Citazione Commento su I Samuele 2:7

'ומקנה רב היה לבני ראובן וגו, “and The Reubenites possessed large quantities of livestock;” the tribes of Reuven and Gad, who possessed more wealth than the others grew to love their material possessions and this is what encouraged them to separate from their brethren, the other tribes to the extent that they wanted to make their residence on the east bank of the river Jordan. A look at history will show us that these tribes were the first to be exiled from their land. Both they and half of the tribe of Menashe who had also taken up residence on the east bank of that river (Compare Chronicles I 5,26.) [They were exiled in 740 B.C. about 20 years earlier than the tribes that had split from the Davidic dynasty on the west bank of the Jordan. Ed.] Psalms 75,7-8 refers to this event when the psalmist says: כי לא ממוצא וממערב ולא ממדבר הרים כי אלוקים שפט זה ישפיל וזה ירים, “for neither from his point of departure , motza, from birth, (the constellation governing that date) nor from the east or west, (geographical position) or from the wilderness or mountains (is man’s fate determined) for G–d is it who gives judgment. He lifts up or brings down.” In other words, man’s travails and planning are not what determines his success or failure in matters concerning material wealth. Rabbi Acha is on record as saying that every time the word הרים, “mountains” appears in the Bible it is to be understand literally, except in this verse in Psalms when the author uses it as a metaphor, for describing man’s status among his fellow man, i.e. his wealth. Man must not boast of his wealth as it may be here today and gone tomorrow. It is G–d Who has given him wealth, and it is He Who will deprive him of it when He sees fit to do so. What is the reason why in the Hebrew language physical possessions are referred to as נכסים, “chattels?” Because these “possessions,” have a way of moving from one “owner” to another “owner.” The same is true for the word זוז which describes coins in the Hebrew language, a word derived from the root which means: ”to move.” The same is true of the word ממון meaning “money,” i.e. something being constantly counted. It is also called מעות, reminding us that it is being used to deceive people, to falsify. Another quote on this subject is provided by Rabbi Abba, who draws our attention to the prayer of Channah in Samuel I 2,7: ה' מוריד ומעשיר, משפיל אף מרומם, “It is (only) the Lord Who makes poor and rich, He casts down and He also lifts high.” Even though He elevates a person, this does not have to be at the expense of casting down another person, as He can do it to the same person.” The Torah had described how each soldier enriched himself during the campaign against Midian. Although G–d brought disaster upon Midian, the Israelites were enriched. The same happened in Egypt when the plagues G–d had brought upon the Egyptians ended up by enriching the Jewish slaves. All this happened simultaneously. Our sages said that G–d gave mankind three gifts. They are: חכמה, גבורה , and עושר, “wisdom, physical strength and bravery, as well as material wealth. Whoever is endowed with either one of these gifts has actually been endowed with all three of them. How is this line to be understood? As long as these gifts are the result of studying the Torah and being G–d fearing. Unless these endowments are the product of the above, they are useless in the end. This is why the prophet Jeremiah has said in Jeremiah 9,22: אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו ואל יתהלל הגבור בגבורתו, ואל יתהלל העשיר בעשרו כי אם בזאת יתהלל המתהלל השכל וידוע אותי כי אני ה' כל עושה חסד חסד משפט וצדקה בארץ, “let not the wise boast about his wisdom, let not the strong boast about his strength; let not the rich glory in his riches; but only in this should one glory (if at all) in his earnest devotion to Me. For I the Lord act with kindness, Justice, and equity in the world.” (Compare Bamidbar Rabbah on this portion) I have also heard an explanation on this verse along the lines of a statement in the Talmud, tractate Niddah folio 16: there is one angel by the name of laylah, who is in charge of everything connected with conception; he presents every drop of human semen to the Lord and asking Him whether the ovum this drop will fertilise shall be endowed with wisdom, or foolhardiness, with physical strength or weakness, with wealth or poverty. He does not ask if the human being that will be born from this drop of semen will be a wicked person or a righteous person, as this is something that G–d has abstained from interfering with. It is the basis of the whole freedom, i.e. “image of G–d,” G–d has given to man as opposed to the angels and the animals, not to mention inert parts of the universe. The three outstanding examples of the endowments called “wisdom, physical strength and material wealth,” i.e. the wealthy Korach and the wealthy Haman, were symbols of the latter, one Jewish one non Jewish, who came to a totally disastrous end, each after having boasted of enormous admiration amongst his supporters. They had both displayed what we call wisdom, and instead of this helping them, it led them to an early and ignoble death. They had not been endowed with their wealth from G–d, but had acquired it by immoral means. Solomon, in Kohelet 5,12, refers to this when he said that “riches hoarded by their owners lead to their misfortune.” (Compare Tanchuma 5 and Bamidbar rabbah 22,7 on our verse on this subject.

In ancient times our ancestors served idols: There are many questions raised by this passage.
First why does it use the word avoteinu, ‘our forefathers’ to describe our ancestors? We are told that we only use the word, avoteinu to describe Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.¹⁰⁹BT Berachot 16b Here the term is used to describe idolaters as our forefathers!
Second, why does the passage go on to tell us that ‘God brought them to His service,’ something that is obvious. The repetition of language is also strange: “I brought your father, Abraham.” Why is it necessary to say both our forefather and Abraham?
If this verse mentions Abraham, why doesn’t it also mention Isaac and Jacob?
Finally, the verse says, “(Mei’olam) your ancestors dwelt on the other side of the Jordan.” What does the word mei’olam add to the verse?
Before the Patriarchs, people referred to their ancestors in the chain of generations as “forefathers.” Once Abraham arose, and brought illumination to the world by teaching others about the existence of God, the term, ‘forefather,’ was now applied only to him. We no longer called the previous generations as our forefathers; only Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are our forefathers. Because of their great importance as well as their deep love of God and the contribution they made to future generations, we think of everything beginning with them.
This is what we find in the book of Joshua and in the Haggadah. “In ancient times” our ancestors who worshipped idols were considered “our forefathers” but now that God brought us closer to His service, we are like converts whose lineage begins from the moment of their conversion. The future lineage begins from a convert. Terach may have been Abraham’s father but only Abraham is our forefather because his father was an idolater. The verse from the book of Joshua mentions Terach and Nachor who were known idolaters but it doesn’t mention Charan, Abraham’s other brother because there is a question about whether he was an idolater or not.¹¹⁰Charan is said to be the father of Sarah – which would have made her Abraham’s first cousin. This might explain, as an aside, why Abraham could refer to her as his sister! See Midrash regarding Charan’s status, Genesis Rabbah 38:14 The verse goes on to say, “And I took your father…” The word ‘took’ implies that God created him anew so that those who came before him would no longer be called forefathers. That is why our first forefather’s name is Avram, Av Ram – literally exalted father. Through him the name ‘forefather’ was exalted, as though he were the very work of God’s hands. God then bequeathed a letter to him from His great name – the letter hei – so that his name became Avraham. The text alludes to this earlier: “This is the generations of heaven and earth in their creation. The letter hei in the word b’hibaram, “in their creation,’ is an allusion to the future when God would give Abraham the letter hei from His name and make Abraham a new creation.
And I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac: Jacob’s name is placed before Esau, even though he is technically the younger child, because Jacob was the first one formed in their mother’s womb.¹¹¹See Rashi on Genesis 25:26 Rashi uses the analogy of two precious stones that were placed in a tube. The one that went in first comes out last and the one that went in last comes out first. By the way, the same is true about luggage on an airplane! So too, with the order in which children are placed in a womb reflected an inverse order to which they were born. Isaac had been sanctified through his being bound on the altar. However, it was necessary for Rebecca to give birth to Esau so that all the impurity would be given to him and all the purity to Jacob. In this way Esau would not be worthy of inheriting their holy land while Jacob and his descendents would. Instead, Esau inherited a land that had no holiness – Mount Seir.
Jacob and his children went down (yardu) to Egypt: The verb yarad also has a connotation of ‘reigning over.’ Jacob and his family came to Egypt through the government, since Joseph ruled over all of Egypt and he gave them authority. Pharaoh, too, saw that they were capable of ruling and so place them in charge of his herds. Even though Israel ascended to authority, God caused them to be diminished, as in the verse, “God brings low those that are exalted.¹¹²1 Samuel 2:7”

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Mattot 5: when material wealth is received from heaven it is liable to endure; if its source is not heavenly it is unlikely to endure. There were two truly wealthy people in the world, one was an Israelite, i.e. Korach, the other was Haman. Both of them not only lost their wealth but they perished ignominiously seeing that their material wealth had not been a gift from heaven. They had acquired it by tearing it away from others.
You will also find that the wealth possessed by the members of the tribes Gad and Reuven caused them to become inordinately fond of it. As a result they lived (loosely speaking) in what we call חוצה לארץ, outside the essential part of Eretz Yisrael. They separated from the main body of the people on account of their possessions and wound up being the first to be exiled because of their sins (compare Chronicles I 5,26).
When we read in Psalms 75,7: “for what lifts a man comes not from the east or the west or the wilderness הרים, for it is G’d Who gives judgment, He brings down one man, He lifts up another.” The psalmist referred to the fate of the two and a half tribes Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe (compare Tanchuma Mattot 6). The words ולא ממדבר הרים, normally translated as “and not from a wilderness of mountains,” are somewhat misleading. Whereas it is true that everywhere else in the Holy Bible the word הרים means “mountains,” in this instance it means “elevation.” (socially, financially). When G’d wanted to enrich the members of these tribes He gave them what had belonged to the Midianites. Thereby He fulfilled what is written in Psalms 75,7.
Why are material possesions called נכסים ? Because it is in the nature of such belongings to be hidden (disappear) from one owner and become revealed to the other owner. Chanah alluded to this when she said in Samuel I 2,7: ה' מוריש ומעשיר, משפיל אף מרומם, “the Lord makes poor and makes rich; He casts down, He also lifts high.” When G’d displays His anger (אף) at one people, another is liable to benefit from that. This is the reason our chapter is introduced most unusually with the conjunctive letter ו. Instead of the words ומקנה רב היה, וגו', I would have expected something like לבני ראובן וגד היה מקנה רב. The letter ו as the introduction to the whole chapter draws our attention to the fact that the reason these tribes had so many possessions was only because they had captured them from the Midianites, i.e. that G’d had deprived the Midianites of their possessions.
When Kohelet 10,2 speaks of “the heart of the wise being on the right whereas the heart of the foolish is on the left,” he had in mind people like the members of the tribes of Gad and Reuven who made things of secondary significance such as the livestock their primary concern, i.e. they confused that which is essential with that which is merely auxiliary. They demonstrated this when they mentioned their livestock before referring to their children (verse 16). G’d told them that people who considered their personal wealth as more important than their children would find that their wealth was not blessed. This is what Solomon taught us in Proverbs 20,21: “An inheritance gained hastily (sudden riches) at the outset will not be blessed in the end.” This is also the meaning of Proverbs 23,4: “Do not tire yourself out trying to become rich; desist out of a feeling of insight.” The truly wealthy individual is he who is content with what G’d has seen fit to provide for him as we know from Psalms 128,2: “when you consume the fruit of the labors of your hands you will be happy and feel content.”

shall impoverish her an expression similar to (I Sam. 2: 7) “impoverishes and makes rich.”

תורישמו This is an expression for poverty and need, (meaning “my hand shall make them poor”), just as, (I Samuel 2:27) “He maketh poor (מוריש) and maketh rich.”

פן תורש — The Targum renders this by דלמא תתמסכן LEST THOU BE IMPOVERISHED, for the verb is of the same root as we find in (1 Samuel 2:7) “The Lord maketh poor (מוריש) and maketh rich”.