A BISSEL TORAH: BEREISHIT ALL OVER AGAIN
By: Suri Davis
Aspirations.
When each of the 12 tribes were born, they were named as follows:
- Reuben “because G-d saw my affliction, for now my husband will love me;
- Simon “because G-d has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this one also;
- Levi: “This time my husband will become attached to me for I have borne him three sons”
- Judah: “This time let me gratefully praise G-d;
- Dan: G-d has judged me, he has also heard my voice and given me (Rachel) a son (to Rachel’s maidservant, Bilhah).
- Naftali (also born to Bihah)Rachel said “ Sacred schemes have I maneuvered to equal my sister, and I have also prevailed.”
- Gad (born to Leah’s maidservant zilpah): “Good luck has come.”
- Asher (also born to Zilpah): “In my good fortune! For women have deemed me fortunate
- Yissachar: “G-d has granted me my reward because I gave my maidservant to my husband.”
- Zebulun: “G-d has endowed me with a good endowment, now my husband will make his permanent home with me for I have borne him six sons.”
- Dinah: No reasoning in text, but Rashi tells us that Dinah means judgment, that Leah had mercy on Rachel figuring that there were destined to be 12 tribes, Leah had given birth to six already, the two maidservants each had two. She asked G-d to turn her son into a daughter so that Rachel could have at least as many sons/tribes as the maidservants and wouldn’t feel inferior and so G-d turned Leah’s in utero son into a daughter.
- Joseph: “G-d has removed my disgrace and May G-d add on for me another son.”
- Benjamin: Rachel was about to die and named him ben oni, the son of my affliction, but Jacob called him Benjamin.
A review of these names reveals bitterness and insecurity. Four of the names are jubilant, Gad, Asher, Yissachar and Zebulun. IYH/please G-d, I hope to track these names with regard to their blessing from Jacob and blessing from Moses. But there is a lot in a name, a review of their blessings clarify their origins.
At the end of Genesis, as Jacob is about to die, he blesses his children. Over simchat torah this week, we read the last torah portion of the Five Books entitled V’zoth Habrachah, these are the blessings, and Moshe then blesses the tribes before he dies.
No sooner do we read about these blessings that we start the Torah from the beginning and read the very first verses of the Genesis, the world before any creatures were created.
We read this week on Shabbos the Megillah of Kohelet, a book ostensibly written by an aged King Solomon. He was blessed with wisdom and he was the wisest and richest king in Israel.
At the time the Torah was given to Israel, they did not know the ending. We know that after all the travels and travails of the Jews, they are about to be brought home, to the holy land, the land flowing with milk and honey, the land about which the Torah tells us that G-d’s eyes are on Israel from the beginning of the year, until the end of the year.
King Solomon lets us know that whether we are rich or poor, smart or not, we all started as dust, and end as dust. But it is best for all to fear G-d for that is purpose of all man.
We start off with the world that was tohu vavohu/that was disorderly. Then G-d creates the greatest creatures of all to fill His world and blow into man a soul which is in G-d’s image. G-d created it so that man had only to live in it and be sustained by G-d’s hand. Adam and Eve sinned, and placed on a new trajectory.
The world was a clean slate. On Yom Kippur we fast to remove ourselves from the world we corrupted and dedicate ourselves to G-d. As a bride and groom fast on their wedding day. We wear white on Yom Kippur as a bride and groom wear white under the chuppah. We start off with a clean slate. As a bride and groom have seven days of parties to celebrate their union, we go into our sukkah instead of our alarmed homes, and we give our trust to G-d that He will protect us and cherish us as His bride. The Sukkah is what we lived in in the desert. G-d hearkens back to our time in the desert when we followed Him for forty years, and He provided for our every want and need for those years. Our mutual love and trust.
We have just completed our period of renewal. We have fasted, worn our white clothes, sat in the Sukkah for seven days to hearken back to the days in the desert, and we start from the beginning, where we see Adam and Eve in their pure state. We read all year about good and bad, but we know that as bad as it can get, G-d is our Father and He ends off each year with blessings for us, His children and the message of hope and renewal and redemption, as we try to keep our relationship with Him as pure as on the day we became His nation, and He became our Father and King.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri