Comentários de Citação sobre Gênesis 49:12

The strengths of [the scholars of] Yehuda were just the opposite, because their reasoning did not permit them to arrive at the truth so readily. However, [this weakness turned out] to be their strength [because they were forced] to render decisions only after thorough analysis and debate, so that they would bring to light such clearly defined laws that it would be impossible not to follow them. That is why Yehuda is referred to as a mehokek [legislator], because a mehokek weighs [the issues] and excavates by the spring of wisdom [and thereby] produces and clarifies the law. Pertaining to the verse, “His teeth are whiter than milk,”⁷Gen. 49:12. the rabbis expounded in Bereshis Rabbah (chapter 98) that the Rabbis [of Yehuda] study in groups of two⁸Both shinnayim, meaning “teeth,” and shenayim, meaning “two” or “both” have the same letters, and vary only in their pronunciation. and systematize the laws, thereby producing results that are as pure as milk, which results in hok lo ya’avor,⁹The words hok and mehokek are derived from the same Hebrew root. immutable laws.

In this verse Solomon warns man to have pity on the stranger who has been exiled from his birthplace and from his homeland. Seeing that the Torah has already warned us on numerous occasions not to take unfair advantage of aliens neither with words nor with money, as is written in (Exodus 22,20 as well as 23,9), Solomon adds some additional dimension to this legislation.
When meeting people who have been uprooted from their homeland and families we owe such people that we 1) provide them with the physical requirements such as food, clothing and lodging, as well as 2) to help their mental state by treating them in a friendly manner. Solomon uses the verse preceding the one we have quoted to compare wandering birds to wandering, homeless strangers. A person who had to leave his home environment is compared to a bird which had to leave its nest. The simile of “oil and incense” used by Solomon in Proverbs refers to the physical sustenance we have to give to strangers, while the simile of “sweetness of a friend” represents the friendly attitude we are to display towards the stranger. This is to be augmented by friendly encouraging words on our part. One should not merely flatter the stranger by paying lip-service to these warnings but to be genuinely concerned about the stranger integrating in his new home. The words “better than one’s own counsel,” reflect Solomon’s comparison between physical sustenance and words of encouragement. He considers the latter as even more important than the former.
Our sages in Ketuvot 111 state that he who “shows the white of his teeth” i.e. smiles at him, has done a better service (to the stranger) than the one who fed him milk to drink. The statement is based on Genesis 49,12: “his teeth are whiter than milk.” The sages play on these words, saying: “do not merely read them as ולבן שנים but as ולבון שנים, ‘and the white colour of teeth.’” This sentiment has been echoed by Isaiah 58,7 who compares fasting with performing loving deeds and says that sharing one’s bread with the hungry impresses the Lord more than the kind of piety such as fasting which is not accompanied by good deeds. In Isaiah’s opinion that verse reflects what Solomon meant by שמן וקטרת, supplying the needy with physical needs and comforts. Isaiah continues in the same chapter verse 10, saying: “and to offer your compassion to the hungry.” He meant that merely offering to alleviate his physical hunger is not enough. This is what Solomon meant when he spoke about מתק רעהו.

And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. Regarding the matter of the wrestling with Jacob, there are many opinions, indeed the length of one page is too short to record all the commentators’ views. I said, “Surely interpretations belong to God,” I will also answer my portion and say: Since most commentators agreed that this angel was Samael, the guardian angel of Esau, who is called “Samael Esau,” for all his desire and focus is to blind [same’a] people’s eyes and strike them with blindness, making them blind with the intellectual eye, until the seer cannot see the visions of truth, to come and see the face of God, and to enter into the counsel of God given to those who fear Him in the secrets of the Torah. For he is Satan, he is the Angel of Death, he is the Evil Inclination (as stated in Bava Batra 16). And a hint to this matter is that Samael is the partner of “anavim” [grapes] in the alphabet’s secondary letters [the letters that follow the letters that spell out Samael can spell anavim], for just as wine that comes from grapes, when it intoxicates a person, makes them blind by closing their eyes, as it is said His eyes shall be red with wine (Genesis 49:12). And typically, a drunk person walks like a blind person, so too this Samael, his partner, all his schemes are to blind people’s eyes until they cannot see the sun. Thus, grapes blind the physical eye, and his partner Samael blinds the intellectual eye, so that one cannot see divine visions, and this is Samael — a compound word.

Straying. Because of the vineyards. And that is the winepress, as in 'purge the winepress'³¹Maseches Avodah Zorah 74b. [and] 'His winepresses will drip with wine,'³²Bereishis 49:12 Targum Unkelus. in the Targum's translation of 'His eyes are red [from wine].'