Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayechi 2

and U the Jewish people also have to be modest not to show off only then we will be blessed and protected from evil eye now yakob is giving blessing to ysf First and now he's about to bless uh his grandchildren verse 17 ysf saw that his father continued placing his right hand on ephraim's hand even though he was younger and it displeased him so he supported his father's hand to remove it from A's head to masha's head and Y ysep said to his father not so father for this is the firstborn place your right hand on his head head but his father refused saying I know my son I know although I cannot see but I can feed which one is the greater one yes your firstborn will also become a nation and he too will become great yet his younger brother will become greater than he and his offsprings Fame will fill the nations from Masha came gidon the judge of Israel and from Ephraim came yahushua the leader of the Jewish people after Moshe so yov said to ysep Children of Ephraim are going to be greater and that is why I'm giving him the foremost blessing verse 20 now Yakov blesses the boys so he blessed them and said by you shall Israel bless now on page 275 may God make you like ephra and this is this is the blessing that the Jewish people give to their children every Friday night we say may God make you like we wish upon them that they should be righteous and even though we live outside of the land of Israel they should be just as loyal to Judaism and to Hashem as Mas and Ephraim were even though they were born and lived in Egypt verse 21 then Israel said to ysep behold I'm about to die God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your forefathers and as for me I have given you sh the city of sh one portion more than your brothers which I took from the hand of Amorite with my sword and with my bow this is the reminding us of the story that when Dena was abducted by sh the brothers went and killed out all uh males of sh and then Yakov and his children had to fight the surrounding Nations to protect themselves and now belongs to yob and he's giving it as a gift to ysf now chapter 49 Yakov blesses the 12 tribes then Yakov called for his sons and said assemble yourselves and I will tell you what will befall you in the end of days gather yourselves and listen or sons of Yakov and listen to Isel your father now yov really wanted um to Yakov really wanted to um reveal to the Jewish people what will be in at the end of time he said to them assemble yourselves and I will tell you what will befall you in the end of days however Hashem did not allow him at that moment Hashem closed the ability for Yakov to prophesize and Yakov understood God doesn't want me to reveal when mashia is going to come so yakob said okay fine I will just bless you and in the blessing of each son Yakov uh hinted to them what their strength and weakness are and what their goal in life is first ruen ruen you are my firstborn my strength and my initial viager Vigor you were supposed to be B and receive two portions foremost in rank you were supposed to be the Coen and foremost in power you were supposed to be king as well ru as the firstborn was supposed to receive two portions become Coen and be the king however we're on page 277 water like impetuosity which means you rushed to do something without consulting others when you uh moved my bed from one t to another therefore you cannot be foremost because you mounted your father's bed then you desecrated him who ascended my couch so therefore ruven lost all three portions yev became the Bor and received two parts in the land of Israel two tribes yehudah became the king and Levi became the kohen the servant of God now blessing for Shimon and Ley Shimon and levie are comrades friends their Weaponry is a stolen craft this is a reminder of what they did with SH that they went and they fought them with swords and Yakov tells them our power is in our mouth not in our swords you use the power of asav it's as if you stole his Blessing and went and killed the shites into their conspiracy may my Soul not enter this is a prediction of what is going to happen with korak that is from the tribe of Levi the rebellion of korak and the story of Z from Shimon who is going to bring the midianite woman and um um sin with her publicly so Yakov says into the conspiracy may my soul not enter may I not be mentioned when when they do sins with their congregation do not join my honor for in their rage they murdered people referring to sh and in at their whim they hamstrung an ax an ax refers to YF because these two brothers Shimon and leevi they um were the ones that decided to kill ysep and later um because of that Ys was sold a cursed is there rage for it is intense Yakov doesn't want to curse them rather he curses their anger this is a lesson for us that we shouldn't identify the person with a negative character trait and say you are this but rather we should say you have it and it's not good but you or yourself are good you yourself are good but your rage should be a cursed and their Wrath should be cursed because it is Harsh I will separate them within Yakov and I will disperse them in Israel the tribes of shiman and Levi did not receive their own land the tribes of Levi received 48 cities throughout the land of Israel and the tribe of Shimon received multiple cities within the land of Yehuda but they didn't live together and that was because yakob recognized that if people of Levy and sh are together they are hot-headed and they might uh conspire and and and do bad things therefore sometimes it's better for people to be separate they shouldn't do bad things now the blessing of Yuda verse 8 Yuda you your brothers shall acknowledge which means you will be the king of the Jewish people your hand will be at your enemies nape the back of the neck which means you will pursue them and you will strike them on their backs you will be victorious your father's Sons will prostrate themselves to you again that Yehuda will be the king verse 9 a lion's CB is Yehuda from the prey my son you elevated yourself he crouches lies down like a lion and like an awesome lion Who Dares Rouse him the scepter shall not depart from Yehuda this is the prediction that the davidic dynasty will be preserved that Kings will always come from the tribe of Yuda the first king was from bamin um Sha but that was a temporary uh state of of of of the event but afterwards the kingship was transferred to its rightful owner the tribe of Yuda and it stayed like that until uh the end and in the future when mashia comes the king ship will again be in the hands of Yehuda nor a scholar from among his descendants which means the the Torah Scholars will always be from the tribe of Yehuda until Shilo arrives and his will be the an assemblage of Nations this refers to mashia until mashia comes the the the people of Yehuda will produce Kings and Torah scholar and now blessing uh that describes the richness of yehuda's land he will TI his donkey to the vine to the vine branch his donkeys fall which means from one Vine it will be enough grapes to fully load a donkey he will launder his garments in wine he's going to have so much wine uh you can you can say that it's like water and his robe in a blood of grapes red eyed from wine they will drink a lot of wine like water and white tooth from milk and they will have many animals that give milk now verse 13 the blessing for zalon zalon shall settle by the Sea Shores he shall be at the ship's Harbor and his last border will reach sedon zalon will be a merchant traveling on on boats to far away land um doing business verse 14 the blessing for yakar yakar is a strong boned Dunkey he's very hardworking he rests between the boundaries his land will be on the border of the land of Israel to protect against against um foreigners and to fight he saw Tranquility that it was good and the land that it was pleasant yet he bent his shoulder to bear and he became an indentured labor even though his land was beautiful and fertile he could have taken it easily just work a little bit and enjoy but he took upon himself more and our sages say that that refers to the Yoke of Torah that the children ofar they were Torah Scholars as well and they accepted upon themselves the hard work of learning Torah verse 16 the blessing for Dan Dan will avenge his people and that refers to Shimon the judge of of of the Jewish people who uh took revenge against the the the P Palestinians the tribes of Israel will be United as one Dan will be a serpent on the highway a Viper by the path that bites a horse's heels so its Rider Falls backward again this refers to Shimon just like a snake it can bite a heill and then the entire Horse and Rider um structure will collapse so too Shimon he pressed on The Columns of the building and the entire building collapsed killing thousands of uh Philistines and verse 18 is the prayer that shiman uttered to Hashem for your salvation do I long oh Hashem he prayed that Hashem should give him strength one more time now verse vers 19 the blessing of God God will recruit a regiment and it will Retreat on its heel which means that they will be powerful warriors who will have Victory and they will have no casualties all of them will come back from the front verse 20 the blessing for Asher from aser his bread will have richness and he will provide kingly Delicacies the land of Asher will be very fertile and he will provide export his food to other tribes verse 21 blessing for naali naali is a hind a female deer let loose who delivers beautiful sayings and that refers to um a land that produces fruits quickly quick ripening fruits as well as that the children of naali will achieve victory over cisar the enemy of the Jewish people now the blessing for ysf in verse 22 a Charming son is ysf a Charming son to the eye or above the eye YF and children of YF are not susceptible to each of the girls climbed Heights to gaze now on page 283 uh prophetically he describes yosef's life verse 23 they embittered him and became antagonists the arrow tonged man hated him but his bow was firmly imp placed and his arms were gilded from the hands of the mighty power of yakob from God himself from there he shepherded the stone of Israel so he describes how ysep became from the one hated by his brothers into the leader and protector of his brothers the shepherd Who provided the brothers with sustenance for all the years of famine verse 25 that was from the god of your father and he God will help you and with Shai another name for God and he will bless you with blessings of Heaven from above blessings of the deep crouching below blessings of the bosom and womb that yosef's land will be fertile and people men and women of yo will be able to have many children the blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my parents to the endless bounds of the world's Hills let them be upon ysf head and upon the head of the Exile from his brothers now verse 27 the blessing for bamin bamin is a predatory Wolf the name wolf refers to betam mikdash that the the M the altar of betam mdash and the kashim the holy of holies will be built on the territory of bamin in the morning he will devour prey that refers to the first king of the Jewish people Shaul and in the evening he will distribute spoils and that refers to the later part of the Jewish history M and EST who came from the tribe of bamin so yakob finished blessing his uh uh children verse 28 all these are the tribes of Israel 12 and this is what their fathers spoke to them and he blessed them he blessed each according to his appropriate blessing then he instructed them and he said to them I shall be gathered to my people verse uh page 285 bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of epon the verse 31 there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried and RKA his wife and there I buried Leah verse 33 when yakob finished instructing his sons he drew his feet onto the bed he expired and was gathered to his people and now the difficult part of burying Yakov in the land of Israel has to start chapter 50 then ysph fell upon his father's face he wept over him and kissed him ysph ordered his servants the Physicians to embalm his father so the Physicians embalmed isra Israel his 40-day term of embalming was completed for such is the term of the embal embalmed and Egypt be failed him for 70 days 40 days of embalming and then in additional 30 days of uh crying why did yoseph have to embal his father and that is because Yakov being the righteous man we have a rule that bodies of righteous people do not decompose do not rot and Egyptians would be shocked to see that after so many days yakov's body is in intact and they would declare him to be God and in order to protect yakov's dignity uh ysep pretended to embal him and therefore Egyptians will say oh of course he's not rotting because he was embalmed and they will not realize that it's because of his Holiness um verse four when his bewailing period passed y spoke to parro's household saying if you please and now you see ysep is preparing he's not speaking to par right away and not only that he's not even speaking to par he's speaking to his family cuz he's too afraid to speak to par directly if I have found favor in your eyes speak now in the ears of par he's asking parro's children and his wife and his servants to speak to par he's getting a lot of people on his side please tell par my father made me swear saying behold I'm about to die in my grave which I have heun for myself in the land of Canan there you are to bury me now I will go if you please and bury my father and then I will return don't worry I'm not leaving you and Par finally agreed go up and bury your father as he made you swear now we this describe the burial procession verse 7 so ysph went up to bury his father and with him went up all of parro's servants the when page 287 the Elders of his household and all the Elders of the land of Egypt and all of yosef's household and his brothers and his father's household the entire um government of Egypt all the whole Army and the all the Jewish people went verse 9 and he brought up with him both chariots and Horsemen and the camp was very imposing they came to gorad in the land of Israel and they held a very great and imposing eulogy and he ordained an additional 7-Day morning period for his father now verse 13 his sons carried him to the land of Kanan and they buried him in the cave over the M field verse 14 ysep returned to Egypt and verse 15 now the brothers are worried that now that the father is not there perhaps ysph will take revenge against them yosef's brothers perceived that their father was dead and they said perhaps ysph will nurse ha hatred against us and then he will surely repay us all the evil that we did him so they instructed that ysph be told your father gave orders before his death saying now on page 289 thus shall you say to ysf now they're lying for the sake of Peace they're telling ysep that yob gave this message even though Yakov never knew that ysph is upset at his brothers he didn't know that brothers sold ysep verse 17 thus shall you say to ysep oh please kindly forgive the spiteful deed of your brothers and their sin for they have done you evil so now please forgive the spiteful deed of your the Servants of your father's God and yoseph wept when they spoke to him his brothers themselves also went and flung themselves before him and said we are ready to be your slaves but yoseph said to them he reassures he them fear not for am I instead of God although you intended me harm God intended it for good because if not for me being in Egypt the Jewish people make have died shalom in famine so verse 21 so now fear not I will sustain you and your young ones thus he comforted them and spoke to their heart verse 22 yoseph dwelt in Egypt and he lived for 110 years yoseph saw three generations through Ephraim and Mas now verse 24 ysep said to his his brothers I'm about to die ysep died the first out of all the brothers but God will surely remember you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham to is and to yov yoseph made the brothers and the children of Israel swear when God will indeed remember you you must bring my bones up out of here and the Jewish people swore and that's what they did um when they left Egypt They carried ysep as well as bones of all other brothers to the land of Israel verse 26 ysph died at the age of 110 years they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt this concludes and thank you for participating learning with us shabat shalom