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VZOT HABRACHA
The holy Torah concludes with the blessings of Moshe to the people of Israel before his passing from the world. Though the point has been made before, a number of times in these parsha articles, it bears repetition – the blessing to each of the tribes is different in detail and purpose. Contrary to much current belief and practice in religious Jewish society, there is no one-size-fits-all blessing and assignment in life to all Jews.
Rather Moshe, to whom the task of nation building was assigned by Heaven, looks to construct a whole nation, multi-faceted and productive, holy and complementary, one to another. If everyone is to be Zevulun then what will be of Torah study and knowledge amongst Israel? But if everyone is Yissachar then again Torah will fail to survive within Jewish society.
King Solomon advised us wisely that every child is to be educated according to the individual talents, predispositions and abilities of that particular child. When home schooling was the vogue of Jewish education in biblical times, such an individualized educational program was more possible and attainable. With the introduction of universal and institutionalized schooling the task of individualized education, to meet every student’s particular situation, became nearly impossible to achieve.
The system was built to create Yissachar and those that dropped out and became Zevulun were, to a certain extent, disrespected in the Jewish scholarly community. Though certainly Yissachar was to be respected, honored and supported, many generations lost sight that it was only through Zevulun that Yissachar could exist in the Jewish world. The two tribes were meant to complement each other, not to compete and denigrate one another.
It is striking to note how careful Moshe is to identify each tribe’s nature and strengths. Moshe is the one person who forged the different tribes into one whole nation. He did so by granting each tribe its different due, by recognizing that all are necessary in this process of nation building.
The rabbis carried this idea farther when they identified the four species of plant life that form the commandment on Succot, as being representative of the basic groupings that have always formed Jewish life and society. All four groupings of plant life are necessary for the fulfillment of the commandment. All four groupings of Jews are also necessary to form a vital and healthy Jewish society.
The striking variety of people and ideas that have always characterized Jewish society throughout the ages was recognized and extolled by Moshe through his individualized blessings to Israel before his passing from this world. At times Jewish society appears to be riven and chaotic and we all long for the elusive “Jewish unity” that we all pay lip service to.
But what we really should mean is not Jewish conformity but Jewish loyalty, which is a far different matter. There is an old Eastern European, Jewish/Yiddish ballad that states this matter clearly and succinctly: “Whatever we are, we are but we are all Jews!” The blessings of Moshe as they appear in our concluding parsha of the Torah should help guide us to this important conclusion.
Chag Sameach
Rabbi Berel Wein
