Brotherhood and the Leader: Raising Torah and Prayer

1“And his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.”¹ Rashi explains: “There are dots over the word es, to teach that they went only to pasture themselves.”² What does this mean? Taken at face value, it is very puzzling.

2Further on, the Torah says: “He said, ‘It is my brothers that I seek …’ And the man said, ‘They have journeyed from here.’”³ Rashi comments: “They have removed themselves from brotherhood.” But what was the man telling Yosef? After all, when Yosef said “It is my brothers that I seek,” he too knew that his brothers were in a dispute with him.

3In the Al HaNissim prayer of Chanukah we say, “You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, and the many into the hands of the few.” Why this wording? Once we have said, “You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak,” we have already mentioned the great miracle, that the Greeks were delivered into Israel's hands. Why go on to add “the many into the hands of the few”?

4Let us first cite a teaching of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on Korach's dispute. Korach, he explained, argued: Why do we need a leader to raise the Torah and prayer of Israel on high? Is it not better for each person to reach such a level that he raises his own Torah and prayer himself? Why must the raising be done through a leader? This is what Korach and his followers meant when they said, “Why do you raise yourselves up over the congregation of Hashem?”⁴ In other words: why do you need to carry and raise up the Torah and mitzvos of Israel? This ties in with a teaching of the holy Arizal: the final letters of “The righteous one will flourish like a date palm,” tzaddiK katamaR yifraCH, spell Korach.⁵ As is known, this psalm speaks of the days of Moshiach.⁶ In the days of Moshiach we will all be on the level of “the righteous one will flourish like a date palm”: each person will reach the point of raising his own Torah and prayer by himself. But Korach jumped ahead and took this level for himself before its time. Those are my holy father's words.

5We can explain this more fully. The most basic principle in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, as is known, is that a person must be included with the many. As Rashi and the Toras Kohanim teach, “A few who fulfill the Torah cannot be compared to many who fulfill the Torah,”⁷ and likewise many people praying cannot be compared to one person praying alone. So it is with all the mitzvos and every part of avodas Hashem: in everything, the whole of Israel must join together, each included with the others. Joining the community also does something more: through it one is included with the tzaddik, and the tzaddik is the one who raises the prayers of Israel. For the Holy One, blessed be He, established in His world that every group needs a head and a leader.

6aThis explains the dispute of the holy tribes. The verse says, “And his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem,” and the holy sefarim, among them the Bas Ayin, the Ohev Yisrael and the Tiferes Shlomo, teach that the word biShechem, “in Shechem,” is formed from the first letters of Baruch shem kevod malchuso, “Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom.” The tribes' dispute, then, was for the honor of Heaven: it was about which is “the way where light dwells” in avodas Hashem, which path is the true one.⁸ The brothers held that avodas Hashem needs neither the power of a leader nor the power of unity and brotherhood. Each person, they said, can raise his own prayers and mitzvos by his own strength.

6bRashi's words hint at this: “There are dots over es, to teach that they went only to pasture themselves.” It is along the lines of the Gemara's teaching on “Es Hashem your God you shall fear”: the word es comes to include Torah scholars.⁹ That is the meaning of “dots over es.” The holy brothers did not expound the es to include Torah scholars, [that is, the leaders]. They said instead that each person can raise his own Torah and prayer by himself, with no need either for a leader and head or to be included with the many. And that is “they went only to pasture themselves”: because they did not accept the teaching of the es, they held that they could go forward and rise in avodas Hashem on their own.

7Yosef, however, had a different way, for he held that the level at which each person can raise his prayers by himself will come only in the future, in the days of Moshiach, as we saw in my father's teaching about Korach. For now one needs brotherhood and unity, to be included with Klal Yisrael, and also a leader who will raise the Torah, the prayer and the mitzvos. That is what he meant by “Es achai anochi mevakesh, It is my brothers that I seek.” Anochi, “I,” alludes to Torah and avodas Hashem, as in “Anochi, I am Hashem your God,” the opening of the Ten Commandments.¹⁰ Mevakesh, “seek,” alludes to prayer, which is a request, a bakashah. Yosef meant that for Torah and prayer to rise, one needs brotherhood and a leader. Es hints at the leader, as we explained, and achai, “my brothers,” at brotherhood. Through the leader, and through brotherhood and friendship, it is possible to raise the Torah and prayer hinted in the words anochi mevakesh. To this the man answered Yosef, “They have journeyed from here,” which Rashi explains as “They have removed themselves from brotherhood.” His brothers, that is, did not share his view that one needs brotherhood and a leader; they had removed themselves from his way.

8This lets us resolve the wording “You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few.” Brotherhood is not found among the nations of the world, who are always “many,” numerous and divided from one another. In the people of Israel, however, brotherhood and unity are rooted deep. This is what “few” means here: “like one man.”¹¹ Israel knows for certain that this is the heart of its strength, and surely it was by this strength that Israel prevailed over the Greeks in their war. That is the meaning of “You delivered … the many into the hands of the few”: by the strength of being “few,” in brotherhood and unity, Israel was privileged to see the miracle of the Greeks delivered into its hands.

9We can now give a reason for something special about the Chanukah lamp: whoever sees a Chanukah lamp must say a blessing,¹² something we do not find with any other mitzvah. In light of what we have said, we may suggest that through this blessing we ourselves show brotherhood. A person says a blessing even over his fellow's mitzvah because he too has a share in it, by the power of the mutual responsibility through which “all Israel are guarantors for one another.”¹³ The blessing is meant to show that the heart of the Chanukah miracle, the mighty delivered into the hands of the weak, came about because it was “the many into the hands of the few”: because Israel was united.

10With this we can also explain the verse “Let Hashem … appoint a man over the congregation … so that the congregation of Hashem will not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”¹⁴ The words “so that the congregation of Hashem will not be like sheep that have no shepherd” seem unnecessary [after the request for a leader]. But Moshe was explaining why Israel needs a leader. It is because Israel is “the congregation of Hashem,” and because its Torah and prayer must be raised before Hashem. [See Sefer HaShorashim, the Radak's dictionary of Hebrew roots. It explains that adas Hashem, “the congregation of Hashem,” means people summoned to assemble together, that is, when they serve Hashem together.¹⁵] That is the meaning of “like sheep that have no shepherd”: the tzaddik is to Klal Yisrael what a shepherd is to his flock. Just as a shepherd cares for his flock and guides it on the right path, so the tzaddik cares for the Torah and prayer of Klal Yisrael, to raise them and bring them to their place.

11May Hashem help us to pray and learn with a calm, expansive mind, for the honor of His Name, and through this to bring the redemption near. Amen.