Shepherding Themselves: The Tribes' Work for Israel
Rashi learns from the dots over one word that Yosef’s brothers went to Shechem “only to pasture themselves.” How could that be said of the holy tribes of Yah, in whose shade Israel lives through the bitter exile? What were they really tending?
Name a tzaddik: tap for who he wasTitle a sefer
Bereishis 37:12
וַיֵּלְכוּ אֶחָיו לִרְעוֹת אֶת־צֹאן אֲבִיהֶם בִּשְׁכֶם
And his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.
38“And his brothers went to pasture their father's flock …” comments: “There are dots over the word es, to teach you that they went only to pasture themselves.”1 This is a very puzzling thing to say of the holy ones on high, the tribes of Yah, Hashem's own tribes,2 in whose shade we live and endure in this bitter exile. It seems to me that the tribes had only one aim, always: Israel. They sought to secure Israel's survival in the bitter and hasty exile, so that in their merit we might live among the nations.3 And Israel, as we know, is called a “flock.” So it says, “they went to pasture their father's flock,” that is, Israel: they went to tend them and to give thought to how Israel would endure. And what did they do to bring this about? “They went to pasture themselves”: they set their own souls right, so that all of them would be refined for the service of the Creator, blessed be He, and their merit would stand for Israel in this bitter exile.
וַיֵּלְכוּ אֶחָיו לִרְעוֹת אֶת צֹאן אֲבִיהֶם כּוּ'. פֵּירֵשׁ רש"י ז"ל "נָקוּד עַל אֶת, לְלַמֶּדְךָ שֶׁלֹּא הָלְכוּ אֶלָּא לִרְעוֹת אֶת עַצְמָן". דָּבָר תָּמוּהַּ מְאוֹד לוֹמַר זֹאת עַל קְדוֹשֵׁי עֶלְיוֹן שִׁבְטֵי יָהּ אֲשֶׁר בְּצִילָּם אָנוּ חַיִּים וְקַיָּימִים בַּגָּלוּת הַמַּר הַזֶּה. וְנִרְאֶה שֶׁהַפֵּירוּשׁ הוּא כָּךְ, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁכַּוָּונַת הַשְּׁבָטִים לֹא הָיָה רַק תָּמִיד עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל לְתַקֵּן לָהֶם קִיּוּם בַּגָּלוּת הַמַּר וְהַנִּמְהָר שֶׁבִּזְכוּתָם נִחְיֶה בַגּוֹיִם, וְיָדוּעַ שֶׁ"צֹאן" נִקְרְאוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל, וע"ז נֶאֱמַר "וַיֵּלְכוּ לִרְעוֹת אֶת צֹאן אֲבִיהֶם", דְּהַיְינוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁהָלְכוּ לִרְעוֹתָם וְלִיתֵּן דַּעְתָּם עֲלֵיהֶם אֵיךְ שֶׁיִּהְיֶה לָהֶם קִיּוּם, ע"ז אָמְרוּ מַה פְּעוּלָּה עֲשָׂאוּ לְהַדָּבָר הַזֶּה? "שֶׁהָלְכוּ לִרְעוֹת אֶת עַצְמָם", ר"ל לְתַקֵּן אֶת נַפְשָׁם שֶׁיִּהְיוּ כּוּלָּם בְּרוּרִים לַעֲבוֹדַת הַבּוֹרֵא ב"ה וְיַעֲמוֹד זְכוּתָם לְיִשְׂרָאֵל בַּגָּלוּת הַמַּר הַזֶּה.
- Rashi on Bereishis 37:12. ↩
- Tehillim 122:4, “where the tribes went up, the tribes of Yah.” Yah is a Name of Hashem. ↩
- The words echo Eichah 4:20, “In his shade we shall live among the nations,” and Chavakuk 1:6, “that bitter and hasty nation.” ↩
Sources here
In shortThe tribes did not go off to “pasture themselves” for their own sake: they refined their own souls so that their merit would sustain Israel in exile.
39This is also the meaning of “Yosef, being seventeen years old, was tending the flock with his brothers”:4 he too stood on this level. Even so, “he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah.” The words say he was a young lad among them, but here they are read as his humility: even so, he was lower in his own eyes than the sons of Bilhah, the sons of the maidservants. Yaakov Avinu had the same intention in tending the flock, as it says, “He set the faces of the flock toward the akud.”5 For Israel, as we said, is called a flock, as it is written, “The flock of My pasture, you are men.”6 And it is taught that “the ashes of Yitzchak are heaped on the altar, as a constant remembrance of the binding of Yitzchak.”7 So the akud, the streaked ones, is taken here as the Akeidah, the binding: Yaakov set the flock's face toward it, so that the binding of Yitzchak would always shield Israel. He also intended, when he worked fourteen years for his wives Leah and Rachel,8 to rectify the fourteen years that Pharaoh saw in his dream, the years of plenty and of famine. He wanted people to be fed through Yosef and not through Pharaoh, by way of holiness, and not, Heaven forbid, to have the flow of blessing come by way of the kelipah, the husk that hides holiness. For Pharaoh belongs to the kelipah: his name, Pharaoh (פרעה), has the letters of ha'oref (הערף), the back of the neck.
וְזֶה פֵּירוּשׁ ג"כ "יוֹסֵף בֶּן שְׁבַע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רוֹעֶה אֶת אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן", ר"ל שֶׁגַּם הוּא בְּמַדְרֵיגָה זֹאת, אעפ"כ "וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת בְּנֵי בִלְהָה", פֵּירוּשׁ אעפ"כ הָיָה שָׁפֵל בְּעֵינָיו יוֹתֵר מִבְּנֵי בִּלְהָה שֶׁהֵם בְּנֵי הַשְּׁפָחוֹת. וְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ ע"ה הָיָה ג"כ כַּוָּונָתוֹ בַּעֲבוֹדַת הַצֹּאן כָּךְ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "וַיָּשֶׁת פְּנֵי הַצֹּאן אֶל עָקוֹד", כִּי יִשְׂרָאֵל נִקְרָאִין "צֹאן" כנ"ל, כְּדִכְתִיב "צֹאן מַרְעִיתִי אָדָם אַתֶּם", וְאִיתָא שֶׁ"אֶפְרוֹ שֶׁל יִצְחָק צָבוּר ע"ג הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְזִכָּרוֹן תָּמִיד עֲקֵידַת יִצְחָק", וְלָזֶה אָמַר וַיָּשֶׁת פְּנֵי הַצֹּאן אֶל עָקוֹד, דְּהַיְינוּ שֶׁיָּגֵין תָּמִיד עֲלֵיהֶם עֲקֵידַת יִצְחָק, וְגַם כַּוָּנָתוֹ שֶׁעָבַד אַרְבַּע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה עֲבוּר נָשָׁיו לֵאָה וְרָחֵל, לְתַקֵּן הָאַרְבַּע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה שֶׁרָאָה פַּרְעֹה בַּחֲלוֹם שְׁנֵי שׂוֹבַע וְרָעָב, שֶׁיִּהְיוּ נִיזּוֹנִין ע"י יוֹסֵף וְלֹא ע"י פַּרְעֹה, שֶׁיִּהְיֶה דֶּרֶךְ קְדוּשָּׁה וְלֹא שֶׁיָּבוֹא ח"ו הַשֶּׁפַע דֶּרֶךְ הַקְּלִיפָּה, שֶׁ"פַּרְעֹה" אוֹתִיּוֹת "הָעֹרֶף".
- Bereishis 37:2. ↩
- Bereishis 30:40, where the verse has vayiten, “he set”; the sefer has vayasheis, with the same meaning. ↩
- Yechezkel 34:31, which opens “And you, My flock.” ↩
- Rashi on Vayikra 26:42 (from the Sifra) has: “The ashes of Yitzchak are seen before Me, heaped up and lying on the altar.” ↩
- Bereishis 31:41. ↩
In shortYosef stayed lowly in his own eyes, and Yaakov's labor for the flock aimed to shield Israel with the binding of Yitzchak and to bring the world's food through holiness.
40aLeah and Rachel are two worlds: alma de'iskasya, the hidden world, and alma de'isgalya, the revealed world. That is why Leah had to come to Yaakov in hiddenness, so that he did not know she was Leah. And that is why most of the tribes came from Leah: every flow of blessing comes from the hidden world. So she had six sons, corresponding to the six extremities,9 and one daughter.
וְיָדוּעַ דְּלֵאָה וְרָחֵל הֵם שְׁנֵי עוֹלָמוֹת, עָלְמָא דְאִתְכַּסְיָא וְעָלְמָא דְאִתְגַּלְיָא, מִטַּעַם זֶה הָיְתָה צְרִיכָה לֵאָה לָבוֹא אֵלָיו בְּאִתְכַּסְיָא וְלֹא יָדַע שֶׁהִיא לֵאָה, וּבִשְׁבִיל זֶה הָיוּ רוֹב הַשְּׁבָטִים מִלֵּאָה, לְפִי שֶׁכָּל הַשְׁפָּעוֹת בָּאִים מֵעָלְמָא דְאִתְכַּסְיָא, לָזֶה הָיָה לָהּ שִׁשָּׁה בָּנִים כְּנֶגֶד שִׁשָּׁה קְצָווֹת, וּבַת אַחַת כַּיָּדוּעַ.
- In the language of Kabbalah the “six extremities” are the six sefiros from Chessed to Yesod. ↩
In shortLeah is the hidden world and Rachel the revealed; since all blessing flows from the hidden, Leah came to Yaakov hidden and bore most of the tribes.
40bPharaoh too saw the hidden world and the revealed world. The cows that were swallowed correspond to the hidden world, and the second cows to the revealed world.10 Pharaoh also saw fourteen ears of grain. Perhaps he saw in them the twenty-eight times that Shlomo HaMelech lists in Koheles.11 They are fourteen and fourteen: fourteen on the right and fourteen on the left, one set against the other. Fourteen is written י״ד, yad, “hand”: the right hand in holiness, the left hand in the kelipah. Pharaoh truly saw both. But Yosef HaTzaddik did not want Pharaoh to have, Heaven forbid, any hold on holiness. So he told him, “And as for the dream being repeated twice, it is because God is hastening to do it.”12 That is: it is not as you suppose, that you too have a hold on holiness. Not so. You have a hold only on the left hand, for you are Pharaoh, whose letters spell ha'oref, the back of the neck. These are the sitra achra, the “other side” opposed to holiness, and you have no hold on holiness at all.
וּפַרְעֹה ג"כ רָאָה עָלְמָא דְאִתְכַּסְיָא וְעָלְמָא דְאִתְגַּלְיָא, שֶׁאֵלּוּ הַפָּרוֹת הַנִּבְלָעוֹת הֵם כְּנֶגֶד עָלְמָא דְאִתְכַּסְיָא, וּפָרוֹת הַשְּׁנִיִּים הֵם כְּנֶגֶד עָלְמָא דְאִתְגַּלְיָא, וּמַה שֶׁפַּרְעֹה רָאָה עוֹד אַרְבַּע עֶשְׂרֵה שִׁבֳּלִים, יָכוֹל לִהְיוֹת שֶׁרָאָה כְּנֶגֶד כ"ח עִיתִּים שֶׁאָמַר שְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ ע"ה בְּסֵפֶר קֹהֶלֶת, שֶׁהֵם י"ד וי"ד, י"ד יָמִין וי"ד שְׂמֹאל, זֶה לְעוּמַּת זֶה, יַד יָמִין בִּקְדוּשָּׁה יַד שְׂמֹאל בַּקְּלִיפָּה, וּפַרְעֹה בֶּאֱמֶת רָאָה שְׁנֵיהֶם, וְיוֹסֵף הַצַּדִּיק לֹא רָצָה בָּזֶה שֶׁיִּהְיֶה לְפַרְעֹה ח"ו בִּקְדוּשָּׁה אֵיזֶה אֲחִיזָה, וּבִשְׁבִיל זֶה אָמַר לוֹ "וְעַל הִשָּׁנוֹת הַחֲלוֹם פַּעֲמַיִם כִּי מְמַהֵר הָאֱלֹקִים לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ", וְלֹא כְּמוֹ שֶׁאַתָּה סוֹבֵר שֶׁיֵּשׁ לְךָ ג"כ אֲחִיזָה בִּקְדוּשָּׁה, וְלֹא הִיא אֶלָּא שֶׁאֵין לְךָ רַק בְּיַד שְׂמֹאל, שֶׁאַתָּה פַּרְעֹה אוֹתִיּוֹת הָעוֹרֶף, וְהֵם ס"א, וְאֵין לְךָ אֲחִיזָה בִּקְדוּשָּׁה כְּלָל.
- Bereishis 41:1–7. In the dream seven lean cows swallowed seven fat cows, and seven thin ears of grain swallowed seven full ones. ↩
- Koheles 3:2–8: twenty-eight times in fourteen pairs (“a time to be born and a time to die …”). ↩
- Bereishis 41:32. The verse reads in full: “And as for the dream being repeated to Pharaoh twice, it is because the matter is established by God, and God is hastening to do it.” ↩
In shortPharaoh saw both the holy right and the impure left, but Yosef told him that, as Pharaoh, “the back of the neck,” his hold was only on the left.
41It also seems to me that what the magicians told Pharaoh, “You will beget seven sons …,” which did not enter his ears, was true as well.13 For Pharaoh was shown children and sustenance, two of the three that Chazal name together: children, life and sustenance.14 The magicians' interpretation was about children, and Yosef HaTzaddik's interpretation was about sustenance. The third, life, Pharaoh was not shown. That one Yosef took for himself, and he told his brothers, “For it was for life (lemichyah) that God sent me ahead of you”:15 that is, life. Yaakov Avinu, in his pure sight, saw that these three were in Egypt: children, life and sustenance. So he told his sons, “Go back, buy us a little food,” that is, sustenance; “that we may live,” that is, life; “and not die,”16 that is, children, as Chazal said, “One who has no children is counted as dead.”17 And by saying “buy for us,” he meant: these three things shall be ours and not theirs, so that Egypt would have no [share] in these three things at all.
וְעוֹד נ"ל מַה שֶׁפָּתְרוּ הַחַרְטוּמִּים לְפַרְעֹה "שֶׁבַע בָּנִים אַתָּה מוֹלִיד כּוּ'" וְלֹא נִכְנְסוּ הַדְּבָרִים בְּאָזְנוֹ, גַּם זֶה אֱמֶת, שֶׁהֶרְאָה לוֹ בְּנֵי וּמְזוֹנֵי, דְּהַיְינוּ מַה שֶׁפָּתְרוּ הַחַרְטוּמִּים הוּא "בְּנֵי", וּמַה שֶׁפָּתַר לוֹ יוֹסֵף הַצַּדִּיק הוּא עַל "מְזוֹנֵי", וְהַשְּׁלִישִׁי שֶׁהוּא "חַיֵּי" לֹא הֶרְאָה לוֹ, וְזֶה נָטַל יוֹסֵף וְאָמַר לְאֶחָיו "לְמִחְיָה שְׁלָחַנִי אֱלֹקִים לִפְנֵיכֶם", פֵּירוּשׁ דְּהַיְינוּ "חַיֵּי". וְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ ע"ה רָאָה בִּרְאִיָּיתוֹ הַזַּכָּה שֶׁיֵּשׁ בְּמִצְרַיִם הַשָּׁלֹשׁ אֵלֶּה, הַיְינוּ בְּנֵי חַיֵּי וּמְזוֹנֵי, וְאָמַר לְבָנָיו "שׁוּבוּ שִׁבְרוּ לָנוּ מְעַט אוֹכֶל", דְּהוּא מְזוֹנֵי, "וְנִחְיֶה", הוּא חַיִּים, "וְלֹא נָמוּת", הוּא בְּנֵי, כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ חז"ל "מִי שֶׁאֵין לוֹ בָּנִים חָשׁוּב כְּמֵת". וְרָצָה בְּאוֹמְרוֹ שׁוּבוּ שִׁבְרוּ "לָנוּ", ר"ל לָנוּ יִהְיוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הנ"ל וְלֹא לָהֶם, שֶׁלֹּא יִהְיֶה לְמִצְרַיִם [חֵלֶק] בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה דְּבָרִים כְּלָל.
- Rashi on Bereishis 41:8 has “seven daughters you will beget, and seven daughters you will bury,” and says their voice did not enter his ears. ↩
- Moed Katan 28a. ↩
- Bereishis 45:5. ↩
- Bereishis 43:2; “that we may live and not die” is in Bereishis 42:2. ↩
- Nedarim 64b. ↩
In shortPharaoh was shown children and sustenance but not life; Yaakov saw all three in Egypt and asked that they be Israel's, with no share for Egypt.
42Yosef's only aim was to subdue the kelipah of Egypt. That is why he sent his father “ten male donkeys and ten female donkeys” carrying bar, grain.18 By this he hinted that he was sending Yaakov all ten powers of the sitra achra, so that Yaakov could subdue them while he was still in the land of Canaan. There they are easier to subdue, by the power of the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. That is why the donkeys were carrying bar: as is known, bar is a name for the kelipah. This is the meaning of the verse “And if a man digs a pit (bor), and an ox or a donkey falls into it.”19 The tzaddik is called “a man.” The tzaddik must dig a pit to make the ox or the donkey fall into it, and these are two kelipos, called ox and donkey. The Gemara explains, as is known: “An ox, and not a man; a donkey, and not vessels.”20 Understand this.
וְיוֹסֵף לֹא הָיָה כַּוָּונָתוֹ רַק לְהַכְנִיעַ קְלִיפַּת מִצְרַיִם, וְלָזֶה שָׁלַח לְאָבִיו "עֲשָׂרָה חֲמוֹרִים וְעֶשֶׂר אֲתוֹנוֹת" נוֹשְׂאִים בָּר, רָמַז בָּזֶה שֶׁשָּׁלַח לוֹ כָּל הָעֶשֶׂר מס"א, כְּדֵי שֶׁיַּכְנִיעַ אוֹתָם יַעֲקֹב בִּהְיוֹתוֹ בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן עֲדַיִין, שֶׁשָּׁם נוֹחַ לְהַכְנִיעָם מִכֹּחַ קְדוּשַּׁת א"י, וְלָזֶה הָיוּ נוֹשְׂאוֹת בָּר, וְיָדוּעַ שֶׁהַקְּלִיפָּה נִקְרֵאת "בַּר". וְזֶה פֵּירוּשׁ הַפָּסוּק "וְכִי יִכְרֶה אִישׁ בּוֹר וְנָפַל שָׁמָּה שּׁוֹר אוֹ חֲמוֹר", וְיָדוּעַ שֶׁהַצַּדִּיק נִקְרָא "אִישׁ", הַצַּדִּיק צָרִיךְ לַחְפּוֹר בּוֹר לְהַפִּיל שָׁמָּה שׁוֹר אוֹ חֲמוֹר, שֶׁהֵם שְׁנֵי קְלִיפּוֹת הַנִּקְרָא שׁוֹר וַחֲמוֹר, וּמְפָרֵשׁ בַּגְּמָרָא "שׁוֹר וְלֹא אָדָם חֲמוֹר וְלֹא כֵּלִים", וְכַיָּדוּעַ. וְהָבֵן.
- Bereishis 45:23. In the verse the ten male donkeys carry “the good of Egypt,” and the ten female donkeys carry “grain, bread and food.” ↩
- Shemos 21:33, which reads “or if a man digs a pit.” In these words the Torah spells the word for pit בֹר, the same letters as bar. ↩
- Bava Kamma 28b. The Gemara reads the verse's words as limits: the one who dug the pit pays for an ox that falls into it, but not for a man; for a donkey, but not for vessels. ↩
In shortYosef sent the ten powers of the kelipah to Yaakov in Canaan to be subdued, as the tzaddik digs a pit for the “ox” and the “donkey.”
R’ Elimelech cannot accept that the holy tribes went out for themselves. Their one aim was Israel, the flock: to secure its survival in exile they refined their own souls, so that their merit would stand for it. Yosef shared that level and still saw himself lower than the maidservants’ sons. Yaakov’s shepherding had the same aim. He turned the flock toward the akud, the Akeidah, to shield Israel, and his fourteen years for Leah and Rachel, the hidden and revealed worlds, were to rectify Pharaoh’s fourteen years, so that the world would be fed through Yosef and holiness, not the kelipah. Pharaoh was shown children and sustenance but not life, and Yaakov asked that all three be Israel’s. Yosef sent the kelipah’s ten powers to Yaakov in Eretz Yisrael to be subdued.
Takeaway
The tribes served Israel by first refining their own souls, so that their merit would carry their people through exile, and Yosef, standing high, stayed low in his own eyes. Yaakov and Yosef worked so that Israel's children, life and sustenance would come by way of holiness and not through the kelipah, which they set out to subdue. Before we set out to help others, we can begin with our own hearts, and seek that what sustains us reach us by way of holiness.
Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›
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English translation, notes and summaries © Zechusam.