Flour first or Torah first? – Vayechi
In this, the final parsha in Sefer Breishit we read about Yaakov blessing his twelve sons. The order of the blessings is not according to order of birth, but according to wife and within that - according to birth. Yaakov begins blessing Leah’s sons, then Bilha’s, Zilpah’s and finally Rachel’s.
There is one noticeable deviation from this order. In blessing Leah’s sons, Yaakov blesses Zevulun before Yissachar, although Yissachar was born before Zevulun.
As is well known, there was a special pact between the tribes of Zevulun and Yissachar. Zevulun were seafaring merchants and Yissachar were תלמידי חכמים sitting and studying Torah full time. Zevulun did not have time to study Torah. Chazal say that unlike the other tribes who (with the exception of Levi) were all farmers and managed to find the time to study Torah (between sowing and harvesting there are periods of inactivity), Zevulun were perpetually at peril on the high seas and did not have the יישוב הדעת to be able to study Torah. So they made an arrangement with Yissachar that they would support them and enable them to study Torah and in return would receive שכר לימוד.
There is a famous Mishna in Pirkei Avot (17:3) –
רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר ...... אם אין קמח אין תורה, אם אין תורה אין קמח.
which alludes to the symbiotic relationship between these two tribes and in fact for ever more - for anyone who would subsequently make a Yissachar-Zevulun arrangement.
The million dollar question is, which is more important - the “flour” or the Torah?
Instinctively one would think the Torah is more important because it is the reason for the existence of the entire world and yes Zevulun may have been enabling Yissachar to learn it, but the bottom line, end purpose, what it is all about is …… the Torah!
But then comes our parsha and surprisingly reverses the order. Yaakov blesses Zevulun before Yissachar (which is echoed in the above Mishna – the flour then the Torah), hinting that maybe it is the opposite, that the flour is more important, because without the parnasa – there would be no Torah at all?
So our million dollar question remains. Which was more important - the “flour” or the Torah?
The answer is that the Torah is more important than parnasa. So why did Yaakov reverse the order and bless Zevulun first and why did the Mishna put flour before Torah? Not because it is more important, but to pay special honor to Zevulun.and to the facilitators of the study of Torah.
Just recently, every day during Channukah, we read from פרשת נשא about the קרבנות הנשיאים brought when the משכן was inaugurated. It is easy reading for the בעל קורא, because it is repetitious, every נשיא brought exactly the same קרבן.
On the day Moshe passed away he wrote thirteen ספרי תורה. One was stored alongside the ארון הברית and the other twelve were given to the tribes, one for each tribe. Why was it necessary to give each tribe their own ספר תורה? They were identical and there is only one Torah - which is applicable to all!
The reason is because although there is only one Torah, each tribe worships Hashem in their own special way. Am Yisrael is not a bunch of uniform robots, we all serve Hashem in our own, different ways.
Chazal say that even though the contents were the same, the intentions of each נשיא bringing the קרבן for the inauguration of the משכן were completely different. Chazal say that when Zevulun brought their קרבן they had in mind “This will be for Yissachar, and this part will also be for Yissachar, etc.” Similarly when Yissachar brought their (same) קרבן their intentions were totally focused on Zevulun - that it should all be for Zevulun!
The twelve sons of Yaakov started off badly, each selfishly focusing on their own needs and rights and it ended in disaster, the selling of Yosef and גלות מצרים. But they recovered and made amends for their mistakes. Just before Yaakov passes away in our parsha his twelve sons gather around his bed and declare –
שמע ישראל, ה' א-לוקנו, ה' אחד
Yes, we may each be different in our style of serving Hashem, have different strengths and weaknesses, different roles to play - but we are all united in our love and service of Hashem.
How Avraham yearned to hear that from his two sons Yitzchak and Yishmael. How Yitzchak yearned to hear that from his two sons Yaakov and Eisav. However, it was only Yaakov who merited seeing this unity of purpose in his offspring which subsequently led to the birth of a nation.
Yaakov then replies–
ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד
Yes, the Torah is the ultimate purpose and reason for our existence, but reaching that purpose together, symbiotically, thinking first about the other and not ourselves - is equally and no less important. This is punctuated by Yaakov blessing Zevulun before Yissachar.
We, Am Yisrael, the Chosen People, the עם סגולה, are living in exciting but troubled times. We are privileged to be living history in the making, our return to Eretz Yisrael after almost 2000 years of exile and the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecies and an ingathering of the exiles. Just a generation or two ago our ancestors could only have dreamed the reality we are living today, as we approach רוב עם ישראל בארצו for the first time in 1950 years. We are truly blessed, but we also have an incredible responsibility.
On the other hand, as a nation today, we are catastrophically divided. We are very much like Yaakov’s sons before their תיקון. We are כיתות כיתות, each selfishly focusing only on our own needs and rights - our own tribes - talmudei Torah and yeshivas, settlements and יישוב ארץ ישראל, making peace with our neighbors, making a living to support those in ארץ ישראל, saving Jews from assimilation in the Diaspora, etc. etc.
Hashem has restored us to our ancestral homeland not that we should be like all the other nations, not that Israel should be like Sweden or the 53rd state of America! We have a destiny to fulfill which includes building the Beit Hamikdash, serving Hashem and being a light unto the nations.
After the destruction of the first Temple, Am Yisrael recovered from גלות בבל after 70 years and rebuilt the 2nd Beit Mikdash. We have now been back in ארץ ישראל already for the last 72 years and look at us, we are shirking and evading our destiny! The prospect of rebuilding the 3rd Beit Hamikdash is as distant today as it was 1000 years ago! All we are interested in is getting a little “peace and quiet” and selfishly improving our own situation in our own little sectorial bubble. The reason we do not yet have peace and quiet is because we are not doing what Hashem put us here to do. So He keeps sending us reminders - wars, missiles, exploding buses, gunmen in shuls, anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish cemeteries, etc. etc. but we are not getting the message.
Look at us! Charedim attack a Jewish Charedi soldier in uniform they see walking in their neighborhood. Secular Jews in Tel Aviv slander the Charedim for spreading the Corona virus using anti-Semitic rhetoric reminiscent of our worst enemies. The Left conspires to destroy the Right. The Right conspires to destroy the Left. Those in the Left wing parties eat their own people alive. Those in the Right wing parties eat their own people alive. Israel is heading for its 4th election in three years. Israel slams Jews in the Diaspora. Jews in the Diaspora side with Israel’s enemies. It is a שנאת חינם festival out of control!
Now Hashem sent COVID-19 to punish us middah kenegged middah (and the whole world because of us - all the ברכה and ישועה in the world emanates through Am Yisrael). Hashem is clearly speaking to us, we are just not listening. You want to be כיתות כיתות, you want to distance yourself from your fellow Jews, no problem. Now you will be FORCED you to keep your distance. You cannot be civil to each other and smile and respect each other, no problem. Now you will all cover your faces with masks. Hashem returned you to your land to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash and serve Him but you repeatedly shirk and evade your responsibility, no problem. You will be attacked in the part of your bodies which symbolize the Beit Hamikdash - the neck - which has two pipes (see last week’s shiur) the wind pipe symbolizing tefila and korbanot and the food pipe symbolizing food and parnasa. You will be afflicted with respiratory problems and lose your sense of smell. You will be afflicted with loss of taste for your food and punished with loss of parnasa. All you were interested in was in your own tribe and sectorial koved (כבוד) - Now you will get koved 19. You will be imprisoned in your own homes and locked down! (the gematria of כבוד י"ט is 51 = כלא).
The nation of Israel is in meltdown and it is reverberating throughout the whole world! We are like the sons of Yaakov before their תיקון.
But we can recover and the remedy to all that ails us as a nation appears in this week’s parsha.
It begins with the lesson of Zevulun and Yissachar. We have to stop thinking that “We are it!” That we have a monopoly on - intelligence, culture, love for the Torah, love for Eretz Yisrael, love for our fellow man, love of peace, etc. and “How wonderful the world would be if everyone was like us!” We are not it! We are PART of it! We are essential, but at the same time we are only partial. Our role in Am Yisrael is vital, but it is only one piece of the puzzle and without the other pieces, it is nothing! Only with all the pieces of puzzle working together in unity are we it! That is the underlying principle of סגולת ישראל.
We need to reacquire this sense of סגולת ישראל and start thinking like Zevulun and Yissachar. Yes, we are all different – Ashkenazim, Sfardim, Chassidim, Mitnagdim, Secular, Reform, Conservative, in Israel, not in Israel, Left wing, Right wing, liberal, conservative, etc. We all serve Hashem in our own way. Some do it by studying full time in Yeshiva. Some do it by settling ארץ ישראל. Some do it by doing chessed, some do it with outreach trying to save Jews from total assimilation. Some do it by being the first to aid disaster zones around the world. Some do it by fostering human rights. Some do it by supporting and funding these causes, etc. We should not aspire to be uniform and to try mold the other “tribes” to be like us. Instead we should respect them for their differences and work together with them as a unit, each contributing their own unique part to the whole – which is Am Yisrael.
We need to get to a stage where in a Charedi shul they will happily say תפילה לחיילי צה"ל because they recognize and appreciate it is because Jewish soldiers in Am Yisrael are patrolling Israel’s borders and keeping us safe that enables them to study Torah. We need to get to a stage where a secular Jew in Tel Aviv can respect a Charedi yeshiva bochur sitting and studying full time in yeshiva and not being in the army, because they recognize and appreciate that it is because of that yeshiva bochur in Am Yisrael studying Torah that we exist here in Israel at all. We need to get to a stage where the רבנות הראשית in Israel can conduct a respectful dialogue with the Reform Jewry in America because they recognize and appreciate that this faction in Am Yisrael is perhaps the only thing standing in the way of millions of fellow Jews totally assimilating and forever losing any connection to Judaism. We need to get to a stage where Reform Jews in America can support the Right wing here in Israel because they recognize and appreciate that it’s these settlers in Am Yisrael who are fighting daily for our historic territorial rights to our land.
We don’t all have to be the same and have the same tactics in achieving our destiny – each of the tribes had their own ספר תורה - but we all need to have the same strategy – our devotion and love for one another and our Creator.
שמע ישראל, ה' א-לוקנו, ה' אחד
Zevulun and Yissachar were not the only switch in our parsha. The reason we bless our sons on Shabbat with Yaakov’s blessing for Menashe and Ephrayim is because even though Yaakov switched his hands and “preferred” the younger Ephrayim over the firstborn Menashe, there was no animosity between them, they simply accepted it – this was the role Hashem decided for them and there was no jealousy or ill feeling.
When Yaakov reveals the geulah to his twelve sons at the end of the parsha he says–
ויקרא יעקב אל בניו ויאמר האספו ואגידה לכם את אשר יקרא אתכם באחרית הימים (בראשית מט, א).
In order for the geulah to come, we first need האספו - to gather together, united as one.
And it all starts with a simple smile. When Yaakov blesses Yehuda he says –
חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן שנים מחלב (בראשית מט, יב)
The Gemara in Ketubot (111b) says on this passuk –
אל תקראי ולבן שנים אלא וליבון שיניים
Or as Shamai eloquently put it -
והוי מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פנים יפות
A simple smile defuses שנאת חינם. It says “you are not my enemy, let’s sit down and see how we can resolve this together for everyone’s benefit”. It is the foot in the door, the common ground from which everything grows, simply smiling and respecting your fellow Jew, sinner or not. That was the way of Aharon HaCohen אוהב שלום ורודף שלום אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה and this is the way of the Torah דרכיה דרכי נעם וכל נתיבותיה שלום.
COVID-19 is the latest in a series of contemporary wakeup calls, perhaps the loudest of them all. Hopefully we will finally pay heed to this one and start restoring our sense of סגולת ישראל, of respecting and working together with each other, each with our own style and point of view, but out of ערבות הדדית and love for each other and for Hashem. Sounds like אחרית הימים? Yes, that is actually what the geulah is and it is entirely up to us.
We are Yeshurun, Hashem’s chosen people and אין כאל ישורון . We, Yeshurun, need to reverse the כלא of COVID-19 and turn it into כאל by doing tshuva - individually and collectively and shake off the trappings, the avoda zara of the goyim which we have so become ensnared in and return to who we are as a nation, with a deep, vibrant love for one another and for G-d. Then we will hear the resounding call of the Mashiach -
ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד
