The essence of Jacob's will to his sons

From the Gift of the Desert – 5764

A significant portion of Parashah Vayyachi is dedicated to Jacob's will to his sons. This will is divided into several parts: First, Jacob commands Joseph to bury him in the Land of Israel. Then, he commands Joseph over his sons Manasseh and Ephraim, defining them as part of the tribes. Next, he blesses Joseph's sons. Finally, he calls all of his other sons, and speaks to them one after the other. This part is known as Jacob's blessing to his sons, but in fact, from the words of our forefather Jacob himself (Matt. 1:1) it appears that he defines these words as a prophecy of what will happen to them in the end times.

This may be what the rabbinic text in Pesachim 50:1 means, which says that Jacob sought to reveal to his sons the end of the right hand, and the Shekhinah withdrew from him. This is also what the Rashi means here, who adds (in verse 1) that because of this Jacob said things other than what he wanted to say. If so, it seems that Jacob did indeed want to inform them of the end of days, but in the end he tells them other things.

However, if we examine Jacob's words, it appears that the nature of the words is nevertheless prophetic. It is clear that there are prophecies within the words. Chazal go to great lengths to interpret what Jacob is referring to in many of the details of his words. How does this phenomenon reconcile with the assertion that the Shekhinah departed from him?

The author of Torah Temimah explains that the Divine Presence departed from him only for the end of days, but that prophecy for other things still remained in him. However, the language does not imply that the Divine Presence departed from him. If this is indeed what is meant, the text should have said that the end of the right hand was hidden from him, and not that the Divine Presence departed from him. Apparently, the meaning of this expression is that the spirit of prophecy itself was taken from him, completely.

Therefore, it is more clear to say that since the Divine Presence departed from him, Jacob truly does not foretell his sons what will happen to them in the last days. Jacob defines the foundations of their personalities and characteristics, based on his acquaintance with them in the present. In some verses this is very prominent ('Shimon and Levi are brothers...', and more), and in others a little less so. From such acquaintance in the present, one can also draw many conclusions about the future. The foundations of the character of the tribes will be expressed in their further path, in themselves, and even more so in their descendants. Therefore, the words of our forefather Jacob have a prophetic nature, but this is not a real prophecy.

If we are honest, then there is another type of prophecy here. It is a prophecy that is based on a vision of the present, not on an anticipation of the future. Such a prophecy does not require the inspiration of the Divine Presence in the sense that it exists in the prophet, but rather great wisdom.

A clear example of this is found in the following parsha. When Moses leaves Pharaoh's palace to see how his brother is doing, he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. The Torah says about this: 'And he turned this way and that, and saw that there was no one, and he struck the Egyptian...'. The words of Chazal, quoted in Rashi on Atar, are well-known, that Moses saw that no one would come out of him who would convert.

This is a very difficult case in many ways. However, there is one simple question that we must consider: Supposedly, Moses looked into the future, and saw in the prophecy that no one would come from him who would convert, and as a result, he killed him. However, if Moses was indeed going to kill the Egyptian, then there is no doubt that anyone who looked into the future would discover that no one would come from him who would convert. After all, he is now being killed by Moses, and how could he possibly have a descendant who would convert in the future?

It is clear that Moses' act of observing was not about the actual future, but about some kind of virtual future. In fact, Moses observed the present carefully, and that was enough for him to see that nothing good could come of this Egyptian in his current state. Therefore, he decides to kill him. Here too, this is a deep observation of the present situation (and from it, the potential future), and not an observation of what will actually happen.

The Holy Prophet, in his introduction to his book, in the section 'The House of Choice', explains the entire concept of prophecy in this way. According to him, prophecy is the anticipation of what will happen if something unexpected does not happen (that is, if the free choice of humans does not change what will happen). However, it is certainly possible for a situation in which a different choice by humans will lead to the non-fulfillment of prophecies.[1]

Anticipating the end of days is an action that apparently requires the Divine Presence. This is not the case with observing, however deeply, the present. Such observing can probably only be done with prophetic power in the conventional sense (not as prophecy as defined by the Holy Shelah). Therefore, the departure of the Divine Presence does not allow Jacob to discover the end. However, the ability to observe deeply the present depends on wisdom, not prophecy, and therefore is possible even in a state of the departure of the Divine Presence. Defining and analyzing the characteristics of the tribes is an act of wisdom, not prophecy.

And this will clarify what is said in Sota 9:2 regarding Samson:

Rabbi Hama ben Rabbi Hanina said, "When it is written, 'And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon him,' does the prophecy of our forefather Jacob come true, as it is written, 'There will be a serpent on the road,'"

 It seems that from this we see that the spirit of prophecy did indeed prevail over our forefather Jacob, contrary to what is implied at the beginning of the parsha. However, it seems that the intention here is as we said above. This is not a prophecy in the usual sense, but in the sense that we pointed out above. It turns out that this is how all the sages' midrashim on our forefather Jacob's prophecies in our parsha should also be understood. For example, several midrashim explain Jacob's words to his son Dan as a prophecy about Samson. It turns out that Jacob does not really see Samson himself. From the character of Dan in the present, as Jacob defines and diagnoses him, the behavior of his descendant Samson emerges. And perhaps it is possible to say more than this: Jacob, in his blessing, not only defines Dan's character but also determines it to a certain extent.

In fact, this is probably the type of ability that the Sages called the "Holy Spirit," which is one level lower than prophecy (as we know, once prophecy ceased, all we have left is the Holy Spirit, which is a test of prophetic wisdom, but not prophecy). Those who possess the Holy Spirit can listen to their surroundings, or to the person standing in front of them, and understand from the visible image the deeper layers of reality. This is a type of analysis and deep understanding of reality in the present, which reveals much about the future.

It turns out that the Holy Spirit is also connected to the ability to listen to the voice of a voice. The Jerusalem Shabbat, Vol. 6, No. 9, deals with the definition of the concept of a voice of a voice. Contrary to the common understanding, the Hebrew text there cites examples that are not a type of listening to voices that come from the sky and are heard on the tops of mountains, but rather deep listening to our ordinary environment. In other words: this is an aspect of the ability to deeply observe the surroundings from which one can learn about the depths behind it.

The Jerusalemite there discusses when it is permissible to follow a voice, and when it is considered witchcraft and witchcraft, and the following:

Rabbi Elazar Holkin follows the hearing of a voice. What is the meaning of, 'And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it.'

Then the Jerusalemite brings an incident that is probably intended to demonstrate the meaning of a permissible walk after hearing a female voice. Rabbi Lazar went to a place called Poniyeh, and a Roman minister arrived and raised him from his seat and sat in his place. Rabbi Lazar immediately thought to himself why the minister had raised him from among all those sitting there, and decided that he would not leave the place until he saw what would happen in the end. And indeed, he saw a snake that had been in its place, and now it went out and killed the Roman. He read about him the scripture, "And I will put a man in your place."

Another case that appears there in the Sugiya is that the Rabbis and the Rabbis wanted to go down to Babylon to ask Shmuel about the things they had. They decided to follow Bat Kol, and immediately afterwards they passed by a house where children were studying Torah and heard them learning the verses from the book of Shmuel, "And Shmuel died." Therefore, they decided not to go down to Babylon, and it turned out that Shmuel had indeed died. And so on in the Sugiya are many other cases.

All of these cases occur long after the destruction of the Second Temple, that is, long after the end of the age of prophecy. Listening to a voice does not require prophecy. It is the ability to learn from the external image about what is hidden behind it. Usually the goal is to understand what God, the Blessed One, is communicating to us through that external image. The entire world carries messages for each of us. We must listen to it and understand what God, the Blessed One, wants from us (of course not in a way of guessing. And this is a special art for those who have the Holy Spirit who listen to voice daughters).

Some have interpreted the term 'daughter of a voice' itself in this way. It is a kind of echo, or a product that is not a real voice. Something that comes out of the interior, which is a kind of daughter of the voice itself. By listening to it, we can learn about the voice that gave birth to it (the voice of God). This is probably what Rashi wrote in Kings, about God's revelation to Elijah: 'I heard a voice coming out of the silence.'

It turns out that even humans can be interpreted and deciphered in this way. Through the external image, someone endowed with this form of attention can see the depths of the person standing before him. Like Moses, our father Jacob was also endowed with this faculty of attention. He sees the inner nature of his sons through their actions and through their external form.

It is no wonder that even though the Shekhinah has been taken from him, and therefore he is unable to prophesy, he manages to see the future with great clarity. Someone who knows how to observe the present probably doesn't really need prophecy to foresee the future.

The Sages have already said about this: 'A wise man is better than a prophet.'

[1] It turns out that there will be a difference between fundamental historical moves, where God leads the world Himself, and He does not allow anyone to change this by their choice, and local moves, which are left to our free choice.