Musar su Genesi 48:44

Pride is the coin which the Great King, Blessed be He, voided, and about which He warned us in His Torah, as it is said: "Take care lest you forget the Lord your God and fail to keep His commandments" (Deut. 8:11). For the arrogant person forgets his Maker, as it is written, "… and (when) your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord your God … and you say to yourselves, 'My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me'" (Ibid. 8:13-18). And in the case of a king it is said: "Thus he will not act haughtily towards his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left…" (Ibid. 17:20). If the Torah warned against pride even in the case of a king, so much more does it warn ordinary men that they should not attempt to lord over one another.

Blessed be God, the Mighty, the Wise, the One who is nigh, Responsive, the One, the Eternal, the Primordial, the Creator; greatly exalted be He. Verily, when we look at man who is the best of all the creatures of the Creator, exalted be His majesty, we recognize that he is the object aimed at in the creation of all substances and beings. Furthermore, he is best proportioned, as regards constitution, of all living beings; and, in addition to this, most perfect and most beautiful of form, and most completely fashioned. He possesses a rational soul, elemental,⁴Horovitz, accepting the Hebrew translation, פנינה would render this "transparent," "luminous" (p. 108, note 65); cf. Dukes ("Phil."," p. 57, note 5). wise, everlasting, which does not perish with him. For all this there are clear proofs, both intellectual and Scriptural, which every intelligent man knows. The surest proof that man is pre-eminent among creatures is, that he partakes of the state of the angels in regard to speech and understanding. These two are divine and spiritual properties. Nay more, we see, besides this, that the angels busy themselves with the righteous man, as we learn from the case of Abraham, peace be unto him, in that they brought him glad tidings and also warned him; likewise from the case of Isaac and Jacob, our fathers. The latter said in the course of his excellent prayer for his son (Gen. xlviii. 16), "The angel which redeemed me";¹In giving the English of Gabirol's biblical citations, I have quoted as much as is required to elucidate the general context. In doing so, I depart from the precedent laid down by the author or scribe, who frequently cites no more than an initial word or two of the Scriptural passage, sometimes even the non-essential ones, leaving it to the reader to recall the rest. In citing the number of chapter and verse, the Hebrew original has been followed. and Scripture says of him (Hos. xii. 5), "Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed"; and Daniel said (vi. 23), "My God hath sent his angel." Concerning the help vouchsafed to the pious and the destruction of their enemies, it is said (II Kings xix. 35), "And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians." There are many similar examples, which I will not go to the length of enumerating.

ויתחזק ישראל וישב על המטה . Israel's ability to strengthen himself and sit on "the bed," was due to "his bed" being שלימה. Hail to anyone who merits it. Every pious person constantly prays that he will not be the cause of any פסול, defect, among his children or children's children. All that man can leave behind in this world are children and grandchildren who by their own righteousness bear testimony to the piety of their fathers.

At the time Jacob made his request that Joseph bury him in the land of Israel, he did not hold out any promise of reward for Joseph when he requested his promise to bury him in the land of Israel. Neither did Jacob use the opportunity to apologize for burying Joseph's mother in the middle of nowhere instead of with his, Jacob's ancestors. By his withholding any promises or apologies Jacob made sure that Joseph should acquire the merit of performing an act of גמילות חסד that was totally altruistic. Once Joseph had promised his father to bury him in the land of Israel, and had sworn an oath concerning this, -on a different occasion,- as attested to by the words ויהי אחרי הדברים האלה, "It was after these events," in 48,1, Jacob did explain why he had buried Rachel where he did, and that Joseph would inherit in the land of Israel as if he had been his firstborn son, etc. All of this occurred after Jacob had been taken ill.

ויברך את יוסף ויאמר האלהים אשר התהלכו אבותי לפניו . The "walking before Him," mentioned here is an allusion to the spiritual awakening which proceeds in an "upward" motion and confers increased holiness on a person. I have explained this in my commentary on פרשת נח. Walking "before" G–d means to perform acts which in turn elevate a person spiritually. Walking "with" G–d means that G–d's input comes first.

And because we see that man is the choicest of the creatures of the Creator in the lower world and that he is perfected in his form and that there is within him the soul that contemplates the secret of the highest heights and of the lowest places and that he is the chief object of all intentions in the world, and that everything that was created in this world, all of it, is for his need. And, in addition to this, there has been given to man a Torah of Truth, to teach him the righteous way, for man is very dear to the Lord, since we see that even the angels serve in supplying the needs of a righteous man as we have found in the case of Abraham, our father and Isaac and Jacob: "The angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads" (Gen. 48:16), and "So he strove with an angel, and prevailed" (Hos. 12:5).

Something similar is true of Joseph. Although Joseph himself is a branch of Jacob, he did father two of the regular tribes, i.e. Ephrayim and Menasseh, whom Jacob compared in status to Reuben and Shimon (Genesis 48, 5). When we look once more at the word אחד, we will find that Joseph was unique in having a close connection with both the letter ח i.e. the brothers of Jacob's major wives, seeing he himself was one of those. He was also closely attached to the sons of Jacob's concubines, since the Torah describes Joseph as being raised primarily among the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah (37, 2). Considering the expression והוא נער, also stressed in that verse, we find in it an allusion to something I have previously mentioned, namely that יעקב contains an allusion to the letter ו in the four-lettered Ineffable Name. The name יוסף must then be viewed as a miniature edition of that same letter in G–d's name. The scriptural allusion to this concept is found in Isaiah 10, 19 ונער יכתבם, "and a lad will write them down." [This is probably an error, and should have been a quote from Isaiah 11, 6 ונער קטן נוהג בם. Ed.]

But, in truth, all this was "measure for measure." Because of their sitting to eat bread when Joseph was in the pit, it was decreed upon them to also sit and eat bread under terrifying circumstances, until Judah himself said (Ibid. 44:16): "What shall we speak and how shall we justify ourselves? G-d has found out the sin of your servants." [And he, taking upon himself the din of Heaven, as it were,] — "Behold, we are slaves to my lord, etc." And with this, he averts the essential din for the selling [of Joseph]. [And though Joseph is not yet reconciled in this parshah and says (Ibid. 17): "The man in whose hand the goblet is found — he shall be my servant. And you, go up in peace to your father," Judah does not agree to this, viz. (Ibid. 18): "And Judah drew near to him," until the end of the episode, (Ibid. 45:1): "And Joseph could not restrain himself, etc."]

Jacob made Joseph swear by his own "root," seeing Joseph symbolized the ברית, the covenant with G–d, as we have pointed out on numerous occasions. Placing his hand on his father's organ then was not symbolic of the covenant of circumcision, but of the ברית העליון, the covenant between G–d and man that ensures the continued existence of the universe. The word ירך in that context represented the seat of reproductive activity, the root of physical man, not merely its sanctification by circumcision. When Joseph made his brothers swear, he merely made them swear by his own מדה, attribute, not in his capacity as symbol of something higher. Since Joseph considered himself as an "extension," a pipeline of the domain of his father, he merely made sure that his bones would be moved from the ארץ התחתונה, the lowest level of earth (in this case Egypt), to the "lowest" level of היכל השם, Sanctuary, to the land of Israel. It is precisely because Joseph was that pipeline between the ארץ עליונה, the equivalent of earth in the Celestial Regions, that Jacob blessed Joseph's children by invoking their father. This is the meaning of ויברך את יוסף, "He blessed Joseph," before the line: המלאך הגואל אתי מכל רע הוא יברך את הנערים, "May the angel who blessed me bless the lads" (48,16). No רע, evil, stuck to our patriarch Jacob. Evil is the very reverse of maintaining the Holy Covenant as we know from: ויהי ער רע בעיני השם, "Er was evil (same letters reversed) in the eyes of the Lord" (38,7). Concerning people who are evil, it is written: לא יגורך רע, "Evil cannot abide with You" (Psalms 5,5), seeing Evil has no foothold in ארץ העליונה, the celestial equivalent to earth. That ארץ is known only as ארץ טובה, and טוב is the צדיק, the foundation of the universe as we know from: אמרו צדיק כי טוב הוא, "Say (about) the righteous he is good" (Isaiah 3,10). This is why the seed of Joseph, the keeper of the Covenant, was more sacred than any other, and as a result merited to be counted among the other founders of the tribes.

We similarly find that when Jacob was embattled against the Emorites that he referred to his conquest of the city of Shechem as something he had acquired by means of "my sword and my bow" (Genesis 48,22). There was another element to this battle: The prayer Jacob offered up helped him succeed. Onkelos translates the words בחרבי ובקשתי as בצלותי ובבעותי, "with my prayer and my entreaty." It was Jacob's custom that whenever he was involved in a confrontation he would employ three kinds of weapons which our Rabbis have referred to as מלחמה, דורון, תפלה. These may be considered as Jacob's "secret weapons." The weapon called דורון, was gifts to charity; the weapon called מלחמה was the struggle against his evil urge; the weapon called תפלה needs no homiletical interpretation. These three weapons together are what are popularly known as הקול קול יעקב. The weapon of charity is also alluded to in a Biblical passage describing soldiers going into battle. Psalms 85,14 speaks of: צדק לפניו יהלוך וישם לדרך פעמיו, "Charity goes before him as he sets out on his way." We also have a verse in Exodus 30,12 ונתנו איש כופר נפשו, suggesting that a man can use his charitable gifts to help him overcome his blood-guilt, i.e. to save him from danger in war. The fact that only men over the age of twenty had to make this contribution is a clear indication that once one is of military age it may become a life-saver.

Now to a more detailed examination of the subject of betrothal and wedding. The sanctification of the moon is an expression of Israel's sanctification. This is alluded to in the words: החודש הזה לכם, "This month belongs to you." The Jewish Court has been given authority by G–d to declare when the New Moon officially commences, i.e. whether the month just concluded will have twenty-nine or thirty days. The Court similarly enjoys the authority to declare an extra month when this is necessary to ensure that Passover falls in spring, etc. (Rosh Hashanah 22). This is a mystical aspect of the betrothal. It is written here "This month is yours,” and it is written in Genesis 48,9: אשר נתן לי אלוקים בזה, "which the Lord had given me here." On this latter verse Rashi comments that Joseph showed his father the documents testifying to his traditional betrothal and marriage. The sanctity of the Sabbath testifies to the existence of G–d as the Creator. The sanctity of the Sabbath belongs to G–d in His capacity as the Ineffable Name and is eternal. All our sages are agreed that on the festival of Shavuot (which commemorates the giving of the Torah) the element of לכם is essential [just as in the verse announcing that the New Moon is given over to the Jewish people, Ed.], since G–d spoke to us directly on that occasion.

This is what the Torah alluded to when it described Jacob as kissing Rachel and raising his voice and beginning to cry (29,11). Rashi comments there that the reason Jacob cried was because he foresaw that Rachel would not be buried alongside him. This comment is difficult. The fact that Rachel would not be buried with Jacob hardly seems an adequate reason for him to cry about! No doubt Rashi meant that Jacob had a vision of the reason that Rachel would not be buried alongside him, that his descendants would be exiled and that she needed to intercede with G–d on their behalf. Rashi gave a somewhat similar commentary in Genesis 48,7, where Jacob justified himself to Joseph for asking to be buried in Machpelah, though he had failed to bury Joseph's mother Rachel there. We see that there is a spiritual association between Rachel and צאן, the description used for the Jewish people when the latter are in exile.