Komentarz do Rodzaju 49:5

שמעון ולוי אחים SIMEON AND LEVI WERE BRETHREN in the plot against Shechem and against Joseph. Scripture states, (Genesis 37:19—20) “And they said one to another… (literally, one to his brother) come now therefore and let us slay him” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 9). Now, who were these? Should you say Reuben or Judah was one of them — but they were not consenting parties to slaying him (cf. Genesis 37:21, Genesis 37:22 and Genesis 37:26). Should you say they were the sons of the handmaids (Dan, Naphtali, Gad or Asher) — their hatred of Joseph was not so perfect a hatred that they would wish to kill him for it is said, (Genesis 37:2) “whilst a lad he used to be with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah etc.” Issachar and Zebulun would certainly not have spoken thus in the presence of their elder brothers. Consequently one must needs say that they were Simeon and Levi whom their father called “brethren” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 9).

SIMEON AND LEVI ARE BRETHREN. Jacob is saying that they possess the attribute of kinship for their hearts were inflamed concerning their sister.⁹⁴Ibid., 34:25-26. He is thus stating in their defense that they acted as they did out of their brotherly zeal, thus suggesting [that were it not for this extenuating circumstance], they would have been deserving of great punishment and their sin would have been unforgivable since what they did to the people of Shechem was an act of violence.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that he is saying that Simeon and Levi are real brothers, uniting in fraternity and brotherhood in counsel and deed. Now I have already explained⁹⁵Ibid., 34:13. that Jacob was angry with Simeon and Levi for having committed violence when they killed the people of the city of Shechem, for they⁹⁶The people of the city committed no wrong. It was Shechem who violated Dinah, and the people were not in a position to protest his action. had not sinned against them at all. They even made a covenant with them and they were circumcised, thus being enabled to return to G-d and become included within the people of the household of Abraham, part of the souls that they had gotten in Haran.⁹⁷Above, 12:5. A reference to the proselytes whom Abraham and Sarah had brought “beneath the sheltering wings of the Shechina” (Rashi, ibid.) Jacob was additionally angry with them lest people say that the matter was done at his suggestion, thus creating a profaning of G-d’s Name, as people will say that the prophet has committed violence and plunder. This is the intent of the verse, Let my soul not come into their council—⁹⁸Verse 6 here. this is an excuse for he was not in their council when they answered the people of Shechem with subtlety,⁹⁹Above, 34:13. and he was not united in their assembly when they came upon the people of the city and killed them. It was for this reason that he cursed their anger and wrath.¹⁰⁰Verse 7 here. And so did Onkelos translate: “My soul was not in their council when they assembled to strike, etc.”

מכירותיהם The reason why Yaakov used such a dual, pluralistic, mode of the word was the special relationship which existed between Shimon and Levi, a relationship almost like that of twin brothers, as if the term אחותיהם instead of merely אחים, would describe their mutual brotherliness. However, their special relationship appeared to concentrate on their doing something negative, i.e. they used destructive tools, weapons in the pursuit of their designs.

Brothers. Because of your brotherhood you should have received the kingship after Reuvein lost it, but a king, who is charged with establishing justice, cannot be a violent person.

שמעון ולוי אחים, Shimon and Levi are brothers, etc. Jacob stressed the fact that Shimon and Levi were brothers as their similarity was natural, they shared many attitudes, something that is not always the case between brothers. It is also possible that Jacob referred to their joint action in Shechem as well as their plan to dispose of Joseph at the time, when he described their brotherliness. Jacob may have meant that these two between them shared the element of fire in an exaggerated manner. Our sages in Yuma 22 describe that Saul committed one sin which cost him the kingdom whereas David committed two serious sins without forfeiting his kingdom. The reason for this was that Saul was even-tempered by nature whereas David was impetuous by nature as we know from Samuel I 16,12 where the prophet describes David as אדמוני, red cheeked, i.e. hot-blooded. When G'd judges people He makes allowances for their natural tendencies, their genetic mix. Although someone who contains a greater than average share of the element of fire will be most enthusiastic in his service of G'd as a result (as we know from the tribe of Levi), this enthusiasm does not act as a barrier against his committing errors on occasion. Such errors also reflect his genetic composition. The fact that a person such as Saul was of an even temperament usually acted as a barrier against his falling victim to the lures of the evil urge. When Jacob described Shimon and Levi as אחים the word is derived from חם, heat. Jacob cursed their anger because when it erupted it was apt to prove unusually destructive. Anger is rooted in the element fire.

שמעון ולוי אחים, they had acted like brothers in their concern for their sister Dinah, as the Torah credits them in Genesis 34,25.

כלי חמס מכרותיהם, “their occupation with weaponry is stolen.” Onkelos understands the word מכרותיהם as similar to מגורותיהם, “places where they sojourned,” meaning that both Shimon and Levi had (stolen?) weapons from their uncle Esau and they used them to perpetrate acts of violence in the land they sojourned in. Other commentators feel that the expression כלי חמס defines their lifestyle, i.e. wherever they sojourned they used strong-arm methods to get their way and to secure their livelihood. Still other commentators understand the word מכרותיהם as derived from מכירה, “sale,” Yaakov saying that these two brothers had figuratively speaking “sold themselves” to the use of violence, similar to Judges 5,18 עם חרף נפשם למות, “a people that mocked death.”

Their hatred was not so complete... Rashi did not give the reason of “They would not have spoken before their older brothers” because Yoseif had told Yaakov that [the older brothers] were calling the handmaids’ sons “slaves.” Thus Yoseif slandered the handmaids’ sons, and they would have had a justification [to speak before their older brothers,] since Yoseif called them “slaves.” Thus Rashi gives a stronger reason, [that their hatred was not so complete]. (Maharshal)

In Schimeons und Lewis Charakter tritt ein Zug hervor, der sie, um an die Spitze der künstigen Leitung gestellt zu werden, eigentlich ganz besonders befähigt hätte. Sie sind אחים, haben das brüderliche Gesamtgefühl (von אחה durch einen alle durchschlingenden Faden an einander gereiht) in hohem Grade bewährt, das ohne allen Egoismus sich von dem dem Geringsten des Familienkreises zugefügten Unrecht ebenso getroffen fühlt, als wäre es ihm selbst geworden. Allein: .כלי חמס מכרתיהם מכרתיהם: entweder von כור, wovon כור, der Tiegel, in welchem etwas bereitet wird, und dann מכֵרה allgemein: Mittel; wahrscheinlicher aber von כרה .כרה: graben; im Vergleich mit חפר ergibt sich, dass חפר bis auf den Grund graben, Wasser aus der Tiefe holen heißt, daher überhaupt: Verborgenes ans Licht bringen, wovon: erspähen, und auch jenes Erschrecken und Erbleichen, das eintritt, wenn eines Menschen bisher verborgen gewesene Vergangenheit ans Licht gezogen wird, während בוש vielmehr die Scham über getäuschte Erwartung von der Zukunft ausdrückt. Dem zur Seite heißt כרה: das erste Abstechen einer Grube, die erste Anlage, dann überhaupt: Zurichtung, z. B. eines Mahles, endlich auch: die Erwerbung, Aneignung eines Gutes oder einer Person: אשר כריתי לי (erst. B. M. 50, 5), ואכרה לי (Hosea 3, 2), so dass die Wurzel in ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung mit קרה ,קרא: etwas zu sich rufen, verwandt, und somit: etwas zu sich bringen, etwas zu erlangen suchen, zu bedeuten scheint. So: וגם selbst Wasser habt ihr nur auf ganz (fünf. B. M. 2, 6) מים תכרו מאתם בכסף ושתיתם friedlichem Wege von ihnen für Geld zu erlangen suchen müssen für euren Durst. Im Hinblick auf die zitierte Stelle Hosea 3, 2 dürfte dann מְכֵרָה ganz eigentlich die Bewerbungen um eine Person bedeuten. Schimeon und Lewi haben ihre ganz friedlich und freundlich aussehenden Bewerbungsmittel, Bedingungen, die sie unter dem Scheine als מהר ומתן dem Schechem auferlegten, zu Werkzeugen der schreiendsten Gewalttat gebraucht.

שמעון ולוי אחים, כלי חמס מכרותיהם, “Shimon and Levi are brothers, their kinship is the use they make of weapons.” Yaakov implied that whereas they had displayed their being brothers when avenging the rape of innocent Dinah, their sister, they had failed to do so in their treatment of Joseph, their brother. (B’reshit Rabbah,98,5 and 99,7)

שמעון ולוי אחים, “Shimon and Levi are full brothers.” This point is recorded by Yaakov to inform us that these two were always of the same mind, as opposed to the other brothers. However, while generally speaking, this is laudable, it could become dangerous when their wrath is aroused.

כלי חמס INSTRUMENTS OF VIOLENCE (חמס may mean something that has been usurped from another) — This business of murdering is חמס, not rightly theirs; it is part of the blessing conferred upon Esau; it is his business and you have usurped (חמסתם) it from him (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 9).

INSTRUMENTS OF VIOLENCE ‘M’CHEIROTHEIHEM.’ According to Onkelos and all commentators,¹⁰¹Rashi and R’dak. the meaning of the verse is as if it were written: instruments of violence ‘m’garotheihem’ (in their sojournings). This is similar to the verses: Thy sojourning (‘m’chorothayich’) and thy nativity,¹⁰²Ezekiel 16:3. There too m’chorothayich is as if it were written m’gorothayich. into the land of their sojourn (‘m’churatham’).¹⁰³Ibid., 29:14. Thus the commentators said that the meaning of the verse is that they did violence in the land of their sojourn.¹⁰⁴That is, the people lived with them in peace, and they did not act accordingly. Now if so, the approximate sense of the verse is as follows: “They had instruments of violence in the land of their sojournings,” it being referred to as “the land of their sojournings” since they lived there afterwards.¹⁰⁵At the time when Simeon and Levi wrought punishment upon the city of Shechem, they had just entered the land. How then could Jacob refer to the event as having taken place in the land of their sojourning? Ramban answers that this is a reference to the future.
But in my opinion Jacob is saying that “the instruments of violence are their dwelling places,” i.e., the essence of their lives, even as the expression, the days of my pilgrimage (‘m’gurai’).¹⁰⁶See above, 47:9. He is thus saying that the very instruments of violence are their dwelling places for they live and sustain themselves by them. A similar expression is found in the verse: The desert yieldeth them bread for their children.¹⁰⁷Job 24:5. The word “yieldeth” is not in the Hebrew text. Ramban interprets the meaning of the verse as follows: “The desert is to him bread for his children,” for there he has the opportunity to rob and plunder. Similarly, the verse here says that the sword is their livelihood. Ramban’s interpretation of the above verse in the book of Job is also found in his commentary to that book. See Kitvei Haramban, I, p. 80. And it is on account of this that their father divided them in Jacob¹⁰⁰Verse 7 here. so that they should not unite and scattered them in Israel so that they should not assemble. This was indeed so, for Simeon’s inheritance in the Land was contained in the inheritance of the children of Judah, as it is written, And their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah,¹⁰⁸Joshua 19:1. with the cities of Simeon set apart from one another throughout the entire tribe of Judah. And Levi’s inheritance consisted of the Cities of Refuge,¹⁰⁹See Numbers 35:1-8. which were scattered through all Israel.¹¹⁰See Joshua, Chapter 21.

Whereas the terms מכורותיך and מולדתיך occur in Ezekiel 16,3-4, describing close relatives in one’s birthplace, in our verse, the vowel tzeyreh under the letter כ converts this word into one that could have been written with a dagesh, i.e. from the conjugation piel, the strong, transitive conjugation, suggesting that these emotions were evident only when the two brothers engaged in a scheme of doubtful ethical merit. The construction of the word is parallel to Job 37,12 where the word מסבות, describes clouds in constant motion foreboding turmoil, nature at its most destructive. Examples of the expected vowel chirik becoming a tzeyreh instead, are found in Lamentations 2,9, as well as in Numbers 8,26, and in Psalms 74,18. In all those examples the addition of the extra “dot” next to the chirik converts the meaning into something stronger, more aggressive, more intense.

כלי חמס, their swords, (weapons) have become instruments of violence. [used aggressively instead of defensively. Ed.] Yaakov considered the slaying of the male population of Shechem as having been illegal. He did not consider the men of the city responsible for the sin of rape committed by their crown prince Shechem. Seeing that their act was illegal they endangered their whole family, including their father, as they could not count on G’d’s protection against the avengers of Shechem when the wrong they had committed themselves had brought that attack upon them. The fact that in the event, G’d did protect them, was not thanks to these two brothers.

כלי חמס מכרותיהם, people who make use of weaponry in their day to day activities are not suitable material for wielding political and military power. Hence neither one of them will be accorded the status taken away from Reuven. (compare Proverbs 29,4 where Solomon describes a king’s primary characteristic as being במשפט יעמד ארץ, “seeing to it that the rule of law and justice prevails on earth.”) Shimon and Levi had disqualified themselves from claiming such a distinction.

Yissachar and Zevulun would not have spoken before their older brothers... You might ask: How did Shimon and Leivi speak before Reuvein? Maharshal answers: Reuvein was not there at the time, as he had gone to attend to his father [see Rashi, 37:29].

Once such anger is kindled it results in excess heat and that is why Jacob compared their anger to כלי חמס מכרותיהם, the use of weapons to commit violence. By stressing the word מכרותיהם, (from the root הכר, something one is conscious of), Jacob indicated that Shimon and Levi's tendencies to commit acts of violence were not something they had inherited from their father, something deeply rooted in their subconscious, but when such sentiments surfaced they became very conscious of them as such. The cause of their excesses was the extra amount of fire in the basic composition of their respective bodies.This genetic imbalance was responsible for such deeds as their act of violence against Joseph.

כלי חמס מכרותיהם, “their weapons are lawlessness.” (JPS) Their very close relationship is a dangerous weapon.

מכרתיהם denotes weapons. In the Greek language the word for a sword is fiaxmoa (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 9). Another interpretation of מכרתיהם is: (taking מכרתיהם as מגרתיהם their sojournings with an interchange of כ and ג) in the land of their sojournings they got into the habit of using weapons of violence, מכרתיהם being of the same root as (Ezekiel 16:3) “Thine habitation (מכרתיך) and thy nativity [is in the land of the Canaanite].” This is how Onkelos renders it.

מכרותיהם, as if the Torah had written במכרותיהם. The construction is parallel to ארץ מגוריהם, the land of their sojourn, i.e. the land in which they sojourned. The people of Shechem had lived peaceably side by side with the family of Yaakov, there being no war-like actions between them. [The author apparently sees in the word מכרותיהם the root הכר, “to recognise someone, i.e. to know him well.” Yaakov describes the deed of Shimon and Levi against the people of Shechem as having been perpetrated on friendly unsuspecting neighbours. Ed.] Ezekiel 21,35 as well as 29,14 also speaks of מכורותיך meaning מגורים the place where one resides. Onkelos also translates it in this sense. Midrash Tanchuma Vayechi 9 understands the word as applying to their swords. In Greek a sword is known as makirin.

Another explanation of מכרותיהם: in the land of their sojournings (מגורתם)... [Rashi knows this] because the כ of מכרותיהם is interchangeable with a ג, since they are among the group of letters of ג–י–כ–ק [that are interchangeable].

The word מכרותיהם also contains the root מכר, sale. Jacob referred to the sale of Joseph as an act of violence perpetrated by these two brothers, seeing that Joseph had not been guilty. Although all the brothers had participated in that sale, closer examination of what happened will show you that these two brothers were the instigators of all that violence. They were the ones who said to each other in 37,19: "let us see what will become of his dreams when we will set out to kill him, etc." (compare Bereshit Rabbah 99,6).

The word מכרה is familiar to us from Kings II 12,6, where the expression: איש מאת מכרו, means: “each from his buddy.”