Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility

(This is the second post in a series about the interactions between Moses and God on Mount Sinai, a.k.a. Choreiv, and how their relationship evolves. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Bo, you might try: Bo: Pride and Ethics.)

The pharaoh of Egypt dies, and the murder charge against Moses expires. But Moses continues to live in the wilderness east of Egypt with Yitro, a priest of Midian. He marries one of Yitro’s daughters, they have two sons.

Back in Egypt, there is a new pharaoh, but he is still subjecting the Israelites to forced labor.

And the Israelites moaned from the servitude, and they cried out, and their cry went up to God, from the servitude. And God paid attention to their groaning, and God remembered [God’s] covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (Exodus 2:23-24)

Divine miracles are necessary, but not sufficient, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. A human intermediary is also needed: a prophet and leader to speak to Pharaoh and to lead the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. For this job, God picks Moses.

Why does God choose Moses?

Moses at the Burning Bush, detail, by Rembrandt, 17th century

By the time God calls Moses’ name on Mount Sinai, Moses has already exhibited some character traits that make him a good choice. For one thing, he is curious about why the fire in the thorn-bush does not burn it up, and takes a closer look. (See last week’s post, Shemot: A Close Look at the Burning Bush.) A prophet must be open to hearing from God, and a leader must notice and investigate anything out of the ordinary.

Another of Moses’ helpful character traits is empathy for the underdog. When Moses sees an Egyptian man beating a Israelite, he first checks to see if there is anyone else around (to help, or to witness). Seeing no one, he strikes down the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. Although Moses is an adopted son of an Egyptian princess, he does not try to command the Egyptian overseer to cease. Either he is afraid that the Egyptian will strike him next, despite his apparent status, or he is so humble he does not believe he has any authority over an Egyptian overseer (perhaps because he carries no authority with anyone related to the pharaoh by birth rather than adoption).

When Moses goes back the next day, he sees two Israelite men fighting. He is not afraid to speak up to them, and he asks one Israelite why he is striking the other.

And [the Israelite] said: “Who appointed you as an officer and judge over us? Are you going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was frightened, and said [to himself]: “Surely the matter is known!” (Exodus 2:14)

Pharaoh condemns Moses to death for the murder of the Egyptian, and Moses is too humble—or frightened—to fight the charge. He immediately flees into the wilderness. After several days he stops at a well where seven female shepherds are beginning to water their flock. When a group of male shepherds arrive and shove them away from the well, Moses fights them off, then helps the women draw water. They take him home to their father, who adopts him into the family. Out of either fear or humility, Moses never mentions that he used to live like a prince in Egypt, nor that he is wanted for murder.

Moses’ empathy for the underdog results in his flight to Midian. His curiosity draws him to the “mountain of God”, and then to God’s manifestation in a divine fire. Another character trait needed for God’s mission is humility, but so far Moses seems to be more motivated by fear of authority. When he kills the abusive Egyptian he is afraid that the pharaoh will find out, and when the pharaoh orders his execution he is afraid he will be found. Naturally he is nervous about the God on the mountain, too. In last week’s post, we saw how God gradually leads Moses up to the point where he can hear God call his name. Once Moses has responded to God’s second call by saying “Here I am”, God lets him know which god is calling.

Moses hides his face

The Call of Moses, by Providence Lithograph Co., 1900

And [God] said: “I am the God of avikha; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, because yarei of looking at God. (Exodus 3:6)

avikha (אָבִיךָ) = your father, your forefather. (The plural would be avoteykha,אֲבוֹתֶיךָ, “your fathers”.)

yarei (יָרֵא) = he was afraid, he was in awe.

Why does God start off by saying “I am the God of your father” in the singular? The classic midrash1 assumed that God meant Moses’ biological father, Amram.

“The Holy One, blessed be He, said: ‘If I appear to him in loud voice, I will terrify him; in soft voice, he will take prophecy lightly.’ What did He do? He appeared to him with the voice of his father. Moses said: ‘Here I am; what does Abba want?’ The Holy One, blessed be He, said: ‘I am not your father, but rather the God of your father. … The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’. Moses was joyful and said: ‘Abba is enumerated with the patriarchs. Moreover, he is greater, as he was mentioned first.’” (Shemot Rabbah 3:1)2

But the book of Exodus itself does not depict Moses as so naïve and childlike. Furthermore, Moses might not even remember his father’s voice, since the pharaoh’s daughter took him into her palace when he was about three years old, after Moses’ mother had weaned him. And he would be unlikely to refer to Amram as “Abba”, the equivalent of “Dad”. So I prefer the commentary that says God refers to the collective “forefather” of the Israelites, then elaborates by citing the three patriarchs who are the forefathers of the Israelites: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.3

Why does Moses hide his face in fear (or awe) only when he hears that the God who is addressing him is the God of the Israelites? Perhaps he is not afraid of looking at other gods; he must have done it all the time when he lived with royalty in Egypt. But he takes the God of the Israelites, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, more seriously.

Maybe he is frightened because he believes the God of his birth family has more power over him than any other god would. Maybe he is overwhelmed by awe because he is humble, and knows he is unworthy of being addressed by any God.

Or maybe he is frightened because he intuits that God would not speak to him except to ask him to do something terribly dangerous.

Moses’ first attempt to get out of the mission

Although Moses has hidden his face, God goes on speaking to him, filling in some backstory:

“I have definitely seen the suffering of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their outcry in the face of their oppressors, for I am acquainted with their pain. And I have come down to rescue them from the hand of Egypt and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey,4 to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. … And now, go! And I will send you to Pharaoh, and you will bring out my people, the Israelites, from Egypt.” (Exodus 3:7-8, 10)

Despite God’s careful attempt to bring Moses to the right balance of fear and courage to receive the divine message, Moses does not respond with the equivalent of “Yes, sir!” Instead he starts making excuses why he should not go.

But Moses said to God: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring out the Israelites from Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

Is this humility, or is it the first excuse that comes to Moses’ mind to get out of what sounds like a difficult and dangerous job?

Some of each, according to Tze-enah Ure-enah: “That is, Moses said: I am lowly and I should speak with a king? Perhaps he will kill me?”5

But S.R. Hirsch saw Moses’ first excuse as humility without any thought of self-preservation: “Was he not entitled to doubt whether he had the imposing, overpowering strength of personality required to transform a nation of slaves into a people of God?”6

Joanathan Sacks offered a different argument why Moses would be reluctant to give up his life in Midian for the sake of the Israelites in Egypt: “He may have been Jewish by birth, but he had not suffered the fate of his people. He had not grown up as a Jew. He had not lived among Jews. He had good reason to doubt that the Israelites would even recognise him as one of them. … why should he even think of becoming their leader? Their fate was not his. He was not part of it. He was not responsible for it. He did not suffer from it. He was not implicated in it.”7

Nevertheless, Sacks pointed out, after he has given God several reasons why he should not be the one to go to Egypt, Moses finally submits and accepts the job, for the same reason he struck down the Egyptian man beating the Israelite laborer. When he sees people suffering, he cannot walk away. His empathy for the underdog is a more important qualification for God’s mission than personal courage.

Moses gets an answer

Then [God] said: “But I will be with you, and this is your sign that I myself sent you. When you bring out the people from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)

Why does God answer “But I will be with you”? One explanation is that God intends to reassure Moses that he will not have to face the pharaoh alone, or the Israelites (who taunted him when he returned to the scene of his crime).

“One says “I will be with you” only to someone who is afraid.” (Shemot Rabbah)8

Adin Steinsaltz explained that God means: “I am not asking you to act on your own strength; you are merely a messenger.”9

On the other hand, “God was with him” is a biblical idiom for success. For example:

And God was with Joseph, and he was a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. And his master saw that God was with him and everything that he did God made successful in his hand.” (Genesis 39:2-3)

So when God tells Moses “I will be with you”, God might be promising him that his mission will succeed. And Moses’ very success would be a sign to the Egyptians and the Israelites that God sent him on the mission.10

Hirsch wrote that God’s “I will be with you” means that God knows Moses is unable to succeed on his own—and this is the very the reason why God chooses him for the mission. He imagined God explaining:

“I need someone who is the wisest and at the same time the humblest of all men. Your marked inadequacy will stamp the work I intend to accomplish through you with a ‘sign’ for all time to come that what you achieved could have been achieved only at My command and by My power. Your very inadequacy will attest to the Divine character of your mission. Without this proof, Israel’s deliverance would be regarded as no different from other events in world history that glorify the power of men.”11

So Moses is the most qualified person to be God’s prophet because he is the least qualified person to face the pharaoh and lead the Israelites.

Moses does not argue with God about God’s reply “I will be with you”. But he does generate another question, as he flounders for a convincing reason why God should not send him to Egypt after all.

To be continued …

  1. Midrash is a type of commentary that makes additions to the text in order to flesh out the story or to connect it with a mystical tradition.
  2. Shemot Rabbah, 10th-12th centuries, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  3. E.g. Ibn Ezra, 12th century; Ramban, 13th century; Rabbeinu Bachya, 14th century.
  4. See my post: Ki Tavo: Milk and Honey.
  5. 17th-century commentary Tze-enah Ure-enah, translation from Yiddish in www.sefaria.org.
  6. 19th-century rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 35.
  7. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “Who Am I? Shemot”, reposted Jan. 16, 2025.
  8. Shemot Rabbah.
  9. Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.
  10. This is the opinion of Rashi (11th-century rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), and 16th-century rabbi Ovadiah Sforno. (The Torah is ambiguous about whether the sign proving God sent Moses will be Moses’ success in liberating the Israelites from Egypt, or what will happen when they serve God on Mount Sinai, a.k.a. Choreiv.)
  11. Hirsch, p. 36.

Shemot: A Close Look at the Burning Bush

(I intended to post this last week, since it examines part of the first Torah portion in the book of Exodus, Shemot, but I didn’t finish it in time because I was sick. Now I am making it the first of a series of posts about how God and Moses interact on Mount Sinai, a.k.a. Choreiv. Meanwhile, if you would like to read one of my posts on this week’s Torah portion, Va-eira, try this one: Va-eira: Taking a Stand at the Nile.)

Moses is born under the general death sentence that the pharaoh has issued against all male newborns of the Hebrews. His mother hides him, one of the pharaoh’s daughters finds him, and his sister arranges for this Egyptian princess to adopt him. Moses grows up in the safety of the royal palace.

But he knows he is a Hebrew by birth. The narrative of the first Torah portion in the book of Exodus, Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1), confirms this by saying that when Moses had grown up,

Moses Kills an Egyptian, by Watson Heston, 1892

… he went to his kinsmen and he saw their forced labor. And he saw an Egyptian man beat a Hebrew man, one of his kinsmen. (Exodus 2:11)

Moses looks around, then kills the Egyptian. The pharaoh finds out, and once again Moses is under a death sentence. He flees the murder charge, walking alone all the way across the Sinai Peninsula to the land of Midian. A Midianite priest gives Moses shelter and marries him to one of his daughters.

Once again, Moses has been adopted and lives in safety—as long as he never goes back to Egypt.

Then God calls and orders him to do just that.

This is the first time Moses hears from God. If the divine call is not impressive enough, he might ignore it. If it is too overwhelming, he might go insane, or at least decide he is seriously ill, and fail to answer. What kind of approach will make Moses at least listen and respond to God’s order to return to Egypt and ask the new pharaoh to let the Hebrews go?

To answer that question, we need to examine the words the Torah uses in the description of Moses’ call to prophecy.

The place

And Moses was a shepherd of the flock of his father-in-law Yitro, a priest of Midian. And he led the flock ahar the midbar, and he came to the mountain of ha-elohim, to Choreiv. (Exodus 3:1)

ahar (אַחַר) = behind, afterward.

midbar (מִדְבָּר) = wilderness, i.e. any area that is neither farmed nor near a permanent settlement.

ha-elohim (הָאֱלֺהִים) = the gods, God.

Choreiv (חֺרֵב) = the mountain on the Sinai Peninsula called “Sinai” in other strands of the story.1 (From the root verb charav, חָרַב = dried up, made desolate.)

First God waits until Moses has traveled far from his home. Although many English translations skip the word ahar and just say Moses led his flock into the wilderness, Moses’ home (in his father-in-law’s encampment) is probably already in the midbar. The Midianites were nomadic tribes living along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and also closer to the Sinai Peninsula, in the hills north of the Egyptian port of Eilat. Moses would have avoided any Midianite campsites near that port. So he lives in the midbar of Midian.

Now Moses leaves his home in the wilderness and leads the flock even farther away from civilization, “behind” the wilderness, to the mountain of God. Why does he go there?

16th-century rabbi Ovadiah Sforno, like many classic commentators, wrote: “He wanted to pray and meditate there in complete isolation and concentration.”2

Since Moses might see another shepherd in the wilderness, he takes the flock behind the wilderness, to the foot of Mount Choreiv: a mountain so dry nothing grows on it except thornbushes. But there is no previous indication in the Torah portion that Moses is a prayerful or meditative man. If anything, he is impulsive, quick to attack in order to rescue the underdog.

An alternate explanation is that Moses is looking for a new grazing site, and accidentally wanders to a place that is poor for grazing, but significant for other reasons.

“Apparently, Moses has never been to this mountain before—it must have been in a somewhat remote area. That is why the passage starts off by explaining the special circumstances that led him to this mountain at this time: he had led his flock ‘beyond the wilderness,’ some greater distance than usual, presumably in search of a good grazing site.” (Kugel)3

A third possibility is that Moses’s father-in-law, Yitro, has told him about this mountain associated with a god. As a Midianite priest, Yitro would know of any numinous sites in the region. Later in the book of Exodus, Yitro says:

“Now I know that Y-H-V-H is greater than all the gods.” (Exodus 18:10)

This implies that he already knew about the God whose personal name is the Tetragrammaton, Y-H-V-H; he simply had not known that this particular god was the most powerful. Moses is a curious man; just as he left the comfort of the palace to observe the forced labor of the Hebrews, he might now decide to check out the mountain of the god (ha-elohim), who turns out to be the God (ha-elohim), Y-H-V-H.

Later God will speak directly to Moses’ mind without preliminaries, wherever Moses happens to be. But for the first contact, God waits until Moses arrives at Mount Choreiv. If Moses already associates this mountain with a god, he will be more inclined to listen when God does speak to him.

The fire

The first thing God does when Moses arrives is to make something appear in a thornbush.

And a malakh of Y-H-V-H appeared to him belabat fire in the middle of the sneh. And he looked, and hey! the sneh was burning in the fire, but the sneh was not consumed. (Exodus 3:2)  

malakh (מַלְאַךְ) = messenger. (When a human sends a malakh, it’s another human. When God sends a malakh, it looks like a man but turns out to be God, or it sounds like a human voice but turns out to be God’s voice. Some English translations call a malakh of God an angel.)4

belabat (בְּלַבַּת) = in a flame of; in the heart of. (Some commentators derive the word from labah (לַבָּה) = flame, flame-shaped spear-head. Others derive the word from leiv (לֵב) = heart, mind, consciousness; courage; interior, middle.)5

sneh (סְנֶה) = thornbush. (This is the accepted translation; it may be the cassia senna shrub, called sene in Arabic. In the entire Hebrew Bible, this word appears only in Exodus 3:2-4 and Deuteronomy 33:16—which is a reference to Exodus 3:2-4. Commentators have suggested that the other name for Mount Choreiv, Mount Sinai, may be derived from sneh—or the other way around!)

What does Moses see in the fire? Is it an image of a man, like many a divine malakh? Or is it the image of a flame in the fire?6

19th-century rabbi Hirsch insisted Moses saw the image of a man, i.e. an angel:

“The angel appeared in the center of the fire, and the fire was in the center of the thorn bush. The thorn bush was not enveloped by flames, and the impression it made was not that of a thorn bush engulfed in flames without being consumed. … Rather, the fire was within the bush and the angel was within the flames.”7

Moses and the Burning Bush, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

Another 19th-century commentator, Shadal, elaborated:

“Now the bush was on fire, but it was not really burning, but was surrounded by flames like a burning object, since the fire was flashing between the thorns, but did not take to them, and thus at first Moses saw the fire amid the bush, and the bush flashing with fire, and then he saw that it was not burnt, and he said: ‘Let me turn aside to see’ why this bush is not burning.”8

On the other hand, even if belabat means “in the heart of”, it can be interpreted not as “in the middle of”, but rather in terms of the human heart as the seat of passion. In the mid-20th-century Menachem Mendel Kasher wrote:

“The bush resembles the heart. It too can burn without being consumed.”9

And at the end of the 20th century Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg added:

“For the angel appears by means of the heart’s fire; he cannot exist without it.”10

What is the purpose of all these special effects in the thornbush? Shemot Rabbah, a collection of midrash on the book of Exodus from circa 1200 C.E., plays on the meaning of leiv as “courage” when it explains:

 “In a flame (belabat) of fire” – to give him courage (lelabevo), so that when he arrives at Sinai and sees those fires, he will not fear them.”11

According to Chizkuni in the 13th-century:

“God wanted Moses to get used to such a phenomenon so that when the time came for the revelation at Mount Sinai, he would not become frightened by either it or the lightning.”12

Why does the messenger appear to him in a sneh? Tur HaAroch gave a simple answer in the 14th century, pointing out that the area around the thornbush would be uncontaminated by feces, since no animal would risk being jabbed by the thorns. God forbid that God should appear in a contaminated (tamei) place!

Da-at Zekenim, a compilation of Torah commentary from the 12th-13th centuries, says:

“The reason that God chose this bush to reveal Himself in was that one could not construct a deity or symbol of a deity out of the bush.”13

Even though other religions in the Ancient Near East elevated certain trees to divine status, Moses is not about to start worshiping a thornbush. Another message God might be communicating, according to two medieval commentaries, is that there is no place vacant of the divine presence, not even a thornbush.14

Passing the test

And Moses said: “Indeed, I will turn aside, and I will look at this great sight; why doesn’t the sneh burn up?” And Y-H-V-H saw that he had turned aside to look, and Elohim called to him from the middle of the sneh: “Moses! Moses!” And he said: “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:3-4)

elohim (אֱלֺהִים) = god, gods, God.

Some commentary suggests that God’s whole set-up is a test of Moses’ patience, curiosity, and power of observation. After all, another shepherd might merely think “Oh, a fire. Better herd the sheep away from it.” This practical but automatic thinking is not suitable for a prophet and leader of people, who must figure out the underlying causes of problems. Only after Moses turns aside to examine the bush does God call to him.

On the other hand, piquing Moses’ curiosity might be just the first step in leading him to accept that he is facing God. Rabbeinu Bachya wrote in the 14th century that the story shows Moses going through three levels of understanding. First he sees the fire with his physical eyes and goes to investigate. “If he had realized it was a heavenly fire, he would not have approached. Once he saw this fire he became stronger through seeing the angel … This means that first he saw the flame, and only after did he see the angel within the fire. Once he became stronger through seeing the angel, he saw the Divine Presence in a prophetic vision. … Because this was the beginning of Moshe’s prophecy, God wanted to orient him little by little and lift him up from one (spiritual) level to the next until his mind would be strong enough.”15

Why does God call Moses’ name twice? There are only three other places in the Hebrew Bible where God calls someone and repeats his name. In Genesis 22:11, God calls “Abraham, Abraham” because does not pay attention the first time. In Genesis 46:2, God calls “Jacob, Jacob” because Jacob is hesitant about going down to Egypt. And in 1 Samuel 3:10, God calls “Samuel, Samuel” because the first three times God called his name, the boy assumed it was the priest, Eli, calling for him, and he got up and ran to Eli before God could tell him a prophecy.

At the mountain of God, Moses is open to learning something new about the burning bush, but he does not expect to hear God calling his name. Probably the first time he hears it, Moses is flabbergasted. Only when he hears his name the second time is he able to respond. Or as Rabbeinu Bachya explained it:

“Seeing that a prophet would become frightened when he heard his name called for the first time, and as a result of his confusion he would misunderstand the divine message which was to follow, his name is called a second time in order to give him time to collect his thoughts. After the second mention of his name he would receive the message God wanted him to receive.”16

Moses’ reply “Here I am” could mean “I am at Your disposal.”17 Or it could mean he was ready to listen to God.18 Or he might have said “Here I am” even though he did not know who was calling to him.19

Holy ground

And he [God] said: “Don’t come closer! Take off your sandals from upon your feet, because the place that you are standing on, it is holy ground!” (Exodus 3:5)

Moses and the Burning Bush, by Gerard Hoet, 1648-1733

Why does God wait until this moment, when Moses has already stepped on holy ground with his sandals on? Maybe the situation at the burning bush has been sufficiently mysterious and daunting up to this point, but now Moses needs an extra boost of alarm. According to Rabbeinu Bachya,

“This was to serve as a warning not to be disrespectful, i.e. nonchalant, when he would be addressed by the Shekhinah, “God’s Presence”.20

Telling Moses to stand barefoot on holy ground could also give him a more subtle message. Bachya wrote:

“He was warned to strip off what the shoe represented, i.e. material concerns. The act of removing his shoes was a mental preparation to ready him to become God’s vessel, His prophet. The lesson was that just as a man can take off his shoe at will, so he can divest himself of material concerns and concentrate on spiritual concerns.”21

On the other hand, maybe the important thing about going barefoot is feeling the ground under one’s feet. According to the Chassidic text Itture Torah, “Only when one is barefoot can one feel the little stones underfoot. Moses was to lead his people in such a way that he could feel their smallest sorrows.”22

After Moses has responded to each step of God’s gradual introduction, from noticing that the bush is not burning up to hearing God call his name, God decides Moses is ready to receive his marching orders. But is he?

To be continued …

  1. Source scholarship of the 20th century concluded that the mountain on the Sinai Peninsula where God appears is called “Choreiv” in sources E and D, and “Sinai” in sources J and P. However, 21st-century scholars are questioning the J-E-P-D classification, while continuing to identify different strands in the Torah written by different sources.
  2. Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno, 16th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  3. James Kugel, How to Read the Bible, Free Press, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007, p. 210.
  4. See my post: Vayeira: On Speaking Terms.
  5. Later in Exodus, God leads the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai by means of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, and this pillar is sometimes called a malakh. See Exodus 14:19-20 and 14:24 at the Red Sea.
  6. See Rashi (11th century) and Ibn Ezra (12th century) for a detailed analysis of both positions.
  7. Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, p. 30-31.
  8. Shadal is the acronym of 19th-century commentator Samuel David Luzzatto. Translation in www.sefaria.org.
  9. Menachem Mendel Kasher, Torah Shelemah, vol. 8, p. 123, cited in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, edited by W. Gunther Plaut, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1981, p. 407.
  10. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus, Doubleday, New York, 2001, p. 338.
  11. Shemot Rabbah 2:5, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  12. Chizkuni is the name of a compilation by Chizkiah ben Manoach, mid-13th century. Translation in www.sefaria.org.
  13. Da-at Zekenim, a compilation 12th-13th century French and German commentary,  translation in www.sefaria.org.
  14. Shemot Rabbah 2:5 attributes this bit of wisdom to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha, while Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 3:1 attributes it to Rabban Gamaliel.
  15. Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, 1255-1340), translation in www.sefaria.org.
  16. Ibid.
  17. Da’at Zekenim, ibid.
  18. Malbim is the scronym of 19th-century rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser.
  19. Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.
  20. Rabbeinu Bachya, ibid.
  21. Ibid.

Vayechi: Death and Inheritance

The book of Genesis/Bereishit begins with the creation of the world, then narrows in on one paternal line headed by Abraham. It ends with the death of Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph.

A name after death

The characters in the Torah do not hope for life after death.1 What men in the patriarchal society of the Ancient Near East seem to want most is male descendants to inherit their names and their land. (Names were inherited because instead of a modern last name, a man with the given name Aaron was called Aaron ben (father’s given name). If he had an illustrious grandfather, he was called Aaron ben (father’s given name) ben (grandfather’s given name).2)

Key blessings in the book of Genesis include:

“And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great …” (Genesis 12:2, God to Abraham)

Abraham, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien, 1908

“Please look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able count them.” And [God] said to him: “So your zera will be!” (Genesis 15:5, God to Abraham)

zera (זֶרַע) = your seed, your offspring, your descendants.

“I will make your zera abundant as the stars of the heavens, and I will give to your zera all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will bless themselves by your zera.” (Genesis 26:4, God to Isaac)

“May God bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, and may you become an assembly of peoples.” (Genesis 28:3, Isaac to Jacob)

“Your zera will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.” (Genesis 28:14, God to Jacob)

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi (“And he lived”, Genesis 47:28-50:26, the last portion in the book of Genesis), Jacob concludes his deathbed blessing of two of his grandsons by saying:

“May [God] bless the boys, and may my name be called through them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac!”

Since descendants are so important, when the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are approaching death they all leave something to their sons. But what they give their sons differs according to the personality of the father.

Abraham’s gifts

When Abraham is in his early 100’s, his behavior toward both his sons appalls me. He obeys when God tells him to disinherit and cast out his son Ishmael, along with the boy’s mother—and he sends them off into the desert with only some bread and a single skin of water. Since God has promised to make a nation out of Ishmael, he can assume his older son will survive, but why make him start a new life with so little? (See my post: Vayeira: Failure of Empathy.)

Some years later, Abraham hears God tell him to slaughter his son Isaac as a burnt offering. He neither argues with God, nor asks a single question. Isaac, a grown man, trusts his father and lets himself be bound on the altar. (Therefore Jews call this story the Akedah, the binding.) Only when Abraham’s knife is at his son’s throat does God call it off.3 But after God sends a ram as a substitute sacrifice, Isaac disappears from the story, and we never see him in the same place as his father again, not even at the funeral of Sarah, Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother. And although God blesses Abraham once more while the ram is burning, God does not speak to Abraham again after that.

Sarah’s Burial, by Gustave Dore, 1908

During the remainder of his life, Abraham devises his own plans for the future, including buying a burial cave for the family after his wife Sarah dies,4 and arranging a marriage for Isaac. He is over 137 when he takes a new wife and sires six more sons. He then does some careful estate planning:

And Abraham gave everything that was his to Isaac. But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from his son Isaac while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the East. (Genesis 25:5-6)

He dies at age 175.

Then he expired. And Abraham died at a good old age, old and saveia; and he was gathered to his people. (Genesis 25:8)

saveia (שָׂבֵעַ) = full, satisfied, sated, satiated. (From the root verb sava, שָׂבַע = was satisfied, was satiated, had enough.)

He has a right to be satisfied; he has done his part to further God’s plan for Isaac’s descendants to inherit the land of Canaan, and he has also provided for his other children.

Isaac’s blessing

Like his father Abraham, Isaac does not own any land except for the burial cave, but he is wealthy in livestock and other movable property. He has two sons, the twins Esau and Jacob. By default, two-thirds of his property would go to his son Esau, who is older by a few seconds, while one-third would go to his son Jacob. Isaac does not makes any other arrangement for his estate.

Isaac is more interested in God than property. He takes care of his flocks, but unlike Abraham he makes no effort to increase them. He willingly lets Abraham tie him up as a sacrificial offering to God in the Akedah. And unlike Abraham, he pleads with God to let his long-childless wife conceive.5

At age 123, Isaac is blind and cannot stand up. He believes he will die soon, and he wants to deliver a formal deathbed blessing to at least one of his sons. Perhaps he views a blessing as a prayer, since the first of the three blessings he delivers begins “May God give you”, and the third begins “May God bless you”.6 What Isaac most wants his sons to inherit is God’s blessings.

Isaac Blessing Jacob, by Jusepe de Ribera, 17th c.

Alas, his wife Rebecca does not trust him to give the right blessing to the right son, so she cooks up a deception that results in Jacob leaving home. Later Esau also leaves. But Isaac lingers on, presumably still blind and bedridden, until he finally dies at age 180.

Then Isaac expired. And he died, and he was gathered to his people, old useva in days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. (Genesis 35:29)

useva (וּשְׂבַע) = and he was satisfied, and he was satiated, and he had had enough. (From the perfect form of the verb sava.) Although Isaac lives even longer than his father, the phrase “at a good old age” is not included in the description of his death. My best translation for the word useva in this verse is: “and he had had enough”. Isaac has spent more than enough time waiting for death.

Jacob’s blessings

Abraham focused on leaving his sons property. Isaac focused on leaving his sons blessings from God. Isaac’s son Jacob assigns both property and blessings at the end of his life, as well a prophecies and directions for his own burial.

He has twelve children, but he only cares about the two youngest, Joseph and Benjamin. His ten older sons sell Joseph as a slave bound for Egypt, then trick their father into believing that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. Jacob mourns for years. He is 130 years old when he finds out that Joseph is still alive and has become the viceroy of Egypt.  He exclaims:

“Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die!” (Genesis 45:28)

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, Jacob lives for another 17 years in Egypt as Joseph’s dependent. It is unclear whether he has an estate to leave; does he still have some claim over the herds and flocks his other sons are tending? And could he still claim the land he purchased long ago at Shekhem, the town that his older sons destroyed?7

Although it is not clear what Jacob’s estate consists of, he gives Joseph the equivalent of a double portion of it by formally adopting Joseph’s two sons, Menasheh and Efrayim.8

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, by Owen Jones, 1865

Then, perhaps in imitation of his own father, Isaac, Jacob gives Menasheh and Efrayim blessings. In the first blessing he asks God to give them lots of descendants, and in the second he predicts that their descendants will bless their own children in their names.9

In the next scene, Jacob calls all his sons to his deathbed. To each one he delivers not a blessing, but a prophecy. Some of the prophecies refer to stories in Genesis about Jacob’s sons. Others have nothing to do with the characters in Genesis, but may refer to their eponymous tribes.10

Before arranging his estate, giving blessings, and delivering prophecies, Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan, in the family burial cave. After he finishes his prophecies, he repeats these burial instructions to all his sons before he dies at age 147.11

Then Jacob finished directing his sons, and he gathered his feet into the mitah, and he expired, and he was gathered to his people. (Genesis 49:33)

mitah (מִטָּה) = bed of blankets. (From the same root as mateh, מַטֶּה = staff, stick, tribe.)

The text does not say that Jacob is satisfied or has had enough. But the sentence describing his death may imply that he gathered himself into the tribes he had created, before he was gathered by death. After Jacob dies, all twelve of his sons take his embalmed body up to the family burial cave in Canaan.

Although Jacob was selfish as a young man, cheating his brother out of his firstborn rights, at the end of his life he is absorbed with details concerning the future of the sons and grandsons he is leaving behind.

Joseph’s reminder

Twice Joseph tells his brothers that they should not feel guilty about selling him as a slave bound for Egypt because that was part of God’s master plan for bringing Jacob’s whole clan down to Egypt.12 (See my post: Vayigash & Vayechi: Forgiving?) On his deathbed, Jacob is still thinking about God’s master plan.

Burying the body of Joseph, the 1890 Holman Bible

And Joseph said to his kinsmen: “I am dying, but God will definitely take account of you, and bring you up from this land to the land that [God] swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying: “God will definitely take account of you; then bring up my bones from here!” And Joseph died, 110 years old. And they embalmed him and they put him in a coffin in Egypt.  (Genesis 50:24-26)

Thus ends the book of Genesis. Joseph is not described as satisfied, or even as being gathered to his ancestors. He is focused not on his immediate family, but on the distant future of his whole clan. His only deathbed act is to make all the men in his family swear to pass on the information that someday his bones must be buried in Canaan. This promise will serve as a reminder that someday the descendants of Jacob, a.k.a. Israel, must return to the land that God promised to them.

I think Abraham believes his estate is important because he is wealthy, and he wants peace between his sons. Isaac believes his blessings are important because he wants God to help his sons. Jacob believes his estate and his blessings are important because he has a history of cheating and being cheated, and he does not want to leave anything to chance. And Joseph believes God’s master plan for the whole clan of Israel is the most important thing, so he only wants the clan to remember to bury him in Canaan.

I suspect that when I am close to death, I will believe the most important thing is to let the remaining members of my family know that I loved them. It might not make much practical difference, but I remember the reports of all those phone calls when the Twin Towers fell in New York City, and those who were about to die spent their last minutes saying “I love you”. When no inheritance is at stake, and God does not interact directly in the world, we have only our personal words of blessing to leave.

  1. The Torah says people’s souls go down to Sheol when their bodies die, but does not imagine any life for those souls, only a sort of endless cold storage.
  2. Ben (בֶּן) = son of. Bat (בַּת) = daughter of.
  3. Genesis 22:1-19. See my post: Vayeira: On Speaking Terms.
  4. Genesis 25:12-18 describes Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpeilah near Mamrei, where Sarah died.
  5. Genesis 25:21.
  6. Genesis 27:28 and 28:4.
  7. Genesis 33:18-19 and 33:25-30.
  8. See my post: Vayechi & 1 Kings: Deathbed Prophecies.
  9. Genesis 48:13-20. The blessing “May God make you like Efrayim and Menasheh” is still in use among Jews.
  10. See my posts: Vayechi: First Versus Favorite, and Vayechi: Three Tribes Repudiated.
  11. Genesis 47:29-31 and 49:29-30.
  12. Genesis 45:5-8 and 50:18-20.

Mikeitz & Vayigash: Yisrael Versus Ya-akov, Part 2

Jacob is the only character in the book of Genesis who gets a new name and still keeps the old one. His parents name him Ya-akov (יַעֲקֺב, “He grasps by the heel”) at birth, because he comes out clutching his twin brother Esau’s heel. As he grows up, he tries twice to usurp Esau’s place in the family. He is crafty, and willing to cheat to get what he wants.

Jacob, by Michelangelo,
Sistine Chapel

Jacob goes to live with his uncle Lavan for twenty years, where he learns long-term planning and patience. As he is returning to Canaan with his own large family, he wrestles all night with an unnamed being—a divine messenger, but perhaps also his own alter ego—who blesses him with a new name: Yisrael (יִשְׂרָאֵל, “He strives with God”).

Yet in the remainder of the book of Genesis, he is referred to as Ya-akov more often than as Yisrael. 

When does the text call him Yisrael?

According to the 19th-century commentary Ha-amek Davar, Genesis calls Jacob Yisrael when it is ”indicating a return to a more elevated spiritual state”.1 But there are several examples when Yisrael’s state does not seem at all elevated.

In the two previous Torah portions, Vayishlach and Vayeishev, the narrative refers to Jacob as Yisrael in four scenes (See my post: Vayishlach & Vayeishev: Yisrael Versus Ya-akov, Part 1):

  • Ya-akov is overcome with grief whenhis favorite wife, Rachel, dies. But Yisrael pulls himself together and considerately moves his household and flocks from the roadside to good pastureland.
  • When he finds out that his son Reuben lay with Bilhah, one of Jacob’s concubines, Yisrael refrains from taking any action. Perhaps he simply has no emotional energy left after Rachel’s death.
  • Jacob’s favorite son is Joseph, Rachel’s older child. Yisrael gives a fancy tunic to Joseph but does not give anything to his other sons. Here he makes the same mistake his parents made when he was growing up as Ya-akov: playing favorites, which promotes jealousy.
  • Yisrael sends Joseph alone to a dangerous place to report on his ten older brothers who hate him. Here he is not thinking things through as well as Ya-akov did when he was younger.

In these four references, Yisrael seems like an old man who can see the need and handle the logistics to get his people and flocks to their next destination, but cannot figure out what to do about complex family relationships. The name Yisrael does not seem to indicate a more elevated spiritual state.

So far, the most consistent difference between the two names is that while Yisrael is always relatively calm, Ya-akov fluctuates between being calm and being at the mercy of strong emotions. He is overcome when Rachel dies, and again the end of the Torah portion Vayeishev when he believes Joseph has died. He jumps to that conclusion when his ten older sons bring home Joseph’s fancy tunic covered with goat’s blood. Ya-akov mourns extravagantly.

Joseph’s older brothers have actually disposed of him by selling him as a slave bound for Egypt. After some years in Egypt, Joseph gets a reputation as a dream interpreter.

Mikeitz: The famine

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Mikeitz (Genesis 41:1-44:7), Joseph is summoned to interpret two of the pharaoh’s dreams. He explains that both dreams predict seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. The pharaoh makes him the viceroy in charge of agriculture, and Joseph stockpiles grain during the next seven years. (See my post: Mikeitz: An Unlikely Ascent.) When the famine begins, it affects not only Egypt, but also Canaan, where Joseph’s father and brothers live.

Ya-akov sends his ten older sons down to Egypt to buy grain. But he keeps his youngest son, Benjamin, at home. Benjamin is his only other son by his beloved deceased wife, Rachel. Now that Joseph is gone, Benjamin has become Jacob’s favorite.

And Ya-akov would not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers. For he said: “Lest harm happens to him!”  (Genesis 42: 4)

Ya-akov does not mind so much if harm happens to any of his sons by his other wives or concubines.

When Jacob’s ten older sons arrive in Egypt, they do not recognize the viceroy as Joseph, but he recognizes them. He accuses them of being spies, and they babble that they are all brothers, all the sons of one man except for the youngest, who stayed at home. Joseph imprisons one of them, Shimon, and sells the rest of them grain on the condition that they return to Egypt with their youngest brother.

Joseph’s Brothers Find Money in their Sacks, Aunt Louisa’s Sunday Picture Book, ca. 1870

When they return to their father and empty their sacks of grain, they find the pouches of silver that they had handed over as payment. Why is the silver back in their bags? Everyone becomes frightened, including Jacob. As usual, when he is overcome by emotion, he can think only of himself.

And Ya-akov, their father, said to them: “Me you have bereaved of children! Joseph is not, and Shimon is not, and Benjamin you would take away. To me everything happens!” (Genesis 42:36)

Jacob has never been more self-centered. When his extended family has eaten all the grain, he tells his older sons to return to Egypt. One of them, Judah, reminds him that the viceroy will not sell to them again unless they bring Benjamin.

Then Yisrael said: “Why did you do evil to me, by telling the man you have another brother?” (Genesis 43:6)

Although the text calls him Yisrael now, Jacob still sounds self-centered (and not at all spiritually elevated). One would think his wrestling match with the unnamed being had never occurred. His sons dodge his accusation by saying that the viceroy had asked about their family.

Then Judah said to Yisrael, his father: “Send the youth with me, and we will get up and go, and we will live and not die: we, you, and our little children!” (Genesis 43:8)

Judah, addressing Yisrael, reminds his father that everyone’s lives are at stake, including his grandchildren. Then he personally pledges to bring Benjamin back. And Yisrael pulls himself together.

Then Yisrael, their father, said to them: “In that case, do this: Take some choice products of the land in your containers, and bring them down to the man as a gift: a little balsam, a little honey … And take twice the silver … Perhaps it was a mistake. And take your brother! Get up, return to the man. And may Eil Shaddai [i.e. God] give you mercy before the man, so he will release to you your other brother, and Benjamin. And I, if I am bereaved of children, I am bereaved of children!” (Genesis 32:11-24)

Here Jacob combines the best features of Ya-akov and Yisrael. Like Ya-akov in his youth and middle age, he is crafty and plans ahead. But unlike Ya-akov, he overcomes his selfishness. Yisrael even remembers that one of his least favorite sons, “your other brother” Shimon, is still imprisoned in Egypt, and he hopes for everyone’s return to Canaan. Having ordered the best arrangements he can devise, Yisrael is now willing to accept whatever happens.

Vayigash: Reunion with Joseph

The next time Jacob is referred to as Yisrael is in next week’s Torah portion, Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27). Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, then sends them with back to Canaan with twenty loaded donkeys and instructions to bring Jacob and his whole extended family down to Egypt.

And they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Ya-akov, their father. And they told him, saying: “Joseph is still alive! And indeed, he is the ruler of all of Egypt!” Then his heart grew numb, because he did not believe them. But they spoke to him all Joseph’s words he had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, and their father Ya-akov’s spirit came back to life. (Genesis 43:25-28)

Again Jacob is called Ya-akov when he is seized by emotion. But then when he accepts the new reality, he changes from Ya-akov to Yisrael.

Then Yisrael said: “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die!” (Genesis 43:28)

Some classic commentators claimed that it is enough for Yisrael that Joseph is alive, and he does not care whether Joseph has become a powerful man. But according to Abraham ibn Ezra, Yisrael means: “This happiness is enough for me.”2

As Yisrael, Jacob can stop grasping for more. He accepts reality and understands limits. Like many old men, he also thinks about his own death—not in the melodramatic way Ya-akov reacted to Joseph’s bloody tunic and talked about going down to join Joseph in Sheol, but in the way mature people who have retired from their active lives consider what is left for them to do during their remaining years.

Joseph and Jacobs Reunited, by Owen Jones, 1865

Joseph meets the caravan in Goshen and embraces his father.

And Yisrael said to Joseph: “I can die now that I have seen your face, because you are still alive.” (Genesis 46:30)

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz wrote that Jacob means: “I traveled here to see you, and now that we have reunited, I have received all that I could wish for and I lack nothing in life.”3

As Yisrael, Jacob is finally able to feel contentment. Jealousy and greed no longer motivate him.

At least in that moment. Humans can change, but there are always moments of backsliding. When Joseph introduces his father to the pharaoh, Jacob has slipped back into being Ya-akov. When the pharaoh asks him how old he is, Jacob answers like a grumpy self-centered old man complaining that his life is a waste.

Then Ya-akov said to Pharaoh: “The days and years of my sojourn are 130. The days and years of my life have been few and bad, and they have not attained the days and years of my fathers’ lives.” (Genesis 47:9)

When Jacob was young and had only one name, Ya-akov, he was calculating and selfish, but able to control his emotions better than his twin brother, Esau. When Jacob is old and has two names, Ya-akov and Yisrael, he remains calculating (when he has the energy) and often selfish. But he is not overcome by needy emotions, as his Ya-akov side is. Yisrael he accepts life as it is, does what he can, and is content.

Jacob’s two names indicate two models of old age. Now that I live in a retirement community, I have met a few fellow old people who complain often about the vicissitudes of old age: the aches and pains, the disabilities, the inefficiencies of the medical system, how their children have disappointed them. They are like Ya-akov, caught up in their own negative emotions.

I have also met many old people who are cheerful and grateful for what they do have: safe homes with heating and air-conditioning, a number of readily available services, and the company of fellow residents who delight in learning and in instigating and attending a wide variety of activities. They embody the Yisrael model of old age.

I hope I can spend most of the rest of my life being a Yisrael, doing what I can and enjoying what I do—while accepting that life is always uncertain and impermanent.

  1. Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, Ha-amek Davar,commentary on Genesis 43:28, translation by www.sefaria.org.
  2. 12th-century rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, translation by www.sefaria.org.
  3. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.

Vayishlach & Vayeishev: Yisrael Versus Ya-akov, Part 1

Jacob was born hanging onto the heel of his twin brother, Esau.

After that his brother emerged, and his hand was grasping the akeiv of his brother; so they called his name Ya-akov. (Genesis 23:26)

akeiv (עָקֵב) = heel.

Ya-akov (יַעֲקֺב) = “Jacob” in English. (From ya-ekov, יַעְקֺב  = he grasps by the heel; he cheats.)

The book of Genesis implies that from the beginning, Ya-akov wanted to be the firstborn son. In the Torah portion Toledot he tried to replace his brother twice, first by trading a bowl of stew for Esau’s inheritance as the firstborn, and then by impersonating Esau to steal their blind father Isaac’s blessing.

And Isaac loved Esau, because [Esau brought] hunted-game for his mouth. But Rebecca loved Ya-akov. (Genesis 25:28)

Their mother, Rebecca, arranged Jacob’s impersonation. Then when Esau vowed to kill his brother for cheating him twice, she arranged for Ya-akov to flee to her brother’s house in Padan-Aram. Twenty years later, Jacob returned with a large family of his own. On the eve of his reunion with Esau in last week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4-36:43), Ya-akov receives a second name.

Vayishlach: A new name

And Ya-akov was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until dawn rose. (Genesis 32:25)

Jacob Wrestles, by Ephraim Moses Lillien, 1923

The Hebrew Bible often calls a divine messenger (or angel) a “man” at first. Other theories are that Jacob’s wrestling partner is a demon, or his own alter ego or subconscious.1 They wrestle all night, and neither prevails. Then the mysterious “man” dislocates Jacob’s hip and said:

“Let me go, because dawn has risen!” But Ya-akov said: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Then [the “man”] said to him: “What is your name?” And he said: “Ya-akov.” (Genesis 32:27-28)

Twenty years before, when Jacob impersonated Esau to steal their father’s blessing, Isaac had asked him to identify himself. At that time, Jacob had answered: “I am Esau.” (Genesis 27:19) But when Jacob asks the unnamed wrestler to bless him, he answers: “Ya-akov.” (Genesis 32:28)

And [the “man”] said: “It will no longer be said that Ya-akov is your name, but instead Yisrael, because sarita with God and with men and you have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:29)

Yisrael (יִשְׂרָאֵל) = “Israel” in English. (Possibly yisar, יִשַׂר  = he strives, contends, perseveres + Eil, אֵל  = God, a god. This combination could mean either “God strives” or “He strives with God”.)

sarita (שָׂרִיתָ) = you strove, you persevered.

A much shorter, dryer story about Jacob’s new name appears later in the portion Vayishlach:

And God appeared to Ya-akov again when he came from Padan-Aram, and [God] blessed him. And God said to him: “Your name is Ya-akov. Your name will not be called Ya-akov again, because your name will be Yisrael.” (Genesis 35:9-10)

Modern scholars attribute the two versions of the naming story to two different sources; the story about wrestling probably comes from a non-P author, while the less colorful renaming by God comes from a P author.2 Both versions give Ya-akov the additional name Yisrael, so this is not a case of two traditions using two different names.

In subsequent biblical books, Yisrael is also the name of a people, Jacob’s descendants. And in biblical poetry, some couplets call the people both Ya-akov and Yisrael, treating the two names as mere synonyms.3

In the rest of the book of Genesis, Jacob son of Isaac is referred to as Ya-akov most often, but occasionally the text calls him Yisrael. Does the switch to Jacob’s new name mean anything?

Vayishlach: Equanimity?

The first time the narrative uses the name Yisrael is right after the household stops on the road so Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, can give birth. She dies right after Jacob’s twelfth and final son, Benjamin, is born.

Ya-akov set up a standing-stone over her grave … And Yisrael moved on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eider. (Genesis 35:20-21)

Ya-akov grieves over the death of his favorite wife. But Yisrael moves on; he is responsible for getting his flocks to good pastureland.

And it happened when Yisrael was residing in that land: Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. And Yisrael paid attention. (Genesis 35:22)

Yisrael pays attention, but he does not act. He does not even bring up the episode until he is on his deathbed. The old Ya-akov might have been overcome with outrage that his eldest son usurped him, taking possession of a woman who belongs to him. But the new Yisrael is either too tired to react, or willing to accept whatever happens.

Vayeishev: Playing favorites

This week’s Torah portion, Vayeishev (Genesis 37:1-40:23), begins with Jacob under his old name.

And Ya-akov settled in the land of his father’s sojournings, the land of Canaan. And these are the histories of Ya-akov: Joseph, seventeen years old, shepherded a flock along with his brothers, and he was a youth with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, wives4 of his father. And Joseph brought bad gossip to their father. (Genesis 37:1-2)

Joseph is Rachel’s first son, so Jacob loves him more than the sons of his other three wives.

And Yisrael loved Joseph more than all his sons, since he was a son of old age to him. And he made him a fancy tunic. And his brothers saw that it was he whom their father loved more than his brothers, so they hated him, and they could not speak to him in peace. (Genesis 37:3-4)

Jacob Blesses Joseph and Gives him the Coat,
by Owen Jones, 1865

Transparent favoritism is not surprising from someone who grew up with parents who favored one son over the other. But why did the author or redactor attribute this favoritism to Yisrael rather than to Ya-akov? After all the striving that Jacob did while wrestling with God’s messenger (and/or himself), we might expect Yisrael to choose peace in the family, and treat his sons more fairly, perhaps giving each one a different gift.5

Shortly after that, all ten of Joseph’s older brothers take the family flocks to Shekhem, a journey of about 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) from their home in Hebron.  

And Yisrael said to Joseph: “Aren’t your brothers shepherding in Shekhem? Go, and I will send you to them!” (Genesis 37:13)

Rashbam wrote: “The wording reflects Ya-akov’s surprise that Joseph’s brothers chose to tend their sheep in a dangerous location such as Shekhem, where they had killed the local inhabitants not so long ago.”6

At least Joseph’s brothers are ten strong young men traveling together. But why does Yisrael risk sending  the teenage Joseph to Shekhem alone? What if someone who remembered the massacre identifies him as a member of the notorious family of killers?

Maybe Jacob is in denial, having forgotten the atrocities his older sons committed in Shekhem. In that case, the name Yisrael here might indicate Jacob’s old age and his desire for peace, but not increased wisdom.

 And [Joseph] said to him: “Here I am.” And [Jacob] said to him: “Please go and  look into the well-being of your brothers and the well-being of the flocks, and bring back word to me.” (Genesis 37: 14)

Jacob deliberately sends out his favorite son to report on his brothers. Yet he does not seem to worry about the safety of the seventeen-year-old boy when he is far from home, surrounded by brothers who hate him (and may well assume he intends to bring back to their father more “bad gossip” about them).

Classic commentators7 maintained that Jacob assumed his older sons would never attack Joseph. Yet Jacob himself once had to flee to another country because his own brother had vowed to kill him. Perhaps in old age, Jacob was losing his ability to connect the past with the present.

On the other hand, Yisrael might realize that he has pampered Joseph too long. He might even realize that giving only Joseph an expensive gift had contributed to his favorite son’s feeling of entitlement, which then led to Joseph telling his jealous brothers his two dreams in which they bowed down to him.8 Perhaps Yisrael, the man who  wrestled with himself, sees Joseph’s psychological problem and takes the risk of sending him to Shekhem so he can learn self-reliance and grow up. He might even comfort himself with the thought that surely God would look after Joseph, and he would come home as a wiser young man.

Vayeishev: Mourning

Joseph finds no one in the vicinity of Shekhem except a man who tells him his brothers traveled on to Dotan. When he arrives in Dotan, his brothers seize him, throw him in an empty cistern, threaten to kill him, and finally sell him as a slave to a caravan bound for Egypt. Then they come up with a plan for fooling their father.

And they took Joseph’s tunic, and they slaughtered a hairy goat and dipped the tunic in the blood … and they brought it to their father and said: “We found this. Please recognize whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” (Genesis 37:31-32)

Jacob Weeps over Joseph’s Tunic,
by Marc Chagall 1931

Jacob falls for the deception; he assumes Joseph was eaten by a wild beast. He grieves as Ya-akov.

And Ya-akov tore his clothes, and he put sackcloth around his hips, and he mourned over his son a long time. And all his sons and all his daughters rose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said: “If [only] I would go down to my son mourning, to Sheol!” And his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:34-35)

Jacob is entitled to grieve a long time over the death of his favorite son. But Ya-akov’s reaction is almost selfishly extravagant, consistent with his self-absorption while he was growing up: he rejects his children and grandchildren, and declares that he wants to die. His alter ego, Yisrael, does not have a chance to emerge.

The Torah does not refer to Jacob as Yisrael again until next week’s Torah portion, Mikeitz. Stay tuned for my next post, Mikeitz: Yisrael versus Ya-akov, Part 2.

  1. See my post Toledot & Vayishlach: Wrestlers.
  2. The documentary hypothesis discerns four traditions braided into the Pentateuch, named J, E, P, and D by Julius Wellhausen in the 19th century. In the 21st century the scholarly consensus is that there were more than four writers, and the story lines previously identified as J and E should all be called “non-P”. “P” is the “priestly” tradition, which was more interested in priestcraft than in narrative.
  3. Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 181.
  4. Genesis always calls Leah and Rachel Jacob’s wives. Bilhah and Zilpah are their slaves, but after they become Jacob’s concubines, they are sometimes called his wives.
  5. This is what Jacob’s grandfather Abraham did in Genesis 25:5-6.
  6. Rashbam (12th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meier) translated in www.sefaria.org. In Genesis 34:1-31, Jacob’s older sons tricked all the men of the town of Shekhem into circumcising themselves, then slaughtered them and took their women and children as booty.
  7. Including Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, ca. 1200), Chizkuni (editor Chizkiah ben Manoach, 13th century), and Or HaChayim (Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, 18th century).
  8. See my post: Vayeishev: Favoritism.

Haftarat Vayishlach—Obadiah: Pulled Down

This week’s haftarah is the entire book of Obadiah, which is one chapter long! Obadiah protests that when the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 587-586 B.C.E., the small kingdom of Edom took advantage of the chaos to prey on their Israelite neighbors.

Didn’t you come into the gate of my people
      on its day of calamity?
Didn’t you, too, look at its misery
      on its day of calamity?
And didn’t you reach out for its wealth
      on its day of calamity? (Obadiah 1:13)
And didn’t you stand at the crossroads
      to cut down its fugitives?
And didn’t you deliver up its survivors
      on the day of distress? (Obadiah 1:14)
When the Day of God draws near 
      against all the nations
As you did, it will be done to you.
      Your dealings will come back on your head! (Obadiah 1: 15)
Obadiah, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The rest of the book predicts that God will take revenge by utterly destroying the Edomites. I have not written about this haftarah before because revenge fantasies turn me off. But there is more than one way to interpret the Hebrew Bible.

How to interpret the bible

Back in the 1st century C.E., before the Romans destroyed the second temple in Jerusalem, Philo of Alexandria interpreted some passages in Genesis as allegories of Stoic philosophical concepts, identifying the characters with universal human aspects. (For example, Adam is the mind, Eve is the senses, and Noah is the state of tranquility.)

An allegorical tale in the 5th-century Babylonian Talmud tractate Chagigah features four actual Jewish scholars from the first century C.E., each with a different approach to biblical interpretation.1 They all enter pardeis (פַּרְדֵּס, the Persian word for “orchard”, a metaphor for deep Torah study which eventually became the English word “paradise”), but only one of them comes out whole. Rabbi Elisha ben Avuya, a.k.a. Acheir (אַחֵר, “Other”), was a literalist who found contradictions in the bible; Chagigah says he became a heretic. Tanna Shimon Ben Zoma found metaphorical meanings, and tried to reconcile different texts that employed the same uncommon Hebrew words; Chagigah says he lost his mind. Tanna Shimon Ben Azzai was a mystic; Chagigah says he died beholding God’s presence. Only Rabbi Akiva, who used reason to determine which biblical phrases should be taken literally and which metaphorically, left pardeis in the same condition as when he entered.

In the 13th century, the Spanish kabbalist Moshe de León pioneered the use of the word pardeis as an acronym for four types of exegesis, which Jews still use:

Peshat (פְּשַׁט, “stripped down”) is the plain, literal meaning of a text.

Remez (רֶמֶשׂ, “swarming creatures”) expands the literal meaning to cover similar situations, and transforms texts into allegories.

Derash (דְּררַשׁ, “inquiry”) adds to a text by drawing moral lessons from it, and/or inventing additional details to enhance a story’s meaning.

Sod (סוֹד, “secret”) uses words to point at an esoteric mystery that cannot be expressed in words.

Applying PaRDeiS to the haftarah

Before indicating what crimes the Edomites committed against the Israelites in Jerusalem, Obadiah quotes God as telling Edom:

The arrogance of your heart deceived you,
	Dwellers in the clefts of the cliffs.
High in your dwellings, saying in your heart:
	“Who could pull me down to earth?” (Obadiah 1:3)
If you were lofty as an eagle,
	Or if you put your nest between the stars,
From there I will pull you down,
	Declares God. (Obadiah 1:4)

A peshat reading of these two verses would point out that the ancient kingdom of Edom (located in the south of what we now call Jordan) was mountainous and rocky, poor for agriculture but easy to hide in and difficult to invade. The plain meaning is that the Edomites mistakenly believe they are invulnerable—even from God.

A Talmudic remez reading is that “the stars” means “the just”.2 Edomites believe they are among the just, but the book of Genesis says they are descended from Esau, Jacob’s undesirable brother. Midrash Tanchuma cited God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars in the heavens, and concluded that Obadiah’s reference to stars “can only mean Israel”.3

Vayikra Rabbah combined Obadiah 1:4 with Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12, then added to the story with the following derash:

Jacob’s Ladder, by William Blake

“It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Jacob the guardian angel of Babylon ascending and descending, of Media ascending and descending, of Greece ascending and descending, and of Edom ascending and descending. The Holy One blessed be He said to Jacob: ‘You, too, will ascend.’ At that moment, Jacob our patriarch grew fearful and said: ‘Perhaps, God forbid, just as there was descent for these, so it will be for me.’ The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: ‘You, have no fear; if you ascend, there will be no descent for you forever.’ He did not believe, and he did not ascend. … The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘Had you believed and ascended, you would never have descended. Now that you did not believe and did not ascend, your descendants will be subjugated by the four kingdoms in this world with land taxes, produce taxes, animal taxes, and head taxes.’”4

My own derash interpretations tend toward drawing moral lessons.5 What strikes me about Obadiah’s two verses on Edom’s arrogance is the idea that arrogant people believe they occupy high positions because they are superior. But their high positions are both barren (rocky) and precarious (cliffs).

The arrogant are afraid of being pulled down to earth. They spend so much time and energy defending their status and egos that they accomplish less than humble, hard-working people—from down-to-earth farmers to the rabbis and other religious leaders who care more about their work than about self-glorification.

But when the arrogant are successful, they question whether anything could pull them down. Obadiah points out that they are wrong. These exalted narcissists are not eagles, but human beings. Even autocrats and superstars are vulnerable, because they live in the complex world of human interactions. Millions of people may look up to them now, but anyone can fall off the cliff. Anyone can be pulled down.

It is better to do good work on the ground than to “put your nest between the stars”.

That is my derash. I am not a mystic, although I know a little about kabbalah, so a sod reading is beyond me; it might as well be between the stars.

  1. Talmud Bavli, Chagigah 14b.
  2. Talmud Yerushalmi, Nedarim 3:8:2.
  3. Midrash Tanchuma, 500-800 C.E., translated in www.sefaria.org, citing Genesis 15:5.
  4. Vayikra Rabbah 29:2:, circa 500 C.E., translated in www.sefaria.org.
  5. I reserve fleshing out biblical stories with additional narrative for my Torah monologues.

Vayeitzei: Father Figures

And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Charan. (Genesis 28:10)

The first verse in this week’s Torah portion, Vayeitzei (“And he went”, Genesis 28:10-32:3), sounds simple—until you consider the family Jacob is leaving behind in Beersheba.

In last week’s Torah portion, Toledot, Jacob cheated his twin brother, Esau (older by a minute), into trading his firstborn rights for a bowl of lentil stew.1 Years later their father, Isaac, announced he would give his deathbed blessing to Esau, his favorite. The twins’ mother, Rebecca, talked Jacob, her own favorite, into impersonating his brother and stealing the blessing.2

When Esau found out, he vowed to kill his brother as soon as their father died. Rebecca urged Jacob to flee for his life, then maneuvered her husband into ordering Jacob to go to her old hometown in northern Mesopotamia and get a wife.3 At least Isaac gave Jacob a blessing of his own to send him off.4

Jacob turns his back on Isaac

What is Jacob thinking as he hikes north toward Charan? In my post Vayeitzei: Guilty Conscience, I argue that he might feel guilty about his deceptions—guilty enough to leave at once, without waiting for his wealthy father to give him a bride-price, pack animals, and a servant or two for the journey. Jacob does not even ask his father for a bag of silver; he arrives in Charan with nothing but his walking stick.

Besides guilt, Jacob may feel relief and a sense of freedom. For the first time in his life he is on his own, away from his remote father, his controlling mother, and his big, hairy, primitive brother.

Jacob’s Dream, German, 14th century

On the first night of his journey Jacob lies down with his head on a stone, and dreams about a ramp or stairway from the ground to the heavens, with divine messengers ascending and descending on it.

And hey! God stood above him and said: “I am Y-H-V-H, god of Abraham your av, and god of Isaac. The land that you are lying on, I will give to you and to your descendants.” (Genesis 28:13)

av (אָב) = father; someone in the role of a father (usually God or the head of a household or clan).

Why does God put it that way? Abraham is Isaac’s father, and Isaac is Jacob’s father. Jacob and his grandfather Abraham never interact in the book of Genesis, probably because Isaac and Abraham were estranged.5 So Abraham was neither a nurturer, nor an authority figure, nor a role model for Jacob.

According to 18th-century Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, God means that Jacob is Abraham’s sole heir:

“The reason … was intended to emphasize that Esau had no share in the heritage of Abraham. The Torah here made Jacob the sole heir of Abraham. This heritage did not come to Jacob via his father Isaac but directly from his grandfather Abraham. … the fact that all the blessings of Abraham were transferred to Jacob excludes Esau as an heir.”6

According to 19th-century Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, God means that Jacob is Abraham’s spiritual successor:

“Nowhere else in Scripture do we find such a thing that the grandfather is called ‘father,’ with the father himself mentioned right afterward as though he were a stranger. …Jacob truly was the successor of Abraham, with Isaac being only the intermediate link.  Spiritually, Abraham was Jacob’s father.”7

But according to 21st-century Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner, it means Jacob wants Abraham’s God:

“… the Talmud records the observation … that in dreams, ‘a person is shown nothing if not the inner thoughts of his own heart’ (BT, Tractate Berakhot 55b). … It seems clear that in Jacob’s ‘inner thoughts of heart’ the Lord who will comfort him will be the Lord of Abraham his father. As for the God of Isaac (his genetic father), there is a missing relational adjective, as the very situation that begs comfort, Jacob’s precarious homeless state, is a result of his having betrayed the father-son relationship.”8

Does the phrase “god of Abraham your father” signal that only Jacob and his descendants will inherit what God promised to his grandfather Abraham (ibn Attar)? Or that Jacob will have the same relationship with God as Abraham (Hirsch)? Or that Jacob wants Abraham’s God rather than Isaac’s? (Klitsner)?

Does Jacob inherit Abraham’s blessings?

Chayim ibn Attar’s proposal is supported by the next words God says in Jacob’s dream:

“And your descendants will be like the dust of the land, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. And all the clans of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.” (Genesis 28:14)

This statement echoes two of the blessings God gave to Abraham:

“All the land that you see, I give it to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, in that if a man were able to count the dust of the earth, your descendants could also be counted.” (Genesis 13:15-16)

“I will bless those who bless you, and those who despise you I will curse, and all the clans of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) Thus God promises both Abraham and Jacob that their descendants will be as uncountable as the dust, that their descendants will own the land, and that they will become a blessing to everyone on earth. Jacob does indeed inherit Abraham’s blessings.

Is Jacob Abraham’s spiritual successor?

However, Hirsch’s proposal that Abraham, not Isaac, is Jacob’s spiritual father gets only weak support from the book of Genesis. Abraham hears God speak on twelve occasions in the book of Genesis. Isaac hears God speak once.9 And Jacob hears God speak three times: once during Jacob’s ladder dream at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, and twice when he returns to the same spot 20 or more years later.10 (Jacob also tells Leah and Rachel that God also spoke to him in a dream telling him to leave Charan and return to his native land,11 but since he had already decided to go, he might have invented this dream in order to secure his wives’ consent.)

Jacob never experiences the intimacy Abraham has with God. Abraham and God have six conversations.12 In one of these conversations, Abraham talks God into refraining from obliterating Sodom if the city has at least ten innocent men.13 Jacob hears God speak, but never answers. Once Jacob prays to God to rescue him, but God is silent.14

In addition to the conversations between Abraham and God, God speaks to Abraham another six times to deliver an order or a promise, or both.15 Abraham obeys all of God’s orders, even when God tests him by telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac.16 Jacob obeys God’s only order to him, to build an altar at Beit Eil.17

Abraham persuades Sarah, by James Tissot, ca. 1900, detail

Furthermore, God cooperates with Abraham’s scams. Twice when Abraham arranges for his wife, Sarah, to be carried off to a king’s harem, God afflicts the king so he cannot have sex with her.18

In short, God spends a lot more time with Abraham than with Jacob, and the two of them have a real relationship. With Jacob, God is almost as distant as with Isaac.

Is Jacob the heir to Abraham’s God?

What about Klitsner’s proposal that Jacob wants Abraham’s god rather than Isaac’s?

Near the end of this week’s Torah portion, Jacob has left Charan and is heading to Canaan with his family, servants, and herds, when Lavan (his employer, uncle, cousin, and father-in-law) catches up with him in a mountain pass. Lavan accuses Jacob of stealing his daughters—Jacob’s wives. Jacob accuses Lavan of cheating him multiple times as his employer. Jacob concludes:

“Had not for the god of my father—the God of Abraham and the Pachad of Isaac—been for me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed!” (Genesis 31:42)

pachad (פַּחַד) = terror.

Twenty years after he left home and dreamed of the ladder, Jacob now calls both Abraham and Isaac his father.

The two men set up stones to serve as a boundary, and they both swear not to cross it for any harmful purpose. Lavan says:

The Heap of Witness, Holman Bible, 1890

“May the God of Abraham and the God of Nachor judge between us—the God of their father.” (Genesis 31:53a)

Lavan is referring to a single god, Y-H-V-H, worshiped by the both Abraham and Nachor, their respective paternal grandfathers. We know that Abraham and his brother Nachor had the same god because earlier in Genesis Lavan and his father said Rebecca’s marriage to Isaac “went forth from Y-H-V-H” (Genesis 24:50).19

But Jacob swore by the Pachad of Isaac. (Genesis 31:53b)

Twice Jacob calls God the Pachad of Isaac. There is no indication in the book of Genesis that Isaac threatened Jacob, with a punishment from God or any other way. So Jacob must be thinking about the defining event in Isaac’s life, when God ordered Abraham to sacrifice him, and did not call it off until Abraham had bound his son on an altar and put a knife to his throat.20

Jacob invokes Isaac’s God as a source of terror in order to make an implied threat against Lavan. But when he left home twenty years before, he did not want the Pachad of Isaac. He wanted a protective God who would help him out of tight spots the way God helped Abraham get his wife back from two kings.

And that is what Jacob got at the end of his dream about the ladder. After saying that Jacob’s descendants will own the land and be a blessing to the world, God added:

“And hey! I myself am with you. And I will guard you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this ground, because I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” (Genesis 28:15)

Then Jacob wakes up. The God of Abraham has promised to protect him.

He has a new father figure.

  1. Genesis 25:29-34. (See my post: Bereishit & Toledot: Seeing Red.)
  2. Genesis 27:1-30. (See my post: Toledot: To Bless Someone.)
  3. Genesis 27:31-28:5.
  4. Genesis 28:3-4.
  5. Ever since Abraham bound Isaac as a sacrifice and almost cut his throat (Genesis 22:1-19). See my post: Vayeira: Stopped by an Angel.)
  6. Chayim ibn Attar, Or Hachayim, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  7. Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereshis, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 602.
  8. Shmuel Klitsner, Wrestling Jacob, Urim Publications, Jerusalem, 2006, pp. 82-83.
  9. Isaac hears God speak to him, and builds an altar for God, in Genesis 26:24-25.
  10. Genesis 35:1, 35:9-13.
  11. Genesis 31:9-13.
  12. Genesis 15:1-11, 17:1-22, 18:9-10, 18:17-33, 22:1-2, 22:11-12.
  13. Genesis 18:17-33. (See my post: Vayeira: Who Is the Teacher?)
  14. Genesis 32:10-13.
  15. Genesis 12:1-4, 12:7, 13:14-18, 15:12-21, 21:12-13, 22:15-18.
  16. Genesis 22:1-10.
  17. Genesis 35:1-7.
  18. Genesis 12:11-20, 20:1-18.
  19. See my post Vayeitzei: Awe versus Terror for the complete inbred family tree.
  20. Genesis 22:9-12.

Haftarat Toledot—Malakhi: For the Sake of Integrity

Malakhi is the last book of the Prophets, written shortly after the second temple in Jerusalem was built (circa 516 BCE) and priests were once again burning offerings at the altar. But the priests were derelict in their duties, according to this week’s haftarah1 reading, Malakhi 1:1-2:7.

The book opens with God claiming credit for turning the kingdom of Edom into ruins, and warning that God can make Judea2 and its capital, Jerusalem, just as desolate. Why would God want to do that? Because the priests in Jerusalem are holding God’s “name” (i.e. reputation) in contempt.

Altar from Treasures of the Bible,
Northrup, 1894

And you say: “In what way have we held your name in contempt?” By bringing defiled food to my altar. And you say: “In what way have we defiled you?” By thinking God’s table can be despised.  (Malakhi 1:6-7)

The altar is poetically called God’s table, as if God were eating the meat, even though the Hebrew Bible goes no farther than imagining that God enjoys the smell of the smoke from the altar.3

First God accuses the priests of offering animals that are defiled because they are blind, lame, or diseased. These offerings are strictly prohibited in the book of Leviticus, which orders:

Anything that has a blemish in it, you must not offer, since it will not be accepted for you. (Leviticus 22:20)4

The book of Malakhi emphasizes that God will not accept blemished offerings.

And if you offer the blind as a slaughter-sacrifice, it is not bad? And if you offer the lame or the diseased, it is not bad? Offer it, if you please, to your governor! Will he be pleased with you, or lift your face [acknowledge you favorably]? (Malakhi 1:8)

Burning defective animals on the altar is useless, God says. It would be better to shut the doors of the temple and let the fire on the altar go out.

I take no pleasure in you, said the God of Hosts, and I will accept no gift from your hands. (Malakhi 1:9)

Even the countries around Judea honor God more than the priests in Jerusalem.

My name is great among the nations, said the God of Hosts. But you profane it … And you say: “Hey, what a bother!” … And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick.  (Malakhi 1:11-13)

Here God adds another category of gifts that only defile God’s altar: stolen animals. But then the book of Malakhi returns to the argument that a ruler does not want flawed animals:

A curse on the deceitful one who has [an unblemished] male in his flock, but he vows and slaughters some ruined one to my lord! Because I am a great king, said the God of Hosts, and my name is held in awe among the nations. (Malakhi 1:14)

Next comes a warning that God will curse the priests.

If you do not take heed and you do not set it in your heart to give honor to my name, said the God of Hosts, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings … (Malakhi 2:2)

These blessings, according to Rashi,5 include the grain, wine, and oil the priests receive from the people. The late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz added that the it might mean “the blessings for which you pray, or the blessings with which you bless the people, the priestly benediction”.6 If the blessings that the priests pronounce backfired, then the people would despise the priests.

The High Priest, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

This week’s haftarah ends:

For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, and instruction is sought from his mouth; for he is a malakh of the God of Hosts. (Malakhi 2:7)

malakh (מַלְאַךְ) = messenger.

A malakh of God almost always turns out to be a divine being, or angel, as a manifestation of God. This verse is one of the rare exceptions. Rashi pointed out that both a divine malakh and a priest serve God and enter a holy place where God dwells.

There has been no temple in Jerusalem for almost two thousand years, and the distant descendants of priests have only minor roles in Jewish services. So why should we care whether the priests in the time of Malakhi were negligent? Does anything in this haftarah apply to us?

I think the underlying problem in the book of Malakhi is that the priests are two-faced. They maintain the appearance honoring God and doing their work reverently, when in reality they cut corners out of laziness (“Hey, what a bother!”—Malakhi 1:13). They even turn a blind eye to theft. Yet part of their job is to instruct the people about God’s laws!

The book of Malakhi gives an obvious example of this kind of deception. But it is easy to cheat when you are the boss, when you are responsible for work that affects others but does not mean much to you personally. If people who lead religious services today carefully follow the rules and rituals, and do whatever they can to make the services inspiring, then they are acting with integrity regarding their job—even if they are atheists. But if they ignore the rules, rush or plod through the services, and do a shoddy job, they are acting without integrity—whether they believe in God or not.

May we act with integrity in all the positions where we have authority, striving to do the job right, without cheating.

  1. Every week in the year is assigned a Torah portion (a reading from the first five books of the bible), and a haftarah (a reading from the Prophets).
  2. Malakhi was written after the Persian Empire had swallowed the Babylonian Empire, and Cyrus the Great had proclaimed that ethnic groups could rebuild their shrines and exercise limited self-governance in their provinces. The biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe how those two leaders brought Israelites who had been held captive in Babylon back to the province of Judea, and rebuilt Jerusalem and its temple.
  3. See my post: Pinchas: Aromatherapy.
  4. See my post: Emor: Flawed Worship.
  5. Rashi is the acronym of 11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzhaki, whose commentary is still universally cited.
  6. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanakh: Malachi.

Vayeira: Who Is the Teacher?

Abraham and God debate the fate of Sodom in this week’s Torah portion, Vayeira (Genesis 18:1-22:24).

The portion is called Vayeira, (וַיֵרָא) “And he appeared”, because in the first sentence God appears to Abraham—as three men.

Abraham and the Three Angels,
by Bartolome Esteban Muriollo, 1670-1674

Abraham provides lavish hospitality, as he would for any humans trekking across the sparsely populated hills to his campsite at Mamre (near present-day Hebron). Then one of the “men” tells Abraham his wife Sarah (who is 89 years old) will have a son. And without transition, the text reports God speaking first to Abraham, then to Sarah.1 Often in the Hebrew Bible a man turns out to be a divine messenger or angel, and the transition between the messenger speaking and God speaking is seamless.

Then the men got up from there, and they looked down at Sodom. And Abraham was walking with them to send them off. (Genesis 18:16)

The “men” and Abraham walk to a hilltop from which they could look down at the Dead Sea and the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah near its shore.

Next comes a Shakespearean aside, in which God’s thoughts are expressed in words.

And God said: Will I hide from Abraham what I am doing? (Genesis 18:17)

Whenever the Hebrew Bible reports a character’s silent thoughts, the text uses the verb “said” (amar, אָמָר), but the context makes it clear that the character is saying something silently to himself or herself. Here, God continues thinking:

For Abraham will certainly become a nation great and numerous, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. (Genesis 18:18)

The God character is recalling the promise at the beginning of last week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha. There, God told Abraham to leave his home and go “to the land that I will show you”, which turned out to be Canaan.

“And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. … And all the clans of the earth will seek to be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

Abraham did indeed leave home and go to Canaan. But the future that God promised can only happen if Abraham teaches his people the right behavior. God thinks:

ForI have become acquainted with him so that he will give orders to his sons and his household after him; then they will keep the way of God to do tzedakah umishpat, so that God will bring upon Abraham what [God] spoke concerning him. (Genesis 18:19)

tzedakah (צְדָקָה) = righteousness, acts of justice. (From the root tzedek, צֶדֶק = right, just.)

umishpat (וּמִשְׁפָּט) = and mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט) = legal decision, legal claim, law.

One way to translate tzedakah umishpatis: “what is right and lawful”. The way Abraham will become a great nation that is a source of blessing, God thinks, is by teaching the way of God—what is right and lawful—to his household, so they will pass on the information to the generations after him.

Why God is teaching Abraham

Naturally God wants Abraham to convey the correct information about the way of God. Now God is wondering whether it would be helpful to tell Abraham what is about happen in Sodom.

We know God switches from thinking to speaking out loud—or at least speaking so that Abraham can hear—because he responds to what God says next.

Then God said: “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because their abundant guilt is very heavy! Indeed I will go down, and I will see: Are they doing like the outcry coming to me? [If so,] Annihilation! And if not, I will know.” The men turned their faces away from there and they went to Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before God. (Genesis 18:20-22)

The God character in the Torah sees and hears a lot from the heavens above, but not everything, so sometimes God or a divine messenger comes down to the earth for more information.2 Abraham now knows that if Sodom is as guilty as God has heard, God will annihilate it. Why does God give him that information ahead of time? Perhaps God is testing Abraham, prompting him to think through what is right and lawful in a particular situation. If Abraham asks God a question about the divine plan for Sodom, they can discuss it—a subtle form of teaching.

Is Abraham teaching God?

Then Abraham came forward and said: “Would you sweep away the tzadik along with the wicked one?” (Genesis 18:23)

tzadik (צַדִּיק) = righteous, innocent. (Also from the root tzedek. The Hebrew Bible applies this adjective to men, nations, and God.)

Lot Prevents the Sodomites from Raping the Angels,
by Heinrich Aldegrever, 1555

Abraham probably knows already what God is about to find out: that rape and murder are rampant in Sodom. After all, his own nephew, Lot, lives in that city. And Lot knows that travelers are not safe in the town square after dark. Later in the Torah portion, after Lot has brought the two divine messengers who look just like men into his own house to spend the night, the other men in Sodom come to his door and order him to bring the strangers out to be raped. And Lot knows they will not take no for an answer.4

But so far, Lot has done nothing immoral himself, though he has tolerated the immorality around him. And as far as Abraham knows, there might be other innocent men in Sodom.

Abraham asks God:

“What if there are fifty tzadikim inside the city? Would you sweep away, and not pardon the place, for the sake of the fifty tzadikim who are in it? Far be it from you to do this thing, to bring death to the tzadik along with the wicked! Then the tzadik would be like the wicked. Far be it from you! The judge of all the earth should do justice!” (Genesis 18:24-25)

tzadikim (צַדִּיקִם) = plural of tzadik.

According to the commentary Or HaChayim, when Abraham said then the tzadik would be like the wicked, he meant that “if God applied the same yardstick to all creatures alike, the righteous would be deprived of every incentive to be righteous.”5 So the tzadikim in Sodom would give up and join their neighbors in doing evil.

However, not every man thinks raping and murdering other men would be fun if he could get away with it. So I think Abraham means that if God annihilates the whole city, God would be treating the tzadik just like the wicked man—which would be unjust.

And God said: “If I find in Sodom fifty tzadikim in the midst of the city, then I will pardon the whole place5 for their sake.” (Genesis 18:26)

Why does the God character agree immediately with Abraham’s request?

One answer is that God intended from the beginning to spare Sodom if there were enough tzadikim in the city; that is why God sent the two messengers down to find out how bad things really were. Abraham is merely suggesting a number.

Abraham answered, and said: “Hey, please, I am willing to speak to my lord, and I am dust and ashes. Perhaps the fifty tzadikim lack five. Will you ruin the whole city on account of the five?” And [God] said: “I will not ruin if I find forty-five there.” (Genesis 18:27-28)

Abraham’s reference to himself as dust and ashes is probably an expression of humility, intended to salve God’s pride. After all, Abraham is attempting to teach a being who could kill him in an instant.

Abraham asks if God would annihilate the whole city if there are forty tzadikim, then thirty, then twenty. Each time God promises to refrain from destroying Sodom for the sake of that number of tzadikim. Then Abraham says:

“Please don’t be angry, my lord, and I will speak just once more. Perhaps ten will be found there.” And [God] said: “I will not ruin, for the sake of the ten.” And God left, as [God] had finished speaking to Abraham. And Abraham returned to his [own] place. (Genesis 18:33)

Why does Abraham stop with ten? Perhaps he just assumes that there must be more than ten tzadikim in Sodom.

But according to S.R. Hirsch, God agreed to save Sodom not in order to keep the ten innocent men alive, but because a society that tolerated a certain number of righteous people was not totally evil, and so might someday reform. The number matters; “Only in the case of a medium number—where the righteous are too many to be inconsequential and too few to be intimidating—does the fact that the righteous are allowed to exist and are tolerated have full significance.”6

This explanation makes the God character more optimistic and forgiving than in the many Torah passages where God sends plagues to punish the Israelites for infractions in which not everyone participated, and arranges mass slaughters of non-combatants in war. Perhaps the God character does not fully absorb Abraham’s lesson.

What do God and Abraham teach?

The God character, by agreeing with each of Abraham’s proposals, teaches him that questioning God is acceptable and worthwhile.

According to Jonathan Sacks,7 “Abraham had to have the courage to challenge God if his descendants were to challenge human rulers, as Moses and the Prophets did. … This is a critical turning point in human history: the birth of the world’s first religion of protest—the emergence of a faith that challenges the world instead of accepting it. … meaning: be a leader. Walk ahead. Take personal responsibility. Take moral responsibility. Take collective responsibility.”

But Abraham also teaches God something, when he says: Far be it from you to do this thing, to bring death to the tzadik along with the wicked! … The judge of all the earth should do justice!”

According to Jerome Segal,8 “In arguing that justice requires that the innocent be treated differently from the guilty, Abraham is not only asserting a moral principle but also asserting that it is binding upon God. Thus, the independence of the moral order is again affirmed. Morality does not depend on God for its reality. It stands apart as something to which God must conform.”

Thus God teaches Abraham what is right and just, and Abraham teaches God what is just and right. It takes both of them to advance the cause of morality.

Now it is our turn to consult our inner voices of conscience and reason and advance the cause further.

  1. Genesis 18:9-15. See my post: Vayeira: On Speaking Terms.
  2. The first example in Genesis of God coming down to the earth for more information is in the story about the Tower of Babel: And God went down to look at the city and the tower that the humans had built. (Genesis 11:5)
  3. Genesis 13:5-13.
  4. Genesis 19:1-8.
  5. Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, 18th century, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  6. Rashi (11th-century rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki) wrote that the whole place means Sodom and its satellite towns, such as Gomorrah.
  7. Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereshis, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 428 and 429.
  8. Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “Answering the Call: Vayera 5781”.
  9. Jerome M. Segal, Joseph’s Bones, Riverhead Books, Penguin Group, New York, 2007, p. 63.

Lekh Lekha & Isaiah: Faith and Promises

Moving to another country is risky. You don’t know all the rules, all the dangers. And even if you believe God wants you to go, how do you know you will prosper? If life is not so terrible where you are, isn’t it safer to stay put?

Abraham and his household face the question of emigration in this week’s Torah portion, Lekh-Lekha (Genesis 12:1-17:27). So do the Israelite exiles in the accompanying haftarah reading, Isaiah 40:27-41:16. In both cases, God asks people who live in Mesopotamia to emigrate to Canaan. And God promises to reward them for doing so. But in both cases, there are reasons for doubt.

Lekh Lekha

Last week’s Torah portion, Noach, tells us that Abraham (originally named Avram) has already relocated once. He is the first of three sons Terach begets in Ur, a city in southern Mesopotamia.

And this is the genealogy of Terach: Terach begot Avram, Nachor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terach, in the land of his kin, in Ur of the Mesopotamians. (Genesis/Bereishit 11:27-28)

After naming the wives of Avram and Nachor and mentioning that Avram’s wife Sarai had no children, the story continues:

Then Terach took his son Avram; and his grandson Lot, son of Haran; and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Avram; and they left with him from Ur of the Mesopotamians to go to the land of Canaan. And they came as far as Charan, and they settled there. The days of Terach were 205 years, and Terach died in Charan. (Genesis 11:31-32)

The book of Genesis never says why Terach was heading for Canaan, or why he stops halfway and settles in northern Mesopotamia.

Then God said to Avram: “Go for yourself, from your land and from your kindred and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you! And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. Then be a blessing! And I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who demean you. And all the clans of the earth will seek to be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

There are no divine threats that anything bad will happen if Avram does not emigrate to Canaan. Is he tempted by the reward God promises? In the Torah, a blessing from God means longevity, material prosperity, and fertility. A great name means fame. When God makes someone a great nation, it means that person’s descendants will someday own a country.

Avram went as God had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Avram was seventy-five years old when he left Charan. (Genesis 12:4)

Since Avram is already 75 and still healthy enough to walk all the way from Charan to Canaan, a journey of about 600 miles or 1,000 kilometers, he could assume he is already set for a long life. He does not need to emigrate to be blessed with longevity.

What about the blessing of prosperity?

Abraham Journeying into the Land of Canaan,
by Gustave Doré, 1866

Avram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the property that they had acquired, and the people that they had acquired in Charan, and they left to go to the land of Canaan. And they entered the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:4-5)

Avram, Sarai, and Lot have already acquired a lot of moveable property by the time they emigrate to Canaan, including animals, goods, and slaves.1 They do not need to emigrate to be blessed with material prosperity.

What about the blessing of fertility? We already know Sarai is childless, and we learn later that she is only ten years younger than Avram, so she is 65. Avram has not had any children in Charan, and unless he has a son in old age, he will have no descendants to become “a great nation”.

Perhaps the promise of fertility is the reason Avram obeys God and heads for Canaan. And the rest of his household, including his wife, his nephew, and his employees and slaves, have no say in the matter. They might have (unrecorded) opinions, but in their culture, the male head of household decides for everyone.

Unlike Terach, Avram and his people finish the trip to Canaan. They arrive at a sacred site near the Canaanite town of Shekhem.2

Then God appeared to Avram and said: “To your see [descendants] I give this land.” So he [Avram] built an altar there for God, whom he had seen. (Exodus 12:7)

I imagine that seeing some manifestation of God as well as hearing God speak about descendants again would confirm to Avram that he had made the right choice in following God’s instruction to move to Canaan. Yet when Canaan experiences a famine,

Avram went down to Egypt, lagur there, since the famine was severe in the land. (Exodus 12:10)

Abraham and Sarah in Pharaoh’s Palace,
by Giovanni Muzzioli, 1875

lagur (לָגוּר) = to live as a resident alien, to sojourn, to become a migrant.

And God does not object. In fact, God helps Avram pull off a scam that results in pharaoh giving Avram additional animals, silver and gold, and slaves—and ordering men to escort Avram and his household back to the border. (See my post Lekh Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 1 and Part 2.)

Avram has further adventures in Canaan, and then the unsolved problem of his lack of descendants comes up again.

After these things, the word of God happened to Avram in a vision, saying: “Don’t be afraid, Avram. I myself am a shield for you; your reward will be very big!” But Avram said: “My lord God, what will you give me? I am going accursed, and the heir of my household is the Damascan, Eliezer!” And Avram said: “To me you have not given seed [a descendant], so hey! The head servant of my household is my heir!”  (Genesis 15:1-3)

When the same person says two things in a row, with nothing in between except “And he said”, it indicates a pause while the one being addressed fails to respond. In this case, God does not respond to Avram’s first statement, so Avram adds an explanation.

Then hey! The word of God happened to him, saying: “This one will not be your heir; but rather, the one who goes out from your inward parts will be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4) Another vague promise. So Avram’s wife Sarai tackles the problem herself by arranging for her husband to impregnate her female Egyptian slave. Avram no longer has to have faith that somehow God will provide.

Second Isaiah

Avram at least has the advantage of hearing God tell him directly to emigrate to Canaan from Mesopotamia. When the Babylonian Empire falls, the Israelites living in exile there have only the words of a human prophet who tells them that God wants them to move back and rebuild the razed city of Jerusalem. The prophet is not named, but since the prophecies compose the second half of the book of Isaiah, the speaker is known as “Second Isaiah”. In this week’s haftarah, God declares (through Second Isaiah):

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
	Don’t look around anxiously, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you.
	Also I will help you.
Also I will hold you up by the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)

The Israelites living in Mesopotamia are anxious about returning to Jerusalem for understandable reasons. Between 597 and 587 B.C.E., while the Babylonian army was conquering the Kingdom of Judah, many Israelites were forcibly deported to Babylon.

Seal of Cyrus I (from Anshan)

Half a century later, when Second Isaiah began prophesying, the new Persian Empire had swallowed up the Babylonian empire. The first Persian king, Cyrus, gave all deportees and children of deportees permission to return to their former homes and rebuild their former temples. But after their traumatic experience, the Israelites are reluctant to believe it would really be safe to move back to Jerusalem. Besides, they saw the city burning down.

Assuring the exiles that their Babylonian conquerors are now powerless, God says:

Hey, everyone who was infuriated with you
will be shamed and humiliated;
They will be like nothingness,
And the men who contended with you will perish. (Isaiah 41:11)

But before the exiles can believe God will eliminate their enemies, they must believe that God is on their side now. And that is hard for people who remember when God failed to rescue them from death and deportation at the hands of the Babylonians. Then God promises to make the Israelites, not just the Persians, a weapon for defeating the Babylonian armies that seem as strong as mountains.

Hey, I will transform you into a new sharp thresher,
	An owner of teeth,
You will thresh the mountains
And crush the hills, make them like chaff.
You will scatter them,
	And the wind will carry them off,
	And a whirlwind will disperse them.
And you, you will rejoice in God
	And you will praise the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41:15-16)

The Israelites in Babylonia hear (or read) the prophet’s speeches quoting God. But do they believe the quotes are real? Do they believe God will help them now? Do they set off for Jerusalem?

The Burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Army,
by the circle of Juan de la Corte, 1630-1660

The book of Isaiah does not give an answer. The conclusion of book of Jeremiah reports that a total of 4,600 people were deported by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.3 (The poorest citizens of Judah were kept in the land to serve as “vine-dressers and field hands”.)4

The book of Ezra describes the return of 42,360 exiles to Jerusalem, along with their 7,337 slaves and 200 singers,5 but the archeological record indicates that the numbers are inflated.

It is also hard to determine how many of the exiles stayed in Babylonia under Persian rule. The city of Babylon had a large Jewish population when Philo of Alexandria wrote in the first century C.E., and had become the center of Jewish law and culture by the time the Talmud was written in the 3rd-5th centuries C.E.6 There is no historical record of a large in-migration of Jews to Babylon, so a lot of deported Israelites and their children must have stayed behind when Ezra and his group set off for Jerusalem.

Believing that God will help you is not so hard when your life has already been good, like Abraham’s. Believing that God will help you is harder when you, or your parents, can remember a time when God failed to rescue you from enemies—enemies who burned your city, killed many of your family and friends, and marched you off to a strange land. Jeremiah explains that God punished the Kingdom of Judah for the bad policies of its kings and for the widespread worship of other gods. Second Isaiah insists that now all that is forgiven.

What would it take for you to believe that God wants you to emigrate? What would it take for you to actually do it?

What if you were a Jew thinking about “making aliyah”—moving to Israel?

  1. An alternative reading from Talmudic times says that Avram, Sarai, and Lot had not acquired slaves in Charan, but rather made converts. This reading, however, does not fit the society of the time, and is not supported by any other reference in the Hebrew Bible.
  2. The site is named Eilon Moreh. An eilon (אֵל֣וֹן) is a large and significant tree, the kind that was involved in Asherah worship. Moreh (מוֹרֶה) means “teaching, instruction”.
  3. Jeremiah 52:30.
  4. Jeremiah 52:16.
  5. Ezra 2:65-66.
  6. Talmudic volumes were written both in Jerusalem (the Talmud Yerushalmi) and in Babylon (the Talmud Bavli), the two centers of Jewish scholarship. The Talmud Bavli is more complete and authoritative.