Commentaire de citation sur Les Juges 19:15

“And he was gathered to his people.” Our Sages said (Bava Batra 16b) that the terms “expiration” [geviah] and “gathering” [asifah] are only used in reference to the righteous. The concept of this “gathering” appears to me to be related to what our Sages taught (Rosh Hashanah 17a) that the wicked are judged in Gehenna for 12 months, where their body is consumed and their soul is burned, and the wind scatters them and they become ash, etc. The term “gathering” is the opposite of scattering — that the wind does not scatter them. We find the language of “gathering” used in reference to bringing into a house, as in and you shall gather him into your house (Deuteronomy 22:2) and but no man gathered them into his house (Judges 19:15). This indicates that God’s glory gathers them to Himself, in contrast to the wicked who are pushed away from the Divine Presence. The reason why the term “gathering” is used with Ishmael is because he repented, as evidenced by the verse Isaac and Ishmael buried him, where Ishmael led Isaac before him. If the Sages’ tradition [here] is an [actual] tradition, we shall accept it, but if there is room for argument, one could interpret the verse differently — that he was so wicked that he didn’t care about his father’s honor and didn’t involve himself in the burial until Isaac first began to handle it, and only then, out of shame, did he also participate in the burial. However, we should not deviate from the Sages’ tradition, and there is proof for their words: After all, Abraham sent away all the sons of the concubines from Isaac while he was still alive, and surely he did not send away Ishmael, for if so, how was he present at the burial? Rather, it must be that he repented and joined with Isaac, and led him before himself.

נאסף אל עמי [I AM] TO BE GATHERED UNTO MY PEOPLE — The expression נאסף “gathered” is used here because the souls are taken into a place in heaven where they are to be laid by. אסף in the Hebrew language has sometimes the meaning of “bringing something in to a place where it is to be kept” as e.g., (Judges 19:15) “For there was no man that took them into his house (אסף) [to lodge]”; (Deuteronomy 22:2) “then thou shalt bring it home (ואספתו) into thy house”; (Leviticus 23:39) “when you have taken in (באספכם) the fruit of the land” — which means bringing them in to the barn on account of the rain; (Exodus 23:16) “when thou hast taken in (באספך) thy labours”. So, too, the verb אסף used in connection with death always means “bringing in to the place where the souls are to be laid by”.