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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Learning from Yissachar

Bereishit Rabba 98:17 according to the Nezer Hakodesh::
ויהי למס עובד
ר' אלעזר ור' שמואל בר נחמן ר' אלעזר אומר כל השבטים
הניחו יתירות ושבטו של יששכר לא הניחו יתירות רשב״ן
אמר אף שבטו של יששכר הניחו יתירות אלא שהיו בעלי
מסין א"ר אסי הם מעלי מסין היה כמו שנשתעבדו
[In his blessing to Yissachar, Yaakov Avinu blesses him that] he "became a servant under task-work".  Ribbi Elazar and Ribbi Shemu'el Bar Nahman [disagree as to what this means].  Ribbi Elazar says that all the tribes left over extremities [i.e. other nations that lived along with them, which they did not wipe out as they were commanded], but the tribe of Yissachar did not leave over extremities [as we see in the first chapter of Shofetim, all West-of-Jordan tribes were mentioned leaving over Canaanites in their midst with the exception of Yissachar (even though Dan is also not mentioned as leaving Canaanites, they did take Layish after Yehoshua died, so it's as if they left over a city originally.  Yissachar, however, left no cities not captured).  He therefore "became a servant under task-work" in how much he troubled himself to capture all his enemies(Etz Yosef).  This is how וירא מנוחה כי טוב ואת הארץ כי נעמה - For he saw a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant - by inheriting the entire land.]  Ribbi Shemu'el Bar Nahman says that even the tribe of Yissachar left over extremities, but they were those who paid taxes.  Ribbi Assi said they paid taxes just as when they were [first] subjugated.  [In other words, the tribe of Yissachar left over his enemies too, but instilled fear in them so much that they continued to pay taxes and be subjugated to them.  Whereas the other tribes at first had their enemies paying taxes to them, but after time, their enemies started rebelling, the tribe of Yissachar instilled enough fear into their enemies that they would not rebel.]

One need not be a genius to understand how we need to learn from Yissachar nowadays so that those who live among us do not become as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides.

4 Comments:

At Sun Dec 12, 09:20:00 AM 2010, Anonymous Neshama said...

Just entered my thoughts while reading this - within which of the tribes was the land scorched by the Hanukah fire?

 
At Sun Dec 12, 10:15:00 AM 2010, Blogger Moriah said...

"...within which of the tribes was the land scorched by the Hanukah fire?"

Manassah

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tribemap.html

 
At Mon Dec 13, 02:29:00 PM 2010, Anonymous Melamed said...

The Carmel fire just illustrates the point that those who do not keep Torah and Mitzvot would be better off living in Chutz La'Aretz so that they do not get the rest of us killed.

 
At Mon Dec 13, 05:36:00 PM 2010, Blogger yaak said...

According to this map, it's Yissachar. I'm not sure where Neshama is going with this, but I'm interested.

 

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