and castigate him directly. For "Those who honor Me shall I honor, but those who despise Me shall be despised" (I Sam. 2:30). Now that the kings of Israel had gone astray, their moral authority was discredited, while God himself would vindicate the authority of His true prophets.

    With his fate sealed, Ahaziahu died, and, having no children, was succeeded by his brother Jehoram son of Ahab. This initiated a period in which the kings of Israel and Judah both had the same name, since Yehoshaphat king of Judah had also called his son Jehoram.

    CHAPTER 2

    Elijah had already asked to be relieved of his ministry of zeal and fire (I Kings 19:4), and now he was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The narrative of Elijah's ascent in our present chapter contains many teachings about the nature of prophecy. Elijah tried to persuade his disciple Elisha not to follow him, but Elisha knew prophetically that his master was to be taken from him (vv 3, 5) and refused to leave his side. The other prophets who came out to meet them also knew that Elijah was about to ascend to heaven (ibid.) – for the departure from earth of TZADDIK HADOR, the "righteous leader of the generation", was an event of the greatest significance even though ordinary mortals may have been quite unaware of it.

    Elijah's journey with Elisha took them to some of the key spiritual sites in the Land, including the first Israelite encampment after their original entry, Gilgal (also having the connotation of GILGUL, reincarnation) and Beth El, where Abraham and Jacob had prayed long before Jeraboam made his golden calves.

    The "sons" of the prophets who came out of Beth El and Jericho (vv 3, 5) were not necessarily their biological offspring but rather the students of the prophets, "and from here we learn that students are called children, and likewise it says, And you shall diligently teach them to your children (Deut. 6:7), and just as students are called children, so the teacher is called a father, as it says, And Elisha watched and he called, My father, my father… (II Kings 2:12; Sifrey Va-etchanan 6).

    The fact that there were bands of students of prophecy in Beth El and Jericho "teaches you that there was not a city in Israel that did not have prophets – and the reason why their prophecies were not recorded is because only those prophecies that were required by subsequent generations were written down while those that were not required by subsequent generations were not written down" (Yalkut Shimoni). The fact that the prophets of Jericho, speaking to Elisha about Elijah, called the latter "YOUR master" and not OURS indicates that they were as wise as Elijah (Tosefta to Sotah).

    Going in the reverse direction from the Israelites on their entry into the Land, Elijah went from Jericho to the River Jordan, which he split miraculously with his "mantle". "It would appear that Elijah had been informed through prophecy that he would be taken on the east bank of the Jordan – perhaps he was taken in the very place where Moses our Teacher was gathered in to the place of His glory, for the level of Elijah was very close to the level of Moses" (RaDaK on v 1).

    If the students of the prophets are their "sons", Elisha asked of Elijah as his parting gift to be given "a double portion of your spirit upon me", alluding to the "double portion" of the firstborn son (Deut. 21:17). We do indeed see in the ensuing narratives about Elisha that he performed double the miracles of Elijah. Everything that Elisha did, he did in the power of his master, and this power came into him precisely because he was present when Elijah ascended the chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire.

    RaDaK (on v 1) explains (on the level of PSHAT, the simple meaning of the text) that the "storm wind of Heaven" with which God raised Elijah (v 1) was an invisible RU'ACH which lifted the prophet up into the air taking him up through the will of God to the "sphere of fire" where all his garments except for his mantle were burned up and where his flesh and bones were consumed, while his spirit ascended to God who gave it. According to this explanation, the Chariot of Fire that appeared to Elisha came to teach him that with the ascent of Elijah the "chariot of Israel and its riders" had gone up from upon Israel. However, despite this literal interpretation of the text, RaDaK continues: "The opinion of the masses and the opinion of our sages is that God took him alive into the Garden of Eden together with his body just as Adam had been before his sin…"

    On the level of SOD (mystery) Rabbi Nachman teaches that while only the lower soul of the Tzaddik is revealed through his life and works in this world, the higher soul exists concurrently in the upper world. When the time comes for the Tzaddik to leave this world, his upper soul "descends" into this world in the form of the "chariot of fire", and because of the close bond between the upper and lower soul, the latter leaps out to join and reunite with the upper soul which then ascends back to the upper world. The descent of the upper soul is accompanied with an enormous revelation of wisdom and knowledge which the Tzaddik pours forth on his last day. Those of his students who are present at the time of his ascent receive a great share of this light because their souls have the same root as the Tzaddik. But whereas the Tzaddik's time has come to leave the world and he ascends, the students' time has not yet come and they therefore remain in this world but with the greater wisdom – the "double share" – they received from their master at the moment of his ascent, as in the case of Elisha (Likutey Moharan I, 66).

    Back again to the level of PSHAT, Elisha's rending of his garment on the departure of his teacher is the foundation of the law that any student must rend his garment in two and never repair it when he looses his outstanding Torah teacher, and the same applies to all the community on the death of the Head of the Sanhedrin (Rambam, Laws of Mourning 9:2).

    Having inherited his master's mantle, Elisha was now the leader of the generation, and the new spirit that had entered into him was immediately visible when he too used Elijah's mantle to split the Jordan and return to the Land of Israel. On seeing this, the other prophets immediately prostrated and submitted to his authority. Their asking Elisha to send out a search party to find Elijah (vv 16-17) after having previously prophesied that he was going to be taken away (vv 3, 5) was understood by the rabbis to indicate that from the moment Elijah ascended, holy spirit increasingly departed from the prophets and there was no longer much holy spirit in Israel (Rashi on v 16).

    Elisha also inherited the passionate zeal of Elijah, and while he miraculously healed the waters of Jericho for the prophets, he showed no compassion on the "small lads" who came out from Beth El mocking his "baldness" (they were complaining that he had left the land bald by taking away their livelihood since previously they earned money by importing water from elsewhere). The commentators teach that they were called NA'ARIM ("lads") because they were ME-NUAR-IM ("stripped bare") of Mitzvos! Elisha saw that these were souls that would never produce any good even in the generations to come and this was why he cursed them (Rashi on v 23; Sotah 46b). For "Those who honor Me shall I honor, but those who despise Me shall be despised" (I Sam. 2:30).
    II KINGS CHAPTER 1 The Book of Kings is conventionally divided in printed Bibles into Parts I and II for the sake of convenience, but in handwritten parchment scrolls of Sepher Melakhim, it is all one continuous book. The division in the printed Bible at this point is relatively arbitrary since it happens to come near the middle of the book (and it actually comes in the middle of a parshah=paragraph of the Hebrew text). However, the subject matter at the beginning of II Kings is a direct continuation of the narrative at the end of I Kings telling how Ahab's son Ahaziyahu came to the throne of Israel and continued in exactly the path of his father and mother. "And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab" (v 1). After their subjugation by King David, the Moabites had been a client state within the Israelite sphere of influence and paid Ahab 100,000 sheep annually in tribute (II Kings 3:4). When the Moabites rebelled, the new king literally FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR – i.e. through a thin wooden lattice-work screen that covered an aperture in the floor of his upper storey chamber (Metzudas David) through which one could presumably look down unseen at what was going on below. Apparently the king tripped over it and fell through – showing further how weak were the foundations of Ahab's dynasty! The king must have been seriously injured. True to form, he sent not to an Israelite prophet to find out his prognosis (he probably feared the answer he would receive) but to priests of the cult of ZVUV, the "fly" god of the Philistine city of Ekron. (Similarly, in recent generations many alienated Jews have been searching for spiritual meaning in every tradition except their own.) For an Israelite king to do such a thing was a serious affront to the honor of the God of Israel and His prophets, and this itself sealed the sick king's fate. In what was to be the last public mission of his ministry, Elijah the Prophet was sent to intercept the king's envoys and tell them to tell him he was going to die. When the king heard the news and asked his envoys to describe the man who told them this, they said he was "a man of much hair with a belt of leather girded around his loins" (v 8). The abundant hair alludes to the exalted heights of Elijah's perceptions of God (each SE'AR, "hair", is a SHA'AR, "gateway" of apprehension). His "girded loins" indicate his supreme moral purity and sanctity: the "leather" was said to have come from the ram of Isaac (Gen. 22:13). On hearing these signs, the king immediately knew the prophet's identity and sent a captain with a squadron of fifty soldiers to order him to come down from his mountain to the palace in Shomron. The captain brusquely ordered the prophet to go down, as if the honor due to his king was greater than the honor due to God's prophet. God Himself sent fire to burn up the captain and his fifty men in order to avenge the insult to the prophet, and lest the king should interpret this as a mere coincidence, He did the same to his second captain and squadron of fifty. Only the more respectful attitude of the third captain mollified Heaven sufficiently to send prophecy to Elijah to appear before the king and castigate him directly. For "Those who honor Me shall I honor, but those who despise Me shall be despised" (I Sam. 2:30). Now that the kings of Israel had gone astray, their moral authority was discredited, while God himself would vindicate the authority of His true prophets. With his fate sealed, Ahaziahu died, and, having no children, was succeeded by his brother Jehoram son of Ahab. This initiated a period in which the kings of Israel and Judah both had the same name, since Yehoshaphat king of Judah had also called his son Jehoram. CHAPTER 2 Elijah had already asked to be relieved of his ministry of zeal and fire (I Kings 19:4), and now he was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The narrative of Elijah's ascent in our present chapter contains many teachings about the nature of prophecy. Elijah tried to persuade his disciple Elisha not to follow him, but Elisha knew prophetically that his master was to be taken from him (vv 3, 5) and refused to leave his side. The other prophets who came out to meet them also knew that Elijah was about to ascend to heaven (ibid.) – for the departure from earth of TZADDIK HADOR, the "righteous leader of the generation", was an event of the greatest significance even though ordinary mortals may have been quite unaware of it. Elijah's journey with Elisha took them to some of the key spiritual sites in the Land, including the first Israelite encampment after their original entry, Gilgal (also having the connotation of GILGUL, reincarnation) and Beth El, where Abraham and Jacob had prayed long before Jeraboam made his golden calves. The "sons" of the prophets who came out of Beth El and Jericho (vv 3, 5) were not necessarily their biological offspring but rather the students of the prophets, "and from here we learn that students are called children, and likewise it says, And you shall diligently teach them to your children (Deut. 6:7), and just as students are called children, so the teacher is called a father, as it says, And Elisha watched and he called, My father, my father… (II Kings 2:12; Sifrey Va-etchanan 6). The fact that there were bands of students of prophecy in Beth El and Jericho "teaches you that there was not a city in Israel that did not have prophets – and the reason why their prophecies were not recorded is because only those prophecies that were required by subsequent generations were written down while those that were not required by subsequent generations were not written down" (Yalkut Shimoni). The fact that the prophets of Jericho, speaking to Elisha about Elijah, called the latter "YOUR master" and not OURS indicates that they were as wise as Elijah (Tosefta to Sotah). Going in the reverse direction from the Israelites on their entry into the Land, Elijah went from Jericho to the River Jordan, which he split miraculously with his "mantle". "It would appear that Elijah had been informed through prophecy that he would be taken on the east bank of the Jordan – perhaps he was taken in the very place where Moses our Teacher was gathered in to the place of His glory, for the level of Elijah was very close to the level of Moses" (RaDaK on v 1). If the students of the prophets are their "sons", Elisha asked of Elijah as his parting gift to be given "a double portion of your spirit upon me", alluding to the "double portion" of the firstborn son (Deut. 21:17). We do indeed see in the ensuing narratives about Elisha that he performed double the miracles of Elijah. Everything that Elisha did, he did in the power of his master, and this power came into him precisely because he was present when Elijah ascended the chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire. RaDaK (on v 1) explains (on the level of PSHAT, the simple meaning of the text) that the "storm wind of Heaven" with which God raised Elijah (v 1) was an invisible RU'ACH which lifted the prophet up into the air taking him up through the will of God to the "sphere of fire" where all his garments except for his mantle were burned up and where his flesh and bones were consumed, while his spirit ascended to God who gave it. According to this explanation, the Chariot of Fire that appeared to Elisha came to teach him that with the ascent of Elijah the "chariot of Israel and its riders" had gone up from upon Israel. However, despite this literal interpretation of the text, RaDaK continues: "The opinion of the masses and the opinion of our sages is that God took him alive into the Garden of Eden together with his body just as Adam had been before his sin…" On the level of SOD (mystery) Rabbi Nachman teaches that while only the lower soul of the Tzaddik is revealed through his life and works in this world, the higher soul exists concurrently in the upper world. When the time comes for the Tzaddik to leave this world, his upper soul "descends" into this world in the form of the "chariot of fire", and because of the close bond between the upper and lower soul, the latter leaps out to join and reunite with the upper soul which then ascends back to the upper world. The descent of the upper soul is accompanied with an enormous revelation of wisdom and knowledge which the Tzaddik pours forth on his last day. Those of his students who are present at the time of his ascent receive a great share of this light because their souls have the same root as the Tzaddik. But whereas the Tzaddik's time has come to leave the world and he ascends, the students' time has not yet come and they therefore remain in this world but with the greater wisdom – the "double share" – they received from their master at the moment of his ascent, as in the case of Elisha (Likutey Moharan I, 66). Back again to the level of PSHAT, Elisha's rending of his garment on the departure of his teacher is the foundation of the law that any student must rend his garment in two and never repair it when he looses his outstanding Torah teacher, and the same applies to all the community on the death of the Head of the Sanhedrin (Rambam, Laws of Mourning 9:2). Having inherited his master's mantle, Elisha was now the leader of the generation, and the new spirit that had entered into him was immediately visible when he too used Elijah's mantle to split the Jordan and return to the Land of Israel. On seeing this, the other prophets immediately prostrated and submitted to his authority. Their asking Elisha to send out a search party to find Elijah (vv 16-17) after having previously prophesied that he was going to be taken away (vv 3, 5) was understood by the rabbis to indicate that from the moment Elijah ascended, holy spirit increasingly departed from the prophets and there was no longer much holy spirit in Israel (Rashi on v 16). Elisha also inherited the passionate zeal of Elijah, and while he miraculously healed the waters of Jericho for the prophets, he showed no compassion on the "small lads" who came out from Beth El mocking his "baldness" (they were complaining that he had left the land bald by taking away their livelihood since previously they earned money by importing water from elsewhere). The commentators teach that they were called NA'ARIM ("lads") because they were ME-NUAR-IM ("stripped bare") of Mitzvos! Elisha saw that these were souls that would never produce any good even in the generations to come and this was why he cursed them (Rashi on v 23; Sotah 46b). For "Those who honor Me shall I honor, but those who despise Me shall be despised" (I Sam. 2:30).
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  • AND THE DWELLER OF THE LAND OF THE CANAANITE SAW.

    When Joseph went up with his brothers to bury Jacob, "they came to the threshing floor of Atad (= bramble)" (Gen. 50:10). According to Rashi, "It was surrounded by brambles. All the kings of Canaan and princes of Ishmael came to war, but when they saw the crown of Joseph hung on Jacob's ARON (= Ark), they all stood and hung their crowns and surrounded him with crowns from the threshing-floor which was surrounded by a fence of brambles.

    The kings and Canaan and princes of Ishmael were confounded by the ARON, the holy ark of Jacob, crowned with the crown of Joseph.

    According to tradition, this took place on during Chanukah-time. Jacob's HISTALKUS (ascent) was on 15th Tishri, the first night of Succos. The Egyptians wept for him seventy days, upon which Joseph and his brothers went up to Israel to bury him. The seventieth day after 15th of Tishri is 25th Kislev, the first day of Chanukah. The initial letters of the four Hebrew words in the verse "and the dweller of the land of the Canaanite saw" are the permutation of the name of HaShem that holds sway in the month of Kislev (see Kavanos of Rosh Chodesh Musaf prayers).

    There is an integral conceptual connection between Jacob's funeral procession and Chanukah, which is the time of the inauguration of the Temple. Jacob's twelve sons, the holy House of Israel, under the leadership of Joseph the Tzaddik, were taking Jacob -- the archetypal House-Builder -- to his final, eternal house and home in the Cave of Machpelah, the resting place of Adam and Eve as well as the patriarchs and matriarchs.

    The funeral procession was a "rehearsal" for the formation in which the twelve tribes would would bring the Ark of the Covenant up from the wilderness and into the Holy Land. This is paradigmatic of the building of the Holy Temple, the House of G-d on the spot where Jacob had his dream of the ladder: "This is none other than the House of G-d and this is the Gate of Heaven" (Gen. 28:17). That place is alluded to in the opening word of the Torah, BEREISHIS, the letters of which, when re-arranged, spell out BAYIS ROSH, the House that is Head (=Tefilin shel Rosh). It was to that place that Joseph promised his brothers that they would return from Egypt: "G-d will surely redeem you and bring you up from this land to the Land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob" (Gen. 50:24).

    CHAZAK! CHAZAK! VE-NIS-CHAZEK! "Be strong! Be strong -- and we will be strong!"
    AND THE DWELLER OF THE LAND OF THE CANAANITE SAW. When Joseph went up with his brothers to bury Jacob, "they came to the threshing floor of Atad (= bramble)" (Gen. 50:10). According to Rashi, "It was surrounded by brambles. All the kings of Canaan and princes of Ishmael came to war, but when they saw the crown of Joseph hung on Jacob's ARON (= Ark), they all stood and hung their crowns and surrounded him with crowns from the threshing-floor which was surrounded by a fence of brambles. The kings and Canaan and princes of Ishmael were confounded by the ARON, the holy ark of Jacob, crowned with the crown of Joseph. According to tradition, this took place on during Chanukah-time. Jacob's HISTALKUS (ascent) was on 15th Tishri, the first night of Succos. The Egyptians wept for him seventy days, upon which Joseph and his brothers went up to Israel to bury him. The seventieth day after 15th of Tishri is 25th Kislev, the first day of Chanukah. The initial letters of the four Hebrew words in the verse "and the dweller of the land of the Canaanite saw" are the permutation of the name of HaShem that holds sway in the month of Kislev (see Kavanos of Rosh Chodesh Musaf prayers). There is an integral conceptual connection between Jacob's funeral procession and Chanukah, which is the time of the inauguration of the Temple. Jacob's twelve sons, the holy House of Israel, under the leadership of Joseph the Tzaddik, were taking Jacob -- the archetypal House-Builder -- to his final, eternal house and home in the Cave of Machpelah, the resting place of Adam and Eve as well as the patriarchs and matriarchs. The funeral procession was a "rehearsal" for the formation in which the twelve tribes would would bring the Ark of the Covenant up from the wilderness and into the Holy Land. This is paradigmatic of the building of the Holy Temple, the House of G-d on the spot where Jacob had his dream of the ladder: "This is none other than the House of G-d and this is the Gate of Heaven" (Gen. 28:17). That place is alluded to in the opening word of the Torah, BEREISHIS, the letters of which, when re-arranged, spell out BAYIS ROSH, the House that is Head (=Tefilin shel Rosh). It was to that place that Joseph promised his brothers that they would return from Egypt: "G-d will surely redeem you and bring you up from this land to the Land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob" (Gen. 50:24). CHAZAK! CHAZAK! VE-NIS-CHAZEK! "Be strong! Be strong -- and we will be strong!"
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  • JACOB'S BLESSINGS

    Jacob's death-bed blessings to his sons contain some of the most beautiful flights of Biblical poetry. It is noteworthy that Onkelos, author of the best-known Aramaic Targum (= "translation") of the Five Books of Moses, departs here from his usual practice of giving the simplest, clearest PSHAT (= "simple meaning") of the Biblical text except where DRUSH, Midrash, "searching out" beneath the surface is absolutely indispensable. However here, as in the case of some other highly poetic passages (the Song at the Sea, Bilaam's blessings, the Song of Moses -- HA-AZINU -- and his final blessings), Onkelos felt obliged to introduce MIDRASH into his Targum in order to bring out the essential meaning of the text, which contains allusions to all historical periods and especially the time of Mashiach.

    Thus it is Onkelos who informs us that SHILOH (Gen. 49:10) is Mashiach. The Tribes are compared to various animals. Judah is a lion, Issachar is a wide-boned donkey, Dan is a serpent, Naftali a gracious hind, Benjamin a preying fox. In the case of Jacob's children, the animal qualities are elevated in order to destroy the wicked and give the victory to G-d. Thus Onkelos translates Gen. 49:14-15 as: "Yissachar will be wealthy in possessions and his inheritance is between the boundaries. And he saw that his share is good and that the land produces fruits. And he conquered the territories of the nations and destroyed their inhabitants and those who remain of them will serve him and pay him taxes." Onkelos translates the blessing of Benjamin (v. 49:27: "Benjamin is a preying fox, in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the prey") as: "In the land of Benjamin the Shechinah will dwell (= TISHREI) and in his inheritance the Holy Temple will be built, in the morning and in the afternoon the priests will offer sacrifices and in the evening they will divide the rest of their portions from the other offerings".

    Onkelos himself was a GER TZEDEK ("righteous convert"). He was the son of the sister of the Roman Emperor Titus." It is said that before Onkelos converted, he raised the spirits of Titus, Balaam, and Yeshu from hell in order to find out the truth. All three confirmed that the nation of Israel is held in the highest repute in the world to come (Gittin 56b, 57a). Onkelos learned Torah from Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus ("Rabbi Eliezer the Great") and Rabbi Yehoshua, who were outstanding students of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai and were also the teacher-partners of Rabbi Akiva. Onkelos' Targum is the first and most authoritative "commentary" on the Torah.
    JACOB'S BLESSINGS Jacob's death-bed blessings to his sons contain some of the most beautiful flights of Biblical poetry. It is noteworthy that Onkelos, author of the best-known Aramaic Targum (= "translation") of the Five Books of Moses, departs here from his usual practice of giving the simplest, clearest PSHAT (= "simple meaning") of the Biblical text except where DRUSH, Midrash, "searching out" beneath the surface is absolutely indispensable. However here, as in the case of some other highly poetic passages (the Song at the Sea, Bilaam's blessings, the Song of Moses -- HA-AZINU -- and his final blessings), Onkelos felt obliged to introduce MIDRASH into his Targum in order to bring out the essential meaning of the text, which contains allusions to all historical periods and especially the time of Mashiach. Thus it is Onkelos who informs us that SHILOH (Gen. 49:10) is Mashiach. The Tribes are compared to various animals. Judah is a lion, Issachar is a wide-boned donkey, Dan is a serpent, Naftali a gracious hind, Benjamin a preying fox. In the case of Jacob's children, the animal qualities are elevated in order to destroy the wicked and give the victory to G-d. Thus Onkelos translates Gen. 49:14-15 as: "Yissachar will be wealthy in possessions and his inheritance is between the boundaries. And he saw that his share is good and that the land produces fruits. And he conquered the territories of the nations and destroyed their inhabitants and those who remain of them will serve him and pay him taxes." Onkelos translates the blessing of Benjamin (v. 49:27: "Benjamin is a preying fox, in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the prey") as: "In the land of Benjamin the Shechinah will dwell (= TISHREI) and in his inheritance the Holy Temple will be built, in the morning and in the afternoon the priests will offer sacrifices and in the evening they will divide the rest of their portions from the other offerings". Onkelos himself was a GER TZEDEK ("righteous convert"). He was the son of the sister of the Roman Emperor Titus." It is said that before Onkelos converted, he raised the spirits of Titus, Balaam, and Yeshu from hell in order to find out the truth. All three confirmed that the nation of Israel is held in the highest repute in the world to come (Gittin 56b, 57a). Onkelos learned Torah from Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus ("Rabbi Eliezer the Great") and Rabbi Yehoshua, who were outstanding students of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai and were also the teacher-partners of Rabbi Akiva. Onkelos' Targum is the first and most authoritative "commentary" on the Torah.
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  • HEAR O ISRAEL!

    Jacob spent the final "good" years of his life fulfilling the commandment to be spiritually fruitful -- by educating the young, especially his grandson Ephraim (see Rashi on Gen. 48:1: "Ephraim was habitually with Jacob learning"). Jacob'sfinal blessings, will and testament to his sons, with their harsh chastisements, were also intended to be educational.

    According to tradition, "At the time when Jacob our father assembled his sons in Egypt at the hour of his death, he commanded and spurred them on in the unification of the name of G-d and that they should follow the path of HaShem that Abraham and Isaac his father walked. He asked them and said, 'My sons, maybe someone among you is flawed and does not stand with me in the Unification of the Name.?' They all answered and said, 'Hear Israel HaShem our G-d HaShem is One' -- that is, 'Hear from us, our father Israel, HaShem our G-d HaShem is one'. The old man answered 'Blessed be the Name of the Glory of His Kingship for ever and ever!' And this is why all Israel has the custom of repeating the expression of the praise used by Israel when he was an old man after this verse". (Rambam, Laws of Recital of Shema Ch. 1:4).
    HEAR O ISRAEL! Jacob spent the final "good" years of his life fulfilling the commandment to be spiritually fruitful -- by educating the young, especially his grandson Ephraim (see Rashi on Gen. 48:1: "Ephraim was habitually with Jacob learning"). Jacob'sfinal blessings, will and testament to his sons, with their harsh chastisements, were also intended to be educational. According to tradition, "At the time when Jacob our father assembled his sons in Egypt at the hour of his death, he commanded and spurred them on in the unification of the name of G-d and that they should follow the path of HaShem that Abraham and Isaac his father walked. He asked them and said, 'My sons, maybe someone among you is flawed and does not stand with me in the Unification of the Name.?' They all answered and said, 'Hear Israel HaShem our G-d HaShem is One' -- that is, 'Hear from us, our father Israel, HaShem our G-d HaShem is one'. The old man answered 'Blessed be the Name of the Glory of His Kingship for ever and ever!' And this is why all Israel has the custom of repeating the expression of the praise used by Israel when he was an old man after this verse". (Rambam, Laws of Recital of Shema Ch. 1:4).
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  • AND JACOB LIVED.

    "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years" (Gen. 47:28). These were "good" years (17 is the gematria of TOV = "good") as opposed to the first one hundred and thirty years of Jacob's 147-year life. The first hundred and thirty years were riddled with suffering. Through the suffering Jacob endured while struggling to build his family, the House of Israel, he rectified Adam's 130 years of separation from Eve (see Rashi on Genesis 4:25), during which Adam wasted his seed and created demons, instead of peopling the world with Bney Adam.

    G-d's first command to Adam was "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it" (Gen. 1:28). As explained by Rabbi Nachman (Likutey Moharan II:7), this commandment is fulfilled not by producing anthropoid monsters but by giving birth to, raising and educating true Children of Adam, who bear the TZURAH ("form") of ADAM, who was made "in the image of G-d".

    Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, their generations were flawed. Cain killed Abel, Canaan sodomized Noah, the Sodomites wanted to sodomize the angels, the kings of Egypt and of the Philistines and the crown prince of Shechem kidnapped women, Ishmael lived by the sword, Esau was a rapist.

    Only Jacob was SHALEM, "Whole" or "Perfect" (Gen. 32:18): Jacob bore the true TZURAH of ADAM, of whom it is said: "And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness having the appearance of ADAM upon it from above" (Ezekiel 1:26). When man perfects himself, G-d shines through him and is thus revealed in the world.

    Jacob is sometimes called Yaakov, sometimes Yisrael. Yaakov is "small" ("Yaakov her SMALL son" Gen. 27:15; "How will Yaakov rise, for he is SMALL" Amos 7:5). In his "small" aspect -- his time of struggle and suffering (MOCHIN D'KATNUS, "constricted consciousness") -- Jacob signifies that the revelation of G-d is as yet incomplete and is still proceeding in stages. But Yisrael, Israel, is Jacob's name of greatness -- "for you have struggled with G-d and with men and you have prevailed" (Gen. 32:29).In his "great" aspect (MOCHIN D'GADLUS, "expanded consciousness") Jacob -- Israel -- signifies that G-d's greatness is revealed and manifest in the world.

    This was the case at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah, when the entire world shook with G-d's self-revelation. It was the case during the reigns of King David and his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And it will be the case again in the near future, when G-d's House of Prayer for All the Nations will stand in the center of the world on Mount Moriah in the Holy City of Jerusalem. [The intensity of the hatred in much of the world today for all that goes by the name of Israel signifies how far the world is from HaShem. But "the people that go in darkness will see great light and those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, light has shone upon them" (Isaiah 9:11).]

    Our parshah of VAYECHI puts the seal on the first of the Five Books of Moses, the book of Genesis (Bereishis), portraying Jacob, the rectified Adam, in his "good" years at the end of his life. They are good years, because Jacob is now reunited with Joseph, who is in his place of true glory ruling over Egypt. Jacob's main love was essentially for Rachel. It was for her that he served Laban, and it was because Joseph was Rachel's firstborn that "Israel loved Joseph out of all his sons" (Gen. 37:3). While Leah signifies the "hidden realm", Rachel signifies G-d's glory revealed in and through this world. This comes about when Jacob-Israel (=ADAM, the Soul complete with its Nefesh, Ru'ach and Neshamah levels) conquers Esau (=the Serpent, ASIYAH, the realm of material activity), using this world to build a sanctuary for G-d.

    Our parshah of VAYECHI also contains a number of specific allusions to the Temple in Jerusalem, as in Jacob's blessing to Judah (Gen. 49:11) and especially his blessing to Benjamin (ibid. v. 27). The Temple Altar stood in the territory of Benjamin, son of Rachel. Thus in Jacob's funeral procession, his twelve sons carried him up to the Land of Israel in the same positions in which their descendents the twelve tribes encamped around the Sanctuary in the Wilderness. Jacob and his sons, the House of Israel, are the Sanctuary in which G-d dwells in the world. "And I will dwell within them" (Exodus 25:8).
    AND JACOB LIVED. "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years" (Gen. 47:28). These were "good" years (17 is the gematria of TOV = "good") as opposed to the first one hundred and thirty years of Jacob's 147-year life. The first hundred and thirty years were riddled with suffering. Through the suffering Jacob endured while struggling to build his family, the House of Israel, he rectified Adam's 130 years of separation from Eve (see Rashi on Genesis 4:25), during which Adam wasted his seed and created demons, instead of peopling the world with Bney Adam. G-d's first command to Adam was "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it" (Gen. 1:28). As explained by Rabbi Nachman (Likutey Moharan II:7), this commandment is fulfilled not by producing anthropoid monsters but by giving birth to, raising and educating true Children of Adam, who bear the TZURAH ("form") of ADAM, who was made "in the image of G-d". Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, their generations were flawed. Cain killed Abel, Canaan sodomized Noah, the Sodomites wanted to sodomize the angels, the kings of Egypt and of the Philistines and the crown prince of Shechem kidnapped women, Ishmael lived by the sword, Esau was a rapist. Only Jacob was SHALEM, "Whole" or "Perfect" (Gen. 32:18): Jacob bore the true TZURAH of ADAM, of whom it is said: "And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness having the appearance of ADAM upon it from above" (Ezekiel 1:26). When man perfects himself, G-d shines through him and is thus revealed in the world. Jacob is sometimes called Yaakov, sometimes Yisrael. Yaakov is "small" ("Yaakov her SMALL son" Gen. 27:15; "How will Yaakov rise, for he is SMALL" Amos 7:5). In his "small" aspect -- his time of struggle and suffering (MOCHIN D'KATNUS, "constricted consciousness") -- Jacob signifies that the revelation of G-d is as yet incomplete and is still proceeding in stages. But Yisrael, Israel, is Jacob's name of greatness -- "for you have struggled with G-d and with men and you have prevailed" (Gen. 32:29).In his "great" aspect (MOCHIN D'GADLUS, "expanded consciousness") Jacob -- Israel -- signifies that G-d's greatness is revealed and manifest in the world. This was the case at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah, when the entire world shook with G-d's self-revelation. It was the case during the reigns of King David and his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And it will be the case again in the near future, when G-d's House of Prayer for All the Nations will stand in the center of the world on Mount Moriah in the Holy City of Jerusalem. [The intensity of the hatred in much of the world today for all that goes by the name of Israel signifies how far the world is from HaShem. But "the people that go in darkness will see great light and those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, light has shone upon them" (Isaiah 9:11).] Our parshah of VAYECHI puts the seal on the first of the Five Books of Moses, the book of Genesis (Bereishis), portraying Jacob, the rectified Adam, in his "good" years at the end of his life. They are good years, because Jacob is now reunited with Joseph, who is in his place of true glory ruling over Egypt. Jacob's main love was essentially for Rachel. It was for her that he served Laban, and it was because Joseph was Rachel's firstborn that "Israel loved Joseph out of all his sons" (Gen. 37:3). While Leah signifies the "hidden realm", Rachel signifies G-d's glory revealed in and through this world. This comes about when Jacob-Israel (=ADAM, the Soul complete with its Nefesh, Ru'ach and Neshamah levels) conquers Esau (=the Serpent, ASIYAH, the realm of material activity), using this world to build a sanctuary for G-d. Our parshah of VAYECHI also contains a number of specific allusions to the Temple in Jerusalem, as in Jacob's blessing to Judah (Gen. 49:11) and especially his blessing to Benjamin (ibid. v. 27). The Temple Altar stood in the territory of Benjamin, son of Rachel. Thus in Jacob's funeral procession, his twelve sons carried him up to the Land of Israel in the same positions in which their descendents the twelve tribes encamped around the Sanctuary in the Wilderness. Jacob and his sons, the House of Israel, are the Sanctuary in which G-d dwells in the world. "And I will dwell within them" (Exodus 25:8).
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