“Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years” Genesis 47;28
Rashi quoting the midrash, asks “Why is this segment closed”?
That is, why dose the Torah text as written continue directly from the previous narrative (without the space that usually precedes a new segment) Rashi explains: “Because as soon as our father Jacob died, the eyes and the heart of the Jewish people were blocked. Another explanation is Jacob wanted to reveal the end of the exile to his sons, but it was blocked to him.”
How shall we understand. “Jacob wanted to reveal the end of the exile to his children, but it was blocked from him” Dose it mean that the desire of our patriarch Jacob was thwarted?
The Holy Zohar (1:227b) on the verse “Jacob blessed Joseph and said” Genesis 48;15 asks the following: What blessing did Joseph receive, when Jacob actually only blessed Joseph’s sons? Why then dose the verse say “Jacob blessed Joseph”? The Zohar answers as follows: Joseph was blessed because the blessings of a person’s sons are his own blessings. Consequently, the blessing of Joseph’s children is a blessing for Joseph.
With this we can understand the Talmudic teaching: “God said Ishmael my son, bless Me. Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha blessed God, saying: May it be Your will that Your mercy overcome Your anger and Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, so You deal with Your children compassionately and be more gracious to them that the law demands. He nodded His head to me”
When the Holy One said to Rabbi Ishmael “Bless Me” Rabbi Ishmael blessed the Jewish people that God should treat them mercifully. From what we have discussed above, we can easily understand this Talmudic story, because “the child’s blessing are the blessings of his parents.” And similarly the blessings of the Jewish people are the blessings of God. Conversely, when our father Jacob died, the Jewish people descended into the depths of suffering, to the point of where even the Torah was damaged and wounded. This then, is our greatest and ultimate hope: that if our suffering has such an effect and causes damage at such supernal levels, then surly God will save us.
“Our father Jacob wanted to reveal the end of the exile to his children, but it was blocked from him.” This circumstance in itself heralds the end of the exile. If this chapter of the Torah text is “blocked off” because our father Jacob was blocked and prevented from revealing the end, which suggest that knowledge of the end was denied him, then the damage was indeed cosmic. Similarly, whenever we see that the troubles have grown so great that the Torah itself and the study halls of the Synagogues and the yeshivas are all closed and locked, we can take heart. For it is clear from these circumstances that the damage is cosmic and reaches the small and great, and so we can surely trust to God that the end is close. (Shapira, Sacred Fire, 28 – 29, Va-yehi)
So, what happened first the exile of the soul, or was the body exiled first? Living in the land of Eretz Israel under the care of Hashem the soul we nurture strives to return to its source where it belongs. Because souls are sent here within our bodies to accomplish something only that soul agreed to accomplish within a particular time, and regional space. In its home the soul gets comfortable to the body’s yearnings, separations, and estrangements from God.
Abulafia writes; How did one amend what has been blemished on High? By means of teshuvah, the teshuvah amends all. Amends on high, amends. on low, and amends himself, amends the entire world …. after he perfected himself and repented (then) he amends.
When the body, mind and heart wax gross and rebellious where natural tendency’s keep a person’s ego from paying heed to the signals and signs of Gods seeking his children to return to Him under the same banner of lovingkindness, He has no choice but to further estrange Himself to them making life very difficult. No one intentionally puts himself at a disadvantage. In many ways men forget God and the wonderful return to His providence without we cannot and should not have a great life. Putting a priority of a spiritual world over the physical world, man acts in his best interest.
When national amnesia occurs, and circumstances fail to return man to a subservient status of a Loving Wise All-knowing Creator, Father, King Sovereign Ruler. There arises a need for a national leader to awaken the error of living apart from God and a sure way to return to the commonwealth of the Devine.
Redemption then becomes healing the body from within by seeing and hearing. Chochma wisdom being seeing (wisdom) Bina being hearing, (understanding) and the daat being (knowledge), which make up the mohin the seat of the intellect. Abba and Ema father and mother Yosef and Aseneth. The first born of this couple in union is Menasseh. Later the first born status is changed prophetically by Jacob to the younger brother Ephraim. Menasseh and Ephraim. According to one tradition Yosef’s children Menasseh and Ephraim were actually twin brothers. Another tradition says Rachel and Leah were not only sisters but twins as well. That explains a lot when trying to figure out Jacobs first wedding night and Labans deception.
God and Israel
The Midrash compare the Jewish nation to God’s twin. Just as a twin’s feels what is happening to his or her twin so two are God and the Jewish people interconnected. Jacobs twin is Essau. The Good part of Essau now longs to return to Israel through the Torah. Why was all this blocked from Jacob, was it so because we in this last generation have a role to act for reconciliation. Abraham took his only son Isacc bound him for a sacrifice. Was this a vision? Can this best describe the unusual events, full of imagery not actual?
Abulafia, writes. And the man who will bring us out of the exile under the rule of the nations due to the power that is emanated upon him from the agent intellect – he will (also) be called Messiah and the material human Intellect is called messiah which is the hylic intellect that is the redeemer and the savior and has influence over the soul and all elevated spiritual powers. It can save the soul from the rule of the material kings and the people and their power, the lowly human body desires. It is a commandment and an obligation to reveal this matter to every wise man of the wise ones of Israel in order that he may be saved because there are many things that oppose the opinions of the multitude of the Rabbis, even more so differ from the views of the vulgus.
What characterizes man is not only his ability to develop words and symbols, but also his being compelled to draw a distinction between the utterable and the unutterable, to be stunned by that which is but cannot be put into words.
It is the sense of the sublime that we have to regard as the root of man’s creative activities in art, thought and Nobel living. Just as no flora has ever fully displayed the hidden vitality of the earth, so has no work of art ever brought to expression the depth of the unutterable, in the sight of which the souls of saints, poets and philosophers live. The attempt to convey what we see and cannot say is the everlasting theme of mankind’s unfinished symphony, a venture in which adequacy is never achieved. Only those who live on borrowed words believe in their gift of expression. A sensitive person knows that the intrinsic; the most essential, is never expressed. Most – and often the best – of what goes on in us is our own secret; we have to wrestle with in ourselves. The stirring in our hearts when watching the star-studded sky is something no language can declare. What smites us with unquenchable amazement is not that we grasp and are able to convey but that which lies within our reach but beyond our grasp; not the quantitative aspect of nature but something qualitative; not beyond our range and time and space but the true meaning, source and end of being, in other words the ineffable. (Heschel, Man is Not Alone, 4 -5)
Zaphenath - paneah
“Says the God and he will live”
"On Rosh Hashanah it is writtenand Yom Kippur it is sealedHow many shall pass onand how many shall come to be;who shall live and who shall die;who shall see ripe old age and who shall not;who shall perish by fire and who by water;who by sword and who by beast;who by hunger and who by thirst..."
The Rambam teaches that there are eight basic levels of giving tzedaka: Ibid 10: 7-14
To Strengthen the hand of your brother.
To give to the poor, and without knowing to whom you give and without the recipient knowing his benefactor.
To know to whom you are giving, but the recipience dose not know who the benefactor is,
To give but not know to whom you give but, the benefactor knows who gives.
To give directly into the hand of a poor person but gives before he is asked.
To give to a poor person after being asked.
To give less than what is fitting but gives with a smile.
To give begrudgingly.
From the highest to the lower levels of tzedaka. Tzedaka delivers from death itself. “Listen to Me, you hard hearted that are far from tzedaka, and I will take away heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Isaiah 32;17 “The act of tzedaka (giving) will be peace, and the service of tzedaka will be tranquility and security unto eternity”
There are many different camps, and each camp has its own identity, untill now.
The return from Babylon as with the coming into the land in the Exodus from Egypt holds great metaphorical inspiration for those in this final Exodus from across the world. OvadYah Avrahami (2022)
To give to completion to a journey, not only physically, meta universal, and not just for you and yours. By realizing our identity we move away from our encampments to a higher vantage point. From there we can see {wisdom} of the ingathering of the exiles. We also can hear {understand} the cry of the different camps. Then the firstborn arises and fill the role of Ephraim to gather the returnees and rebuild the land of the modern State of Israel as well as the heritage given land yet to be reclaimed by the 12 tribes in peace. Always done in peace. We serve God and God forbid we should return evil for good. Yosef ruled over one of the greatest nations for its time, yet his early years are humble and tragic. You know the story, if not learn about Yosef because it helps us understand where we are at now, and who we as a body, group, family are now. We are Messiah be Yosef.
Early American has such lofty ideas, practices, traditions we should look at again for a simple way to solve the confusion and angst we all experience by loving your neighbor as yourself. I can’t afford to do much, but I can give to help someone along their way, I can help develop ideas to ease concerns over life’s concerns, like where will I live? How will I get there? An underground railroad for godly people who have almost no one to count on now. By seeing the vision of Yosef for gathering, settling, and receiving God’s providence for that homestead farmland, grapevine. We have always done for others. A women’s group making peanut brittle to save the ministry of childcare. A meeting at the crossroads, where there was no building, like today is priced too high to use, whereby horseback a speaker gave encouragement, hope and healing. I understand the different views of how to interpret God’s will. Our identity is Messiah ben Yosef and that changes everything. Invite someone over to talk about it, for the meaning (the mazal) of the name Yosef is increaser – doubler. I realize these are impossible to prove and accept, untill you realize the mystical and the rational are but examples for us to contemplate.
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