ועשית עמדי חסד ואמת . The main ingredient of חסד, kindness, is that it be performed without expectation of a reward. Only when performed thus is one called generous; otherwise one is simply a trader. There is no greater virtue than that of חסד. This is why a person must train himself to practice this virtue until it becomes second nature to him. Not only should he perform acts of kindness for the dead, but even more so for the living. By doing so he will emulate the virtues practiced by G–d Himself who constantly performs acts of kindness without any thought of compensation. Concerning this David has said in Psalms 63,4: "For truly Your kindness is better than life itself; my lips declare Your praise." David meant that whereas when human beings practice acts of altruistic loving-kindness, this is almost always with the dead. You, G–d, perform deeds of loving-kindness for the living, by the very fact that You grant us our life. What could we possibly do in the way of compensating You!? All we can do is to pay You lip-service, extol Your virtues in song and prayer. Rashi referred to this in his commentary on 49,21, where he interprets the אמרי שפר as an allusion to the song of victory sung by Deborah after Israel defeated Sisera under her leadership. G–d performs the miracles and all we can do in return is to acknowledge them with our lips.

ויתחזק ישראל וישב על המטה . Israel's ability to strengthen himself and sit on "the bed," was due to "his bed" being שלימה. Hail to anyone who merits it. Every pious person constantly prays that he will not be the cause of any פסול, defect, among his children or children's children. All that man can leave behind in this world are children and grandchildren who by their own righteousness bear testimony to the piety of their fathers.

This thought is reflected in the blessing Jacob bestowed on Joseph's sons. The Torah calls that blessing: "He blessed Joseph," because whatever Jacob's blessing would help Ephrayim and Menashe to accomplish would reflect beneficially on their father. When Jacob added that any children Joseph would sire after Ephrayim and Menashe לך יהיו, "shall be yours" (48,6), he meant that they should follow in the footsteps of Joseph; this is the greatest blessing one can bestow upon a father.

ויברך את יוסף ויאמר האלהים אשר התהלכו אבותי לפניו . The "walking before Him," mentioned here is an allusion to the spiritual awakening which proceeds in an "upward" motion and confers increased holiness on a person. I have explained this in my commentary on פרשת נח. Walking "before" G–d means to perform acts which in turn elevate a person spiritually. Walking "with" G–d means that G–d's input comes first.

Bereshit Rabbah 97,2 explains this verse on two levels. Rabbi Yochanan says that Jacob viewed G–d as like a shepherd who stands and looks at his flock, whereas Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says that Jacob viewed G–d in this blessing as like a prince who walks while his elders walk in front of him. According to Rabbi Yochanan we must show respect to the shepherd, i.e. G–d, whereas according to Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish G–d is expected to show us respect. This Midrash clearly needs further analysis.

The Midrash also refers to Rabbi Berechyah, without telling us with whose view Rabbi Berechyah identifies. A further difficulty is the wording of Rabbi Yochanan who describes the shepherd as "standing" and looking. What does the fact that the shepherd is "standing" contribute to our understanding of Jacob's blessing? On the other hand, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish seems to emphasize the aspect of "walking."

I have already commented on all this in פרשת נח. Basically, the Midrash highlights the two aspects of walking "with" or "before" G–d. If Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish uses a metaphor which dares to suggest that man is entitled to respect from G–d, this assumes that our performance of מצות and our service to G–d is something that G–d "needs." Hence those who excel in this respect are entitled to be honored by Him.

Rabbi Yochanan concentrates on the other -Noach-like- aspect of serving G–d, i.e. waiting till one is inspired by G–d. He uses a metaphor describing input from above, i.e. the gaze of a shepherd on his flock. This always originates from a higher vantage point but is benevolent at the same time, much as when G–d said in Exodus 33,19: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." This means that the recipients did not have a claim on G–d's grace. The very fact that Rabbi Yochanan uses dumb animals as the subjects in his metaphor shows that he speaks of a lower class of spiritual motivation.

Since it is clear that Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish do not disagree, but describe different people, we can understand that there was no need for Rabbi Berechyah to identify with the viewpoint of either scholar.

We can now also understand the comment made by Rabbi Azaryah on this very blessing in the paragraph of Bereshit Rabbah preceding the one we just dealt with. Taking as his cue the verse in Psalms 34,10: "Fear the Lord, you His consecrated ones, for those who fear Him lack nothing," Rabbi Azaryah describes Joseph as leaving his father very happy after receiving his blessing. The brothers commented that everybody defers to someone who is at the height of his powers. Upon hearing such remarks, Jacob quoted the latter half of the verse in the Psalm above so as to reassure the brothers that he had blessings in store for all of them.

How could the brothers have suspected their father of engaging in the sin of flattery? A man whose likenesss is engraved on the throne of G–d who hates flattery as the worst kind of sin would surely not be guilty of it! Another difficulty is the repetitive way in which Rabbi Azaryah expresses himself in the Midrash. [I have not bothered to quote the Aramaic original. Ed.]

The brothers observed that Joseph's face was inordinately radiant. We have a tradition that a person's wisdom is reflected in his facial features. The Holy Spirit that illuminated him, and which Joseph received through his father, caused the brothers to become jealous in a constructive manner, קנאה לשם שמים. This is similar to the jealousy among Torah scholars, a permissible or even desirable form of jealousy (Baba Batra 21a). The brothers therefore did not suspect Jacob of flattering Joseph; they merely worried that they themselves would not be granted similar insights.

Jacob reassured them by applying to them the verse in Psalms 34,10 describing them not only as G–d-fearing but also as קדושיו, His consecrated ones, stemming from holy seed, and therefore entitled to prepare themselves to also receive a measure of the Holy Spirit. He intimated that though Joseph preceded them in that achievement, having been among those who "walk before" G–d, they themselves as דרשי השם, desiring intimacy with G–d, would not be denied their aspirations.

האספו ואגידה לכם את אשר יקרא אתכם באחרית הימים . Jacob wanted to reveal to the brothers details about the final redemption; this is why he used the expression האספר, "gather together," since redemption cannot come when there is strife and unprovoked hatred between them.

In 50,16, the Torah reports the brothers as saying to Joseph that prior to his death their father had commanded them to tell him to forgive their trespass against him. Most commentators have difficulty finding the source of the brothers' statement. They may have referred to the מוסר, moral instruction in the word האספו, which put the brothers on notice to be forgiving toward one another.

We are told in Pesachim 56 that the שכינה departed from Jacob when he was about to reveal details of the forthcoming redemption. Jacob became upset over this and wondered if any one of his sons present was perhaps unfit to be in the presence of the שכינה, and that this was the reason the שיכנה had withdrawn from him. His sons responded by reciting the שמע ישראל, the declaration of faith and willingness to bear the yoke of G–d's commandments.

It is puzzling that the brothers should have called their father by his first name ישראל, something not compatible with good manners. We must conclude that they used the name ישראל not as a personal name but as the symbol of authority, as if they had said: "Hear our lord." We can conclude from the above that if someone has a father who at the same time doubles as his teacher, it is more respectful to address one's father by his title "Rabbi" than merely as "father." When one is faced with the choice of honoring one's father [who is not one's spiritual mentor] and one's teacher, the teacher takes precedence.

לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחוקק מבין רגליו עד כי יבא שילה . It is of the utmost importance to understand the true meaning of this verse in order to be able to refute apostates, Christians, etc. Nachmanides expresses himself as follows on this subject: The meaning of this verse is not that the kingdom will never depart from Yehudah. After all, the Torah writes very clearly in Deuteronomy 28,36: "The Lord will drive you and the king you have set over yourself, to a nation unknown to you or to your ancestors." If both Israel and its king will be in exile, then they will obviously not have kings or aristocracy. History has shown that Israel has been in this condition for many hundreds of years. No prophet has ever assured Israel that it would not be exiled so that the tribe of Yehudah could continue to rule over it. What the verse does tell is that the sceptre, symbolising kingdom, would not depart from the hands of Yehudah in favour of a member of another tribe. The same is true of the second half of the verse which discusses scribes. Any scribe in Israel who is authorised by the signet ring of the king will be so authorised by a king from the tribe of Yehudah. This state of affairs will continue until his son, the Messiah, will arrive, at which time the kingdom of Yehudah will extend over all the nations. The word שבט is an allusion to David, the first king from the tribe of Yehudah, whereas the word שילה, his son, is the Messiah around whom all the nations will gather. Thus far Nachmanides.

Rabbeynu Bachyah comments on this verse as follows: "My teacher Rabbi Shlomoh said that the word עד in this verse must be understood to mean לעד, (forever); this is the reason the tone sign is before the vowel Patach to alert us to the fact that the word does not belong with the subsequent words כי יבא שילה. This consideration prompted Onkelos to translate the word as "עד-עלמא," forever. Anyone who translates the verse as "until the Messiah comes," is in error. The meaning of the verse is that once the Messiah comes, the sceptre will never again depart from Yehudah. We have an analogous verse in Daniel 2,44: "a kingdom that will never be harmed." Thus far Rabbeynu Bachyah.

Rashi's commentary is based on our sages and views the authority promised here to rulers of the tribe of Yehudah as also extending to the heads of Jewish autonomy in exile, the Exilarchs. These heads were always descendants of the tribe of Yehudah and were appointed by the local kings (Sanhedrin 5a). The words מחוקק מבין רגליו refers to the princes [equivalent of Exilarchs] in the Holy Land.

The apostates and heretics who claim that we do not even have the authorities that Rashi refers to, simply do not understand the words of our sages and their sometimes enigmatic ways of expressing themselves, nor do they understand the beautiful parables of our sages. The sages meant that both the word שבט and the word מחוקק refer to outstanding people. In the generation when Rabban Gamliel was the נשיא, "prince," he was able to point out with his fingers who were the people that qualified under the heading שבט, and how the promise of Jacob in his blessing had come true. Subsequently, in each generation and in different locations, outstanding Jewish men have served in distinguished positions at the respective Royal Courts in their host country. One can say with certainty that these people were all descended from the tribe of Yehudah. This is an ongoing process that will not stop till the coming of the Messiah. Even though, due to our many sins, we are not in a position to trace the lineage of each of these people directly to the tribe of Yehudah, there is sufficient evidence to cause us to bless the Lord who fulfilled His promise, whether the sphere in which Yehudah rules be small or great. This situation will continue till the Messianic age. At that time, all nations will gather around the Messiah and he will rule forever. The sages who understood the verse as referring to the "princes" as well as Rabban Gamliel, pointed out the part of the prophecy which was applicable in their respective generations. There are many similar statements by our sages.

Eicha Rabbah interprets that in a verse in Kings II 25,9 in which Nevuzaradon is described as destroying Jerusalem and "the great house," "the great house" refers to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. Since Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai lived over 600 years later than Nevuzaradan, it is clear that the Midrash views the person of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai in a sense similar to what Rabban Gamliel told us. The Talmud is replete with similar interpretations.

יששכר חמור גרם . The Zohar (Sullam edition Vayechi page 246) asks: "Was then Issachar a donkey?" If the reason he was called thus was because he studied Torah, why was he not called "lion," or "horse," or "leopard?" What is the special significance of the "donkey?" The answer is that the donkey is an animal which willingly shoulders heavy burdens and does not protest to its master as do other animals. It is humble and undemanding. It is willing to sleep in uncomfortable quarters. It is not concerned with its own dignity but with that of its master.

Another interpretation, also quoted there, is that when David composed Psalm 27,1: "The Lord is my light and my help; whom should I fear?" He meant that just as Torah is dear to G–d so are those that study Torah very dear to G–d. Anyone who is steeped in Torah study need not worry about all the destructive forces that abound on this earth. He is able to subjugate all these destructive forces and consign them to the Deep. When night falls the gates of another world are opened. Dogs and wild asses roam the streets and while their owners are asleep in their beds, the destructive forces are allowed full reign. During that time, the souls of the righteous ascend to Heaven to enjoy its atmosphere. When the North Wind becomes active at midnight, forces of sanctity become active in the world, as has been explained in several places. Hail to the man who arises from his sleep at that hour and busies himself with Torah study. Due to his Torah study he is able to expel all the forces of destruction that are around at that time. He subjugates the קליפה of the חמור and consigns it to a sphere where the pollutants prevail. Hence Issachar whose toil is with Torah, succeeds in banning the חומר, [play on words, “non is symbol of all that is physical. Ed.] The חמור, cause of the ascendancy of the destructive elements is consigned by Isaachar to the nether regions גרם, the reservoir of the pollutants.

Take a good look at what is written here: וירא מנוחה כי טוב. This refers to the written Torah. ואת הארץ כי נעמה, ויט שכמו לסבול ויהי למס עובד. The words הארץ כי נעמה, refer to the oral Torah. The next few words refer to the willingness to shoulder the yoke of the Torah and to cleave to it by day and by night. The last words express the willingness to be G–d's servant to the point of weakening one's physical prowess.

Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yossi, and Rabbi Chiyah were walking in Upper Galilee towards Tiberias. Rabbi Shimon said: Let us study the profound meanings of the Torah because anyone who is able to do so and fails to do it commits a capital crime against his soul. Not only that, but he will become subject to the yoke of civilisation. We know this from the verse (under discussion) that ויט שכמו לסבול, when he inclines his shoulder (away from Torah study), he will have to suffer the yoke (of דרך ארץ). Thus far the quote from the Zohar.

Here you have the duties of the true Torah scholar spelled out. He is considered a Torah scholar as long as he diligently uses every opportunity to deepen his Torah knowledge both by day and by night. While doing all this he is relieved of the obligation of paying taxes, and other duties imposed on ordinary citizens. Everyone else will take care of such a Torah scholar's needs. If, however, the Torah scholar chooses a restful existence, וירא מנוחה כי טוב, then his status is reversed and and he becomes למס עובד, subject to paying taxes, etc. In such a situation he will feel the duties of ordinary citizens as especially burdensome. The statement of our sages in Avot 3,6 will apply to him: "He who casts off the yoke of Torah studies will have the yoke of government and secular life imposed upon him."

אנא שא נא פשע עבדי אלהי אביך . We learn from here to what extent a person has to be prepared to forgive evils committed against him by his fellow human beings (when the latter repent and ask for forgiveness). On the other hand we observe that if such giants of our history as the founders of the twelve tribes, who themselves were comparable to angels, prostrated themselves in front of a human king, Joseph, and offered themselves as slaves to him, to what length does an ordinary individual who has slandered someone have to go so as to gain the favor of the person whom he has wronged. Even when he has obtained the forgiveness of his victim, this does not yet mean that G–d has forgiven him. G–d kept the brothers' "file" until the time when Hadrianus executed the Ten Martyrs who represented the brothers who had wronged Joseph. We have an allusion to this in 50,21 where Joseph tells the brothers: ועתה אל תיראו, "For now, fear not." Joseph hinted that there would come a time when they (or their descendants) would have reason to be afraid on that score. Although Joseph foresaw such a development in his Holy Spirit, for the time being the comfort he offered his brothers was very real.