Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Genesis 29:33

"And she called his name, etc. and she said, etc." Here we find a difference from the way Yitzchak and Yaakov and the tribes were named. For all of them, the meaning came before the name itself. For Yitzchak, (Breisheet 21:6), [Sarah said] "anyone who hears will laugh (Yitzchak) etc." and that is when she named him Yitzchak. For Yaakov, (Breisheet 25:26), 'his hand was holding the heel (Ekev) [of Esav] and he called him Yaakov.' With the tribes, [Leah said], 'For Hashem saw ... and she called him Reuven." (Breisheet 29:32), "For Hashem heard ... and she called him Shimon." (Breisheet 29:33) and so on in this manner.

בא גד, “we have been granted good fortune.” We find the word גד used in a similar sense in Isaiah 65,11 העורכים לגד שלחן, “Who set a table for Luck.” Also the Talmud Shabbat 67 גד גדי וסינוק לא, “be lucky and do not suffer from fatigue,” uses the word גד in this sense. Anyone who translates the word as derived from גדוד, related to a troop, is in error. Even though names usually reflect a popular manner of speaking, such as ראובן being related to ראה, saw, (compare 29,32) or שמעון as related to שמע, (29,33) unless Leah had mentioned the word גדוד when naming this son we would not be able to trace the word גד as an abbreviation of גדוד, (using the letter ד twice) justifying such a comparison. The expression יגודו על נפש צדיק in Psalms 94,21 “they band together to do away with the righteous,” where it does stem from the word גדוד, does so because of the dagesh in the second ד.replaces the missing second ד. We find a parallel construction in Psalms 106,43 וימכו בעונם, where the dagesh in the letter כ of the word וימוכו substitutes for the missing second letter כ of the root מכך. Job 30,12 and 16,13 also have similar constructions where a dagesh substitutes for a missing root letter.

אשר יבחר ה' אלוקיך בו, “whom the Lord your G’d will choose.” According to numerous commentators the meaning is that G’d will indicate His choice of whom He favours as king, through one of His prophets, or, in the absence of such, through the response received by the High Priest when enquiring from Hashem through the urim vetumim in his breastplate. Nachmanides questions this approach, asking that if it were correct, why did Moses specifically warn against the appointment of a gentile as king, when clearly, such an appointment would be thwarted by Divine interference? He answers that our sages discovered in this verse also a hidden clause. The words שום תשים עליך מלך, “you shall surely set a king over yourself,” imply that it is within your power, politically speaking, to make that choice without external interference. When such conditions exist G’d needs to approve the appointment of such a king before he begins his reign. Such a king must have been born as a Jew. The word יבחר is an allusion to the people whom G’d has “chosen,” as opposed to the people whom G’d “hates.” [The word “hates,” used by Nachmanides must be understood in the same sense as Leah used it when she described herself as “hated” by her husband Yaakov. (Genesis 29,33) Ed.] Under no circumstances, however, must you appoint a gentile as king over you. According to the plain meaning of the text, the פשט, seeing that any king ruling over any nation does so only as long as I, Hashem, approve, you may appoint a king over yourselves as this is part of the fate of the Jewish people as it has been decreed by heaven. [If I understand correctly, the inference is from the indirect אשר יבחר, “that He will choose,” instead of the direct speech אשר תבחר, “that you will choose.” Ed.] Even when we think we do the choosing, in the final analysis, G’d has done the choosing in His capacity as “King of Kings.” However, there is also included here a warning not to crown gentile king, ever.

כי גם זה FOR THIS ALSO — also means additional to you, over and above Joseph. Our Rabbis explained that with each of Jacob’s sons a twin-sister was born, whilst with Benjamin an additional twin sister was born (Genesis Rabbah 82:8).