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Rav Haim Lifshitz

 

 

 

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           A Wise Man is Preferable to a Prophet

 

 Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai


"Let him go to a wise man and he will pray." Facing existence's distresses, one seeks a solution. Raising eyes heavenward, one prays. What if one does not know how to pray? "Let him go to a wise man and he will pray for him." (Bava Batra 116) Why a wise man? Would not a righteous man be preferable, a saint, or better yet a prophet? Obviously they are closer to the Master of the universe, and beloved by Him. They stand a very good chance of having their prayer answered and their request fulfilled.

Yaakov takes the initiative. Without being asked, he blesses his children, as his fathers before him have passed their blessings on to their descendants. Up to this point, everything is clear. Slightly less clear is Yaakov's wish to give a bracha to Yosef's children. Why does he not give a bracha to Yosef, his own son, and let Yosef bless his own children? If Yaakov's intention is to bless Yosef, why is the blessing together with the rest of his sons not adequate. Why does he find he find it necessary to give Yosef and his sons their bracha first, before blessing the rest of his sons?

The way Yaakov blesses Menashe and Efraim also requires explanation. He lays his hands on their heads. Does a bracha really require the ritual of laying the hand on the head of the one being blessed? Is the bracha so dependent on the laying of the hand, to the extent that Yosef actually dares to interfere and to move his father's right hand from Efraim's head to Menashe's, as the first born - to the extent that he is not concerned by the question of a father's honor, when he who has always been so anxious for his father's honor? Ibn Ezra finds it necessary to remark: "The prophet spoke for the future." And they err who say that they are blessings, because they find in the end of the text 'and he blessed them,' and where are the brachot of Reuven and Shimon and Levi? Rather by way of prophecy he spoke. And this is what their father said to them, and afterwards he blessed them, and the text does not relate the blessings." Rashi comments: "And I will tell you: Yaakov wanted to reveal the ultimate end, but the shechina moved away from him, and so he began to say other things." (Psahim 56) We might try to understand why Yaakov thought it would be beneficial to reveal the ultimate end to his children, to the extent of preferring this revelation to blessings. Superficially it would appear that the revelation of the ultimate end would be more of a curse than a blessing. Prior knowledge of distresses - may they never come - can make a person feel helpless, and cause him to give in to despair. How many tragedies has prior knowledge of disease caused to patients, many of whom preferred to end their own lives, and indeed did so, before the final test results had come in, canceling their doctors' diagnosis. This is a subject steeped in such controversy that to this day it has not been resolved. You could say, better that a man be prepared than have trouble come upon him suddenly, before he has had time to prepare a cure for the disease.

It seems that Yaakov was pursuing exactly this course in seeking to reveal the ultimate end to them. He sought to reveal to each and every one of them what his own cure would be, so that he could prepare himself before the disease would come, and thus find himself ready, by having cultivated a resistance to this disease. Beyond the ability to cope in times of danger, Yaakov's words contain a revelation to each one of his sons of that son's character, strengths and abilities, with which he can perfectly fulfill his personal service of God, for the sake of which service he has been sent to the world. If he properly fulfills his role, trouble will be kept from him and he will succeed in reaching the end of his journey peacefully.

We can discern in the words he directed to each son separately, the communication of a specific definition of that son's quality and his role and duty in the world, precisely in keeping with his ability. Yaakov did not content himself with sweeping words of advice - that fit everyone and no one - that are usually minimally beneficial. Here we see that a wise man is preferable to a prophet, using the above assumption: Knowledge of the future is steeped in controversy. Far preferable to it is the recognition of another's ability to fulfill his role, for in this way the other feels a great eagerness and enthusiasm for the preparations for his task, for training himself to meet the challenges of his duty. A wise man is preferable to a prophet because he addresses the process that is unfolding in the present and continuing moment that is moving in the direction of the future. The process has real preference, because the process is taking place in the here and now. It is available and understandable and easy to grasp. The one who must cope with the process is also able to control it and to direct it, and to fit it to the conditions that he holds in his hands.

Whereas one who is found in a condition of detachment of present from future feels helplessness, which leaves an aftertaste of arbitrariness, which creates a sense of anxiety over future developments. This makes him neglect his opportunity to attend properly to the present moment, and to train himself to meet the future.

The wise man then will be the one who understands the process taking place in the present - that process that is given over to human control, whereas the prophet does not address the process of the present moment but rather transmits a message from on high. This message is not always fully meaningful in a way that relates to those things that concern a human being's ability to understand the message and to influence its course.

Yaakov and Educational Wisdom.

The wise man's advice - wisdom in the art of education - is what Yaakov's bracha is. It is unlike the bracha of the tsadik, who lays someone's request before the One Who dwells on high, and his prayer is accepted in the merit of God's love for him. Yaakov's bracha is not of the category of "the slave before the king", but rather of the category of the minister, that is, a partner to the king. It is the blessing of the wise man who knows and reveals the razim, the mysteries, to his children, as in: "Who revealed this mystery to my children?", asked about Aharon, who had discovered the secret of stopping death by the offering of k'toret.

Fulfilling the guidelines offered by such knowledge creates union between the man who is fulfilling them and his own Godly source. Union - between heaven and earth - is God's servant's goal. Yaakov, the educator, sets this goal before each one of his sons in a manner unique to him alone. This is the content of his blessing. The ritual of the laying of the hand on the head of the one being blessed indicates agreement between the blesser and one being blessed to fulfill the blessing, and to thereby unify heaven and earth. The one being blessed receives the authority to do so, and the blesser represents this authority.

Furthermore, the one giving the bracha expresses, by his blessing, his own responsibility for the education of the one being blessed. It is a father's obligation to educate his child and to be responsible for his education. If the importance of the bracha lay in the ritual alone, it would have held a mystical importance, and there would have been no reason to place the younger before the firstborn. Only if the intention of the bracha is to define the abilities of the one being blessed, and to prepare him for his role and his duty in the world, will the importance of that role and duty determine a scale of priorities in terms of who must be blessed first. In this way we can understand Yaakov's preference, in his choosing Yosef as the continuer of his path, and in choosing his manner of blessing Yosef's sons.

This provides us with solid evidence for resolving many of the difficulties in the parasha. For example, the famous question: Did Yaakov know of the sale of Yosef. From the midrashim and the mefarshim it sounds as though he did not.
After all, the brothers forbade anyone informing Yaakov. Even though Yitzhak knew by prophecy that Yosef was alive, he feared this prohibition and refrained from informing Yaakov. Yet here in Yaakov's bracha to Yehuda he says: "You have risen above the preying upon my son." "You Yosef my son rose above his preying, that he did not make prey of you in his anger, and he did not kill you, although he was your enemy." (Sforno) It should be noted that this issue is highly controversial - as to the question of whether or not the pasuk is actually referring to Yosef's affair: "Anyone who interprets it as referring to the sale of Yosef does not know any methods of interpreting a pasuk nor even of discerning punctuation." (Rashbam)

The educator who is giving blessing is not taking upon himself the role of judge or of prophet. Standing before his eyes is the destined role of the one receiving blessing, a role that is given into the hands of the educator, to prepare it and bequeath it to the one receiving blessing. He is not preoccupied with the facts and their particulars but rather with the principle, with the potential that is tied to this person's fulfillment of his destined role.
                                                            ***
Worldviews that are foreign to yahadut tend to target their goal and to forcibly impose this goal upon life, as in 'the end justifies the means'. Some focus upon human sanctity. They sometimes call it human dignity, and see it as the sublime goal and give it free rein. (Liberalism) For these people, all values fall by the wayside and disappear before human dignity. In human dignity they perceive the reason for freeing man from every other value. The only thing a human being may not do is harm another. We should note that the very thin line between freedom and the prohibition against harming another is not always kept entirely clear and is not always kept at all: "All things depend upon the one who shames and the one who is shamed."

Some widen the perspective slightly and speak highly of the sanctity of life itself. This sanctity pushes sanctity itself very far away, to the nether regions where the human eye can never reach. The sanctity of life determines the sanctity of all other values in their eyes, though they would never specifically admit this. Protestants, for example: Here too everything looks beautiful. Yet we see that without a supreme authority to determines the sanctity of values, application becomes a tangled affair. Values grow confused and eventually collapse under the pressure of existential interests, as in every situation that lacks a higher dimension to resolve conflicting issues. Many err and attribute to yahaduta belief in the sanctity of the idea, thereby categorizing Judaism with the camp of religious zeal and cruelty, which ignores human sanctity. There is no greater distortion than this.

The Torah is given with shalosh kedushot l'kidush, three sanctities that must be sanctified. There is the supreme sanctity. Yet this sanctity can rest upon man, when he accepts it, and he is then himself imbued with sanctity - as the being created in the image of God: A human being who has become Godly presence.

Then there is life's sanctity. This too can be imbued with the supreme sanctity: "God stands in the congregation of God." Even the world can acquire sanctity, by virtue of the fact that it belongs to the Ruler and Creator of the universe. These are three sanctities but they are one - and anyone who separates them transgresses the prohibition against idolatry. "Let there not be for you any other gods over My presence."

Sorting out and distinguishing between the various aspects of sanctity is related to sorting out and distinguishing between the various roles of individuals. One individual is gifted with the ability to understand and to cultivate and to develop the sanctity of the human being. He is blessed with human ability, which is the ability to understand the other, to put himself in the other's space, as in "do not judge your friend until you have reached his space." His role is to help the other - the educator, for example.

Another is gifted with extensive social skills, and his role is social/political in nature. He is the social/spiritual leader, "faithfully occupied with the needs of the public." It is not for nothing that the phrase continues - "the Holy One will pay their reward." For this sanctity connects to the higher source of sanctity, but it is not an entity of sanctity in itself. It is only a form of expression, a form of application of that higher sanctity that is mother of all sanctities.

Another is occupied with Torah and tefila, and weaving combinations of sanctity, dealing directly with the higher sanctity. His occupation - rosho v'rubo is with the revealed and the hidden Torah. "All are beloved" and "all are holy," and "on [all these] three...the world stands." The world stands on the first group by its gemilut hasadim, on the second group by its avoda, service - this is tefila, prayer. And the third, by its Torah and by its application of the Torah to this world, and to human society, as accomplished by the teacher of Torah, by the educator.

The relationship between Torah and man is supported by the subtle balance of reciprocity: On the one hand "the Torah spoke in the language of human beings", fitting itself to the human being as the center of all being. On the other hand, man accepts upon himself the yoke of the Torah. He cannot succeed in uncovering its secrets unless he toils to fit himself to its laws, its rules and the details of its learning, to the point of reaching its highest hidden peaks, wherein no human language can reach, and he must give himself over entirely to the acquisition of Torah. Even so, he will not be privileged to uncover its mysteries unless God in His abundant kindness shall enlighten his eyes. So too with the wisdom of music, in the context of "the song that the Levi'im would say in the Bet HaMikdash" where the melody of the musical instruments was heavenly and was not created by human inspiration at all. The mother of all melody is the mother of all sanctity.

Yaakov chooses to define the unique personality of each son according to the criteria of the different roles of different human beings in the world. Interestingly, he starts with the last sons, Menashe and Efraim: "And Yisrael saw...and said, 'who are these?'" The reader is much more amazed than Yaakov. Is he not familiar with them? After all, it says: " 'And he commanded the one in charge of his house:' This is Menashe his son, that all the services of his father were done by him, and he had been made the governor and ruler over the whole house." (Bereshit Raba 86a;4) "And he said to Yosef: 'Behold, your father is ill.'" Who said it? Rashi brings Midrash Tanhuma: "One of those who tell. Yet this is a shortened text, and some say that it was Efraim, who was regularly with Yaakov in learning, and when Yaakov fell ill in the land of Goshen, Efraim went to his father in Egypt to tell him." So at least Efraim, who was regularly to be found with him, Yaakov must have recognized. Then why did he ask who he was? Midrash Shohar Tov brings this view: " 'And he told Yaakov saying...' This is Efraim, who was used to being with Yaakov in learning, and some say that this is Menashe, who gave the news to Yosef, and was first to go to be with Yaakov, and he told him." This shows that Yaakov knew Menashe as well Efraim. To teach you that he is not referring to a lack of knowledge of the facts. Yaakov approached them from an educational perspective, thus hinting to Yosef that he must recognize the path of each one of them as a servant of God, in order to direct them toward things to come. This is why there is no importance to age difference. Yaakov has destined Efraim for a more responsible role, and therefore he prefers to guide him first. "In you will Israel be blessed: 'May God put you as Efraim and as Menashe..." Their blessing will rest upon the head of every child of Israel who is blessed at the hand of a father, to teach you that Yosef constitutes an example of a father's responsibility and a father's success in the education of his children in spite of the difficult conditions of Jewish education in a strange land that invites assimilation. We see that Yosef was delighted to present his children to his father as faithful sons of God and of their people. From here we derive the bracha for success in hinuch, in every situation under all conditions.

Note what seems to be Yaakov's non-relating to each son as a private individual. Rather each one is viewed at this moment as the father and head of a tribe of Israel, as a father that bears the characteristics of his entire tribal posterity, of his place in the heritage of his fathers and his sons, of his destiny, and of his merging with the other tribes to create the nation that represents eternity.

Reuven the firstborn, who did not toil for his achievements, and tended to relate to his birthright as a given - taken for granted. As reishit ono - the first of his father's strength, he used his privileges with a trace of kalut rosh , and therefore would not merit an advantage for which he had not toiled.

Shimon and Levi - brothers: "I will distribute them among Yaakov, and scatter them among Yisrael." They will need to take the approach of hamtakat hadinim, sweetening judgment's decrees, in order to sweeten their natural fierceness. We see here that there is room for education for every person. Do not hang the guilt on your natural heredity. Rather take your fate in your hands and toil over your own education. Fierceness of sanctity requires the toil of sanctity.
          " 'I will distribute them among Yaakov. I will scatter them among
          Yisrael.' I will separate them from one another. You will not find the
          poor or the scribes or the teachers of little children except from Shimon,
          in order that they will be scattered. And Levi's tribe, he made him go
          from granary to granary for the gifts and the tithes. He gave him his
          scatteredness in an honorable way." (Rashi)

"Fitting is poverty for Yisrael, to sweeten the azut panim arrogant fierceness of the wealthy." Let the one occupy himself with an occupation that makes him as a kli kodesh, sacred vessel, because this preoccupation will protect him and will place him inside a framework of service of God, and let the other occupy himself with the direct melechet hakodesh, work of holiness in the Bet HaMikdash, where he will be dependent upon sanctity for better or for worse.

Yehuda the powerful, who overpowered his natural midot courageously and honorably, deserves to reign, and to lead Israel. From him they will draw a model and a symbol of a human being who rises above and overpowers the material in himself, and turns into Godly presence.

Zevulun, who has the practical talent and the ability to dominate the difficulties of livelihood, must know that this blessing obligates him in assistance and responsibility toward others.

Yisachar hamor garem, is a load-bearing donkey of absolute toil, as the donkey who is never pampered. Let him occupy himself exclusively with Torah, and let this be the sign that "man for toil is born" - the toil of the Torah, which frees one from responsibility for every other duty that is not bound to the dvaikut, the cleaving fast, to the toil of Torah. This is the authentically spiritual man, whom all are commanded to assist.

Dan and Gad - valiant heroes, on whom reality forces heroism, for it is not in their nature. They are a model of the role that makes the man. The reluctant hero. See Rashbam who describes Dan as the end guard that followed all the other encampments, and was therefore forced to cut down the enemies that attacked them, "to attend to the tail, to the weak ones that lag behind on the road, and to wreak vengeance upon the nations." Rashbam rejects the idea that it hints of Shimshon, the descendant of Dan who judged Israel and waged war on the Plishtim, yet for him too this elder has said a bracha. All of these are fit to receive that unique key meant for those who do not have the natural traits needed to fulfill their duty, and are built up by the duty itself. "For your saving I have hoped, God," meaning "we have nothing to lean and rest upon other than our father in heaven" because we ourselves do not have the means to fulfill our mission and we lean upon You alone. Every man should learn this lesson. Even if he has not been gifted with natural talent, let him not despair of God's compassion and let him anticipate God's saving.

From Asher - his bread is fat, and let him support others from the abundance that he has received, and for which he has not toiled excessively.

Naftali, a driven antelope is the symbol of quickness, eagerness, and persistence in his Godly duty.

A child of beauty is Yosef. It is the heroic beauty of strength, of one who has attained perfection through the wrenching toil of devotion, who has toiled tenaciously over his midot. He is the symbol of the perfect human being, who never expected reward for his goodness, who never envied, who never bore a grudge against his brothers.

Binyamin is a wolf who will tear his prey. A king in his own right. By right of his heroic power and by right of his achievements, rather than as the result of natural heredity.

These give us an archetype for builders of the world: Zevulun, Asher, Naftali. These give us an archetype for social leadership: Binyamin, Yehuda, Dan, Gad. These give us an archetype for the oskim bikdusha: Shimon, Levi, Yisachar.

Together shivtei Yisrael complete one another, when they are bound together in one tight bond of Godly presence. This reality does not come about of itself but is rather the fruit of toil and of devotion, the toil to perfect one's avoda and one's midot.

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