Commento su Deuteronomio 33:17

בכור שורו THE FIRSTBORN OF HIS OX — There is a usage of the word בכור that denotes greatness and sovereignty, as it is said, (Psalms 89:28) “I will also make him a בכור” (i.e., a man of rank), and similarly (Exodus 4:22) “My son, my firstborn (בכורי) is Israel”. The text means: the king who will issue from him, and that is Joshua, whose strength will be mighty as that of an ox to subdue many kings,

B’CHOR’ (THE FIRSTLING) OF HIS BULLOCK, MAJESTY IS HIS. “B’chor (firstborn) is sometimes used to denote greatness and sovereignty, as it is said, I also will appoint him [David] first born.²²⁸Psalms 89:25. Similarly, Israel is My son, My first born.²²⁹Exodus 4:25. [Hence, this verse means:] The strength of the king who will come forth from him [Joseph] — namely, Joshua — will be as great as that of an ox to subdue many kings. And his horns are the horns of the wild-ox. The ox has great strength but its horns are not beautiful; the wild-ox, on the other hand, has beautiful horns but its strength is not great. Moses then ascribed to Joshua the strength of an ox and the beauty of the horns of the wild-ox. And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim — those who are gored are the myriads whom Joshua, a descendant of Ephraim, slew. And they are the thousands of Menasheh — the thousands whom Gideon [a descendant of Menasheh] slew of Midian, as it is said, Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor.²³⁰Judges 8:10. Many thousands are enumerated there.”²³¹The verse there reads: Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the host of the children of the east; for there fell a hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword. All these — a total of 135,000 — were defeated by Gideon. Thus far the language of Rashi. But this interpretation leaves the verse in disorder. Since the expression his horns are the horns of the wild-ox is a description of the firstling of the bullock, namely Joshua, how could it be said that he [a descendant of Ephraim] gore with them [the horns] the thousands of Menasheh, the victims of Gideon [a descendant of Menasheh]? And the language of the Sifre is as follows:²³²Sifre, Brachah 353. “Since Scripture has not made clear to us how many Canaanites were slain by Joshua, it states Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor²³⁰Judges 8:10. — all one hundred and thirty-five thousand.²³¹The verse there reads: Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the host of the children of the east; for there fell a hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword. All these — a total of 135,000 — were defeated by Gideon. Therefore it is stated, and they are the thousands of Menasheh. ” The intent of the Rabbis is to interpret that the phrase with them he shall gore the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth is also an allusion to Joshua. The verse says that these ends of the earth which he [the tribe of Joseph] will gore, are the ten thousands that Ephraim — meaning Joshua — slew, and they are the [same] thousands slain afterwards by Menasheh. For Joshua slew them all [the nations], and of their descendants who arose after them Menasheh slew thousands from among them. Similarly it is taught there [in the Sifre]:²³²Sifre, Brachah 353. “With them he shall gore the peoples all of them. But what [nations] did Joshua capture? Did he not subdue only thirty-one kings? The verse teaches [us] that Joshua subdued kings and rulers that were from one end of the world to the other.²³³The statement of the Sifre can be understood on the basis of the saying of the Rabbis in Bereshith Rabbah 85:16: “Any king or ruler who had no [seat of] sovereignty in the Land of Israel would consider himself worthless” (see Vol. IV, p. 396, Note 87). Hence the expression that Joshua subdued “kings and rulers from one end of the world to the other.” All of them, even the ends of the earth. But which lands did Joshua capture? Did he not conquer only this small portion [of the earth]? Only [this is to teach us] that all the kings that he subdued were sovereigns and rulers” [rather than insignificant, powerless figures].
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture [the verse states]: Because Moses blessed Joseph with the increase of the field, he compared him [here] to an ox, for much increase is by the strength of the ox.²³⁴Proverbs 14:4. He further stated that Joseph will be the firstborn that will beget the beauty of majesty — this being an allusion to Joshua, the first of all the house of Joseph²³⁵II Samuel 19:21. — and that greatness and majesty will be his. His horns are the horns of the wild-ox — of the aforementioned ox — and with his horns, he shall gore the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth. And he further states that his horns — which are two — are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Menasheh, the right horn [the stronger one] representing Ephraim and the left [the weaker one] representing Menasheh. Thus he mentioned in his blessing that they will become numerous, tribes consisting of myriads and thousands, similar to the expression, the myriads of thousands of Israel.²³⁶Numbers 10:36.

בכור שורו, although Yehudah is the leader of the tribes, just as the lion is the leader of the free roaming beasts, the ox ranks first among the domesticated pure animals, as we know from a comment by our sages in Chagigah 13 that the lion is the king among the predators whereas the ox is the king among the domesticated animals. This makes Joseph rank second among twelve tribes. Compare Hoseah 13,1 כדבר אפרים רתת נשא הוא בישראל, “when Ephrayim spoke piety in Israel he was exalted.” The prophet spoke of the earlier generations such as when Joshua was the leader, when Ephrayim was highly esteemed. in the eyes of G‘d as well as by the people.

בכר שורו הדר לו, "Like a firstling bull in his majesty, etc." Here Moses blessed two outstanding individuals who were descended from Joseph. Concerning his first born son Menashe, Moses said the words בכר שורו are a reference to Gideon. The reason he chose the simile of the bull is because of what the angel said to Gideon (Judges 6,28) "take the bull which belongs to your father, and take the second bull which is seven years old and destroy the altar of the Baal belonging to your father, etc. and offer ….it as a burnt offering." The הדר, "spiritual beauty," Moses speaks about is that Gideon needed only 300 men to defeat the Midianites, as all these men were of spiritually outstanding quality. Such success reflects favourably on the leader, hence הדר לו, it is a compliment for him.

בכור שורו הדר לו, “Like a firstling bull is his majesty;” Nachmanides, referring to the plain meaning of the verse, writes that seeing Moses had blessed the tribe of Joseph in terms of abundant crops, he had likened that tribe to an ox, the animal without whose work most crops would never see the light of day. He wishes that the firstborn of this tribe be majestic, an allusion to the position which Joshua, an illustrious member of the tribe of Joseph, would occupy among the people shortly, after Moses would die. He would henceforth be remembered as the most illustrious of Joseph’s descendants.

בכור sometimes denotes grandeur and regency, etc. So here too בכור means grandeur; and it means The king descended from him.

V. 17. בכור שורו, Josefs in dem Vorangehenden gezeichnete eigentliche Bestimmung ist eine friedliche Größe, deren Gesamtbild: Ackerbau ist, für welchen sich שור, nicht Löwe, wie für Juda Bereschit 49, 9 als bildlicher Ausdruck eignet. בכור שורו jedoch, der Erstgeborene dieses friedlicher Bestimmung angehörenden Stammes, d. h. der Erste, der von diesem Stamme in Israels fernerer geschichtlichen Zukunft hervortritt, erhält eine mit Hoheit umkleidete kriegerische Mission, ihm werden Völker bewältigende Reemshörner, zu solchen gestalten sich unter seiner Führung zunächst die Zehntausende und Tausende der Josefsstämme. Es ist dies offenbar Josua, welcher dem Stamme Efraim angehörte (Bamidbar 13, 7) und die Aufgabe der mit Vertreibung der Völker verbundenen Besitznahme des Landes erhalten hatte. אפסי ארץ bezeichnet wohl die Ferne, in die er die Völker treiben werde.

בכור שורו, “His firstling bullock;” Joshua was the first king chosen by G-d from the descendants of Joseph. This is why he is referred to by Moses here as בכור, “firstborn.” The reason why Moses compares a king to an ox is because the ox or bullock is the king amongst the domesticated four legged mammals. (Talmud tractate Chagigah folio 13.)

הדר לו HONOUR TO HIM — i.e., honour is given unto him, as it is said, (Numbers 27:20) “And thou shalt give of thy honour (הודך, a synonym of הדר) unto him” (Joshua).

הדר לו, even though he does not enjoy the official position of being Royalty, he is fit and deserving of such honours.

וקרני ראם קרניו, “his glory will be like the horns of the Re’em.” Moses refers to the horns in the plural, parallel to the term רבבות אפרים, the tens of thousands of Ephrayim, on the one hand, and the אלפי מנשה, “the thousands from Menashe” on the other. Ephrayim’s blessing recalls that Yaakov, at the time, had insisted on placing his right hand on Ephrayim, and his left hand, i.e. אלפי, on Menashe. Israel has been described elsewhere as consisting of רבבות אלפי, “tens of thousands of thousands,” (Numbers 10,36)

Who was as supremely powerful as the ox, etc. Rashi is explaining why the comparison to an ox.

וקרני ראם קרניו, "he has thorns like the horns of the wild-ox." This is a reference to Joshua, a descendant of Joseph's younger son Ephrayim. His reputation was world-wide, "his horn" comparable to the horn of the wild-ox.

והם רבבות אפרים, “and they (the horns) are tens of thousands of the warriors of Ephrayim.” Seeing that Joshua was from the tribe of Ephrayim, the soldiers of that tribe would be the first to rally around him when war broke out.

וקרני ראם קרניו AND HIS HORNS ARE THE HORNS OF A RE’EM — The ox — its strength is mighty but its horns are not beautiful, a Re’em, however — its horns are beautiful but its strength is not mighty: therefore it ascribes to Joshua the strength of an ox and the beauty of a Re’em’s horns (Sifrei Devarim 353:10).

בהם עמים ינגח יחדו, he, together with the tribe of Yehudah, proving Royalty will prevail over many nations by locking horns with them. Compare Isaiah 11,13-14 “then Ephrayim’s envy shall cease and Yehudah’s harassment shall end; Ephrayim shall not envy Yehudah, and Yehudah shall not harass Ephrayim. They shall pounce on the back of the Philistines to the west and together they shall topple peoples of the east.”

The ox is supremely powerful, but his horns are unattractive, etc. Rashi is answering the question: Why the verse does not also compare Yoseif to an ox regarding his horns? Why does it compare him regarding his horns to a re’em? This explains why the Rabbis explain, as cited by Rashi in parshas Balak (Bamidbar 23:22), that re’em [there] means loftiness or demons and not an actual re’em, because there it is describing the power and might of the Holy One, and the re’em is extremely weak.

בהם עמים ינגח, "with them he gores nations." When the kings of the Emorites heard that G'd was with Joshua they no longer had any fighting spirit and could not offer Joshua resistance.

והם אלפי מנשה, the Israelites had a great leader from the tribe of Menashe also, by the name of Gideon, who was known for fighting with far fewer soldiers, i.e.,אלפי מנשה, the thousands of Menashe. Yaakov when on his deathbed, had insisted on placing his right hand on Ephrayim, the younger of the two brothers. This is reflected in Moses’ blessing here.

אפסי ארץ [NATIONS] OF THE ENDS OF THE EARTH — The thirty-one kings whom Joshua conquered — is it possible that they were all of the land of Israel? But there was no king or ruler who did not acquire for himself a palace and territory in the land of Israel because it was so estimable to all of them (Sifrei Devarim 353:12), as it is said of Palestine, (Jeremiah 3:19) “An inheritance, the desire of hosts of nations” (see Rashi on this verse).

Is it possible that all of them were natives of Eretz Yisroel, etc.? This is a question of wonder. Since the land of Yisroel was only four hundred parsah by four hundred parsah, how then is it possible for thirty-one kings rule in the Land of Yisroel?!

The reason that Moses repeats that he speaks of both the myriads of Ephrayim and those of Menashe is because both blessings were meant for both these tribes. Although Moses mentioned Menashe first, the blessing extended to that tribe was of somewhat lesser range than that for Ephrayim. Moses followed the pattern of giving his blessings in an ascending order. When giving details of the blessings he mentioned Ephrayim first as he received the major blessing.

והם רבבות אפרים AND THEY ARE THE MYRIADS OF EPHRAIM — i.e., those who are gored are the myriads whom Joshua, who was descended from Ephraim, slew.

The territory coveted (צבי) by hordes of nations. And this is similar to the expression בצביונם (the form chosen for them) (Chullin 60a).

והם אלפי מנשה AND THEY ARE THE THOUSANDS OF MANASSEH — they are the thousands whom Gideon, who was descended from Manasseh, slew of Midian, as it is said, (Judges 8:10) “And Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor [and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left … for there had fallen a hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword]”.