Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Shmot
1. Yaakov stresses that he is transferring the berachot that he received from his parents and that the berachot were being elevated (gavru).
2. Two words are used to describe Yosef’s head (representing stature): rosh and kodkod.
3. The image of the crown of his brothers (n’zir echav) is invoked.
On the other hand, as we begin Sefer Shemot, the family/national leadership seems to be transferred to the Tribe of Levi (through Moshe), whose patriarch is actually castigated by Yaakov. To follow the process of leadership shifts, let us look at what happened after Yosef died and then after Moshe died.
We do not have a lot of information on the period between Yosef’s death (which seals Sefer Bereishit) and the rise of the new king in Egypt who "did not know Yosef" (Shemot 1:8). There is pertinent information elsewhere in Tanach and in corresponding passages of Chazal. Tehillim (78:9) refers to the sons of Ephrayim (Yosef’s son) as warriors, within a psalm that deals with the period of the exile in Egypt. Chazal send us to Divrei Hayamim (I, 7:20-22), which tells us of the death of sons of Ephrayim who were killed by the people of Gat when they went there with their cattle. P’sikta D’Rabbi Kahana (Beshalach 11) tell us that groups within Ephrayim made a mistake in calculating the end of the exile in Egypt, which caused a very large number of them to be killed.
The picture that we get is that as Ephrayim had been chosen by Yaakov to be leader of Yosef’s family and thus of the emerging nation, he used his influence among Israel and Egypt to embark on an armed excursion to Eretz Yisrael in order to pave the way for an Israelite return. This premature effort to bring liberation, ending in great failure, caused Ephrayim’s leadership to lapse, and the actual liberation to move to Moshe the Levite.
However, Yosef/Ephrayim’s special status was not over. As Moshe was about to die, he passed on his leadership to Yehoshua bin Nun from the Tribe of Ephrayim. In his beracha for the Tribe of Yosef, Moshe again invoked the words "rosh, kodkod, and n’zir echav" (Devarim 33:16).
How long did Yosef’s prominence last? In the same perek of Tehillim, the Mishkan in Shilo is referred to as "the tent of Yosef," and the pasuk concludes that Hashem "did not chose the Tribe of Ephrayim" (see Tehillim 78:60-67). While the p’sukim talk of the fall of Shilo, this took place only at the end of the period of the Judges. During this period, the majority of the judges were from the family of Yosef and/or the tribes connected to the matriarch Rachel. (In my upcoming Tzofnat Shmuel, you will be able to learn in depth about the reasons behind the assumption of the mantle of leadership by Yehuda, the son of Leah.)
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
