מוסר אויף בראשית 49:10

And Matatyah [Matthaeus] is also hinted to in the sacrifice of the chieftains, in the [Torah] reading of the first day of Chanukah: And the chieftains of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, brought (Numbers 7:2). The numerical equivalent of "their fathers' houses," is Matatyah, and the miracle happened by way of the high priest, Matatyah. So the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted about this miracle to Aaron, who was the first high priest, with the matter of When you raise up the lights (Numbers 8:2), as was written by Ramban. And likewise, Aaron's place was originally in Majesty [Hod], but he rose up very high afterward. And so is it taught in Tractate Derekh Eretz (Zuta 1), "Seven forefathers were makers of covenants, and these are them: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Phinehas, and David." And they are the seven sefirot of the structure, and there are seven circles on Hoshana Rabba [based] in their secret. And the Sephardim have liturgical poems about this, one of them [for] each circle, [there] Aaron is in the aspect of Majesty, but afterward, he rises to Kindness [Chesed], as it is stated: Let Your Tummim and Urim be with Your man of kindnesses/piety (Deuteronomy 33:8). This is just like our teacher Moses, peace be upon him, arose to the trait of Splendor [Tiferet], in the secret of Knowledge [Daat] above. And behold that [God's] name [with the numerical equivalent] of 72, from the side of Kindness, is like the numerical count of Kindness. And so too [regarding] Judah the Maccabee, who did great heroic acts with the help of God, may He be blessed, Maccabee also equals 72. And the first initials of, Who is like you Lord (Exodus 15:11) are MaaCaBI. MaaCaBI is also the letters of BoChIM [crying], the first initials of blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place (Ezekiel 3:12). (And it appears to me that it hints to that which the rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said [Sanhedrin 110a], "One who argues against the monarchy of the House of David is like one who argues against the divine presence." For behold, the sin of the Hasmoneans was that they took the monarchy for themselves. As monarchy had already been decreed for the tribe of Judah, as Ramban [discusses] at length in Parashat Vayechi, on the verse, The scepter shall not depart from Judah [Genesis 49:10]. And this is the hint from Maccabee crying, blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place, for blessed is the Lord forever, Amen and Amen [alluding to Psalms 89:53]. But the matter of the Hasmoneans did not blemish the glory of the divine presence through that which they took the monarchy, since their glory was for [the sake of] the Heavens. Their matter was rather only like an error that comes out from the ruler.) And great miracles were performed through these holy priests, and they brought back the crown of the Torah to its former [glory] and the performance of the commandments. And it is written: The commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light (Proverbs 6:23). That is why the miracle in the temple was revealed through the menorah.

The Sifri quotes Rabbi Nehorai as saying that the people's request for a king was only a pretext to enable them to worship idols. The author based his theory on the words (Samuel I 8,20): "and we shall then become like all the nations." Rabbi Abravanel challenges this statement saying that if this were true how could G–d possibly have concurred in providing a king for the people when He said to Samuel: (Samuel I 8,22) "Accede to their request and crown a king for them?" Why did G–d not at least warn the people not to make the incidence of monarchy a pretext for idol-worship? I believe that such a warning is alluded to in Samuel I 8,7, where G–d told Samuel: "It is not you they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as their king." Nachmanides, referring to Genesis 49,10, where Jacob assures Yehudah that the sceptre signifying royalty will not depart from his tribe, explains that the sin of the Jewish people at the time was that they rejected Samuel who was such an excellent judge. If that were so, why did Nachmanides single out Samuel? Did our sages not say that the authority of every judge in his period equalled that of Samuel? They even considered an ignoramus such as Yiftach as being Samuel's equal in authority (Rosh Hashanah 25b)! The clearest of all our early commentators is the Ran who appears to adopt the approach of Rabbi Eliezer when he distinguishes between two kinds of leadership. 1) Authority which is based on Biblical law. The Sanhedrin was appointed to ensure the proper administration of that law. 2) The second kind of authority, which usually expresses itself in rulings which contradict Biblical law, is called הוראת שעה, decrees promulgated in order to meet certain emergencies. Our sages have said that the reason Jerusalem was destroyed was because the judges insisted on applying Biblical law (Baba Metzia 30b) when they should have taken into consideration the circumstances prevailing at the time and have made allowances before convicting certain people. There is an allusion to this in 21,9: ואתה תבער דם הנקי, "You will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent." This verse could also be translated as "you are destroying the blood of the innocent," i.e. that on occasion innocent blood is spilled by inflicting punishment on the innocent due to prevailing pressures, such as in emergencies and in times of war. Appointment of a king enables the nation to be administered expeditiously during emergencies; the king has the right to ignore certain Biblical laws. This subject is meant in Psalms 122,5: "There the thrones (literally chairs) of judgment stood, thrones of the house of David." The "thrones of judgment" are the Sanhedrin, whereas the "thrones of the house of David" refers to the thrones of the dynasty of the house of David.

לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחוקק מבין רגליו עד כי יבא שילה . It is of the utmost importance to understand the true meaning of this verse in order to be able to refute apostates, Christians, etc. Nachmanides expresses himself as follows on this subject: The meaning of this verse is not that the kingdom will never depart from Yehudah. After all, the Torah writes very clearly in Deuteronomy 28,36: "The Lord will drive you and the king you have set over yourself, to a nation unknown to you or to your ancestors." If both Israel and its king will be in exile, then they will obviously not have kings or aristocracy. History has shown that Israel has been in this condition for many hundreds of years. No prophet has ever assured Israel that it would not be exiled so that the tribe of Yehudah could continue to rule over it. What the verse does tell is that the sceptre, symbolising kingdom, would not depart from the hands of Yehudah in favour of a member of another tribe. The same is true of the second half of the verse which discusses scribes. Any scribe in Israel who is authorised by the signet ring of the king will be so authorised by a king from the tribe of Yehudah. This state of affairs will continue until his son, the Messiah, will arrive, at which time the kingdom of Yehudah will extend over all the nations. The word שבט is an allusion to David, the first king from the tribe of Yehudah, whereas the word שילה, his son, is the Messiah around whom all the nations will gather. Thus far Nachmanides.