Yeranen Yaakov: Another Yehuda

Here's another connection that one can add to Rav Fish's excellent essay connecting Yehuda and Dan that I blogged recently.

Bereishit Rabba on Vayigash (93:7), talking about Yehuda's confrontation with Yosef says:

ז ד"א ויגש אליו יהודה זו היא שנאמר ברוח הקודש על ידי שלמה (קהלת ז) החכמה תעוז לחכם וגו' כנגד מי אמר שלמה המקרא הזה לא אמרו אלא כנגד יוסף הצדיק אמר רבי יוחנן בשעה שתפס יוסף הצדיק את בנימין ואמר להם לאחיו האיש אשר נמצא הגביע בידו הוא יהיה לי עבד אמר לו יהודה בנימין את תפוס ושלום בבית אבא מיד כעס יהודה ושאג בקול גדול והלך קולו ד' מאות פרסה עד ששמע חושים בן דן וקפץ מארץ כנען ובא אצל יהודה ושאגו שניהם ובקשה ארץ מצרים ליהפך עליהם אמר איוב (איוב ד) שאגת אריה וקול שחל שאגת אריה זה יהודה שכתוב בו גור אריה יהודה וקול שחל זה חושים בן דן ששניהם נמשלו כארי שנאמר (דברים לג) ולדן אמר דן גור אריה שיני כפירים נתעו אלו גבוריו של יוסף שכיון שכעס יהודה נשרו שיניהם של כולם אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי אף אחיו כיון שראו יהודה שכעס אף הם נתמלאו חמה ובעטו בארץ ועשו אותה תלמים תלמים שנאמר (איוב ד) ליש אובד מבלי טרף זה יהודה שמסר עצמו על בנימין אמר שמא ימחול הקדוש ברוך הוא על אותו עון שהטעיתי את אבא ואמרתי לו אני מביאו לך באותה שעה נתמלא חמה על יוסף כיון שראה יוסף סימנין של יהודה מיד נזדעזע ונבהל אמר אוי לי שמא יהרגני ומה הן סימנין שהיו בו ביהודה של בית שילו אמרו שני שילטונין זולגות דם ויש אומרים כמין שליטי הגבורים וחמשה לבושים היה לובש נימה אחת היתה לו בלבו כיון שהיה כועס קורע את כולם מה עשה יוסף באותה שעה אותו עמוד של אבן שהיה יושב עליו בעט בו ועשאו גל של צרורות מיד תמה יהודה ואמר זה גבור ממני באותה שעה אחז יהודה חרבו לשולפה מתערה ואינה נשלפת לו אמר יהודה ודאי זה ירא שמים הוא לכך נאמר (קהלת ז) החכמה תעוז לחכם:

The translation of the boldface part is as follows:

Immediately, Yehuda became angry and roared with a loud sound. The sound went 400 Parsangs until Hushim, the son of Dan, heard it, whereby he jumped [Nezer Hakodesh and Etz Yosef - via Kefitzat Haderech] from the land of Canaan and came to Yehuda [in Egypt] and they both roared and wanted the Land of Egypt to be destroyed. Upon them, Iyov says "The lion roareth, and the fierce lion howleth". "The lion roareth" refers to Yehuda, upon whom it is written, "Judah is a lion's whelp". "And the firece lion howleth" refers to Hushim, the son of Dan, as both of them are compared to lions, as it says, "And of Dan he said: Dan is a lion's whelp". And the end of the verse in Iyov says, "yet the teeth of the young lions are broken." This refers to the strongmen of Yosef - because once Yehuda became angry, everyone's teeth fell out.

We see from here how Yehuda needed Hushim to help him.

But not only that, the Nezer Hakodesh explains that the wisdom mentioned at the beginning of this Midrash is a special holy Kabbalistic wisdom that was able to allow those who use it perform wonders. While all the Shevatim had this special wisdom, Yehuda and Dan's son Hushim had this special wisdom ten times greater than the rest of them (except Yosef, whose wisdom surpassed everyone, as the end of the Midrash explains). Yehuda roared and Hushim was able to "hear" his roar [even though he was deaf] because he had ESP of holiness. Yehuda thought that by having Hushim on his side, since 2 is better than 1, he would be in good shape when he needed to fight the Egyptians to get Binyamin home. This can be explained further by saying that this arrangement is exactly like the arrangement of the future. Yehuda's descendant - the Mashiah - will have a special warrior by his side - namely, Seraya from the tribe of Dan, who will fight alongside him.

3 Comments:

At Sun Jan 01, 05:44:00 AM 2012, Neshama said...: More on Seraya - Do you remember this: Warrior from the tribe of Dan

AND: Abir, the traditional Israelite combat art that goes back to our forefather Abraham. The Aluf knows a variety of techniques, and the source of each technique in the Torah, i.e. Naftali tribal combat style, the combat style of the Tribe of Asher based on its tribal symbol the olive tree, combat style of the Tribe of Dan, and for each of the 12 tribes.
At Tue Jan 03, 05:44:00 PM 2012, Dov Bar-Leib said...: So nu, where is Dan at the End of Days? There was a time when I thought that Ariel Sharon made a great Hushim ben Dan. He seemed deaf to almost all of the ruckas going around him and the hatred often directed at him. And his first name means lion of G-d. It seems that all the secular "strongmen" amongst our people ultimately fail in the task of taking on the entire world. So Ariel ultimately failed too even though it was not obvious that he would fail when he held very public Chanukah parties at his home in the Arab Quarter of the Holy City. On such occasions he roared like a lion. When he took on Time Magazine he roared again, and made this piece of American literary tripe look like a laughingstock. Yet, when he finally became PM during the height of the Al Aksa Intifada, he spent the last four years of his life whimpering like a baby kitten. He ended up morphing into the Foolish Shepherd of Zecharia 11 and 13 whom the Radak says is the gilgul of King Herod. So where is Hushim? Who is going to lop off Esav's head?
At Tue Jan 03, 06:19:00 PM 2012, Dov Bar-Leib said...: Of course, it is interesting that during the Yom Kippur War, Sharon was a major player in the Egyptian theater of the war, using a pinser move across he Suez Canal to cut off the Egyptian Third Army in the Sinai snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Yet, he was not involved at all in the Golan Heights, the fields of Og of Bashan. And he did not leap against the Syrian Army sending it scurrying back to Damascus. So I guess even in that war as miraculous by the grace of G-d was his victory, he did not play the End of Days role for Dan as the lion that leaps forth from Bashan.