Rabbi Zvi Aviner
Jacob, the End of Days and Bnei Noah
As part of our classes on various topics from the Book of Genesis
this time we will talk about one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, which is Jacob’s saying to his sons before his death:
Gather and I will tell you what will (call? Happen?) to you in the last days (49: . 1)
While our ears are open to hear the continuation of His prophecy – who does not want to hear what will happen in the last days, and when the end will come? – Jacob repeats:
Gather and listen to the children of Jacob to your father Israel (49: 2)
And He blesses His sons without adding a word about the last days. The commentators disagree on the context: : Is the blessing for the sons a part of the vision for the last days? Or are these two issues?
Rashi sees these as two different things. He writes
“Jacob asked to reveal the end, and the Shekinah departed from him, and began to say other things”.
In other words, we have here two matters – the revelation of the end of time, and the blessing for the boys. Ramban and almost all commentators concur.
Let’s look at the verse. Where did Rashi – and the Midrash – see in the verse that Jacob wanted to reveal the time of the End of Time?
The verse says, “I will tell you what shall YKRA – CALL on you in the last days” But Rashi and all the midrashim and commentators – thousands of books and sermons on the verse – read it “YIKEH – happen” . That is, I’ll tell you what will happen at the end of history.
On this incorrect, reading (Yikreh instead of Yikra) the entire huge literature on the end times is built. Below we will talk about the correct reading “will CALL you.”
What will happen to humanity in the last days?
The brothers already know this from chapter one. There, it is described that at the end of the sixth day of creation, ELKM will see all that He has done, and it is very good. Before creating Adam, the world was only ‘good’ in ELKM’s eyes. After the creation of Adam, the world must rise and be ‘very good’ in ELKM’s eyes, in order for the world including Mankind to enter the eternal Sabbath. The only one who can do this change from good to very good is Mankind.
What does “very good” mean? Humanity will recognize not only ELKM, the Creator of nature, but also YHVH, the Attribute of grace and mercy.
The brothers already knew this. What was Jacob trying to renew for them?
The answer that Jacob meant to tell his sons what would happen to them in the is last days. Will they remain loyal or assimilate into the rest of Mankind? How will they reach the end times? How could they contribute to humanity journey towards the Sabbath, the End of Days?
And that vision was suddenly blocked from him.
Could we still figure out what was on his mind?
The Talmud offers different suggestions. Is this the end of the Egyptian exile? Or the end of all exiles? The coming of the Messiah? The war of Gog and Magog? Many suggestions but no definite conclusions.
Let’s go back to the verse. Rashi says that the vision of the end suddenly disappears from him, because the Shechinah had departed from him. She was Offended. Why? Because in his words he sounded as if he was the one dictating to the world what would happen, forgetting to mention HaSheM ELKM, the king of the world and the leader of history.
After all, all the passages from Vaishev until the end of the book show that behind the events stood the Almighty who sought to remove Jacob and his sons to Egypt.
The Midrash describes what happened next. When Jacob understood what caused the Shechinah to leave, he tried to correct it and said to his sons, “Is there anyone among you who does not know where the world is going and who is leading us? So all of them answered in one voice – (according to Rashi’s interpretation of the Shema)
Hear Oh Israel (our father)
HaSehM (YHVH) is our G-d (now only we recognize Him)
HaSehM (YHVH) is One (in the future all nations will recognize YHVH)
Here the “Shema” comes as historical journey.
That is, now YHVH is our G-d, k own to us, but the day will come when all nations will recognize Him, and He will be one for all nations.
When Jacob heard this, he calmed down and turned his face to the wall and said in a whisper:
Blessed be the name of His Majesty forever and ever.
In other words, HaSehM ELKM is the leader of history.
We too add this line in a whisper during the Shema.
When will this End of Time come? According to this interpretation of the story there is a date, but it is concealed. Only HaSheM knows it.
And for centuries sages arose trying to calculate this particular date from the verses. From time to time, they even set such a date in public and people who believed in it sold their property and tried to immigrate to Eretz Israel.
False Messiahs also came out of that vision, claiming they came in the right date, sweeping hundreds and thousands of people after them. Yet after the date passed and nothing happened, these movement iended in dismay and tragedy.
Will call you
But as mentioned, the calculation of the end was based on an incorrect reading of the words spoken by Jacob. The correct verse says:
And Jacob called out to him, and he said,
Gather and I will tell you
That which will CALL you in the last days.
What did he mean? You can say:
Now I call you,
Gather and I’ll tell you who will call you in my place
And yet it’s still not understood.
That is why ninety-nine percent of commentators choose to understand that as “will happen to you” –
But the Holy Zohar understands that call as prayer.
To call on G-d is to pray to him.
Thus, for example, the verse “Then he began to call on the name of the YHVH” means that in Enosh’s time people began to pray to YHVH and call on his name (Ebn Ezrah ibid.).
The Zohar gives various examples:
And they called out to ELKM– the people of Nineveh
I cried out in trouble to HaSheM – Psalms
And the story here looks like this:
Jacob wished to bless his sons, to convey to them the blessing of Abraham that he had received from Isaac. Abram was told
1 Go to the land that I shall show you…
2 And I will bless you and make your name great
And you shall be a blessing
3 And I bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you
And all the families of the earth
will be blessed by you(12:1-3)
What is a Blessing?
A blessing is a good abundance – physical or spiritual – above what is expected of nature.
YHVH is the source of blessings, that come above nature,
and He gave the key of blessings to Abraham and his seed forever when he went to the Land of Israel.
YHVH would shower His Blessings to all all the families of the earth, all the seventy nations of the children of Noah, through Abraham
Now, before his death, Jacob calls his sons wishing to hand over the key to the blessings. Just as he got from Isaac. But the Shechinah was offended and walked away from him. Why?
YHVH was saying – Why did you call your sons and not me? After all, I am the source of blessings?
The prophet Isaiah says in rebuke –
But you didn’t call me, Jacob (Isaiah 77)
YHVH was saying – Your blessings are not fulfilled automatically. You should first call on me, pray to me!
Jacob thought that the Shechinah had departed from him because perhaps one or several of his sons were not worthy of receiving the blessing, as Ishmael and Esau did not.
Turning to them he asked – are there any of you who don’t believe in Hashem?
So the sons answered him as one:
Hear Oh Israel (our father)
YHVH and ELKM – (the two Attributes)
YHVH is one
Here the Shema is said as a declaration of faith, that the two Attributes are in fact One. We live now on the Sixth Day of CREATION under the Court of Justice and Mercy, but in the future – on the Sabbath Day – the whole world will pass into the kingdom of YHVH alone.
Or: The Attributes YHVH and ELKM are in fact two Attributes of One CREATOR,
Or: In depth, Mercy and Judgment are One, of YHVH alone.
.
Hearing them, Jacob turned and said
Blessed be the name of His Majesty forever and ever.
Only now he could go on and bless them with Abraham’s blessing.
According to this, what are the End Times that he mentions?
The Answer – The blessing would be done through the Priestly Blessing in the Temple
God bless and preserve you – economic prosperity
May God turn to you and educate you – spiritual success in the Torah
May God look up to you and grant you peace – political and historical success
The story looks like this:
He said to them (according to the Zohar) – to receive the blessing, gather, be here together, purify – repent, cast away every pagan thought, and come with joy to hear Abraham’s blessing.
From this, the Sefat Emet says that blessings descend from heaven only following prayer. Like the priestly blessing. Studying Torah is not enough.
The rabbi continues:
But the priests themselves must also be purified, sanctified, pray to the stomach from the bottom of their hearts and with excitement and full concentration that the blessing will descend through them from top to bottom.
After all, the Divine presence listens only to those whose heart turns to it
Therefore, the priests need to be moved and to focus their minds and hearts
The rabbi continues: Who then moves the priests before the blessing?
And the answer — the Levites in their singing and playing.
And who excites the Levites to play and sing beautifully and from the heart? Israel, the crowd, who gather and come to help, just as the children of Jacob gathered to hear their father
It follows – says Hasfat Emet – that Israel and their excitement are the primary mover of the process of blessing to descend from heaven. They, the audience, move the Levites, and the singing of the Levites combined with the audience move the priests to bless.
Every action, says the rabbi, has thought and a desire to start it
And the thought begets speech
And speech begets action
The Will and Thought in the Heart of Israel
Prompt the Levites to sing,
And the Levite singing prompt the priests to to bless the crowd
The Zohar says – there is a wheel spinning in the world, one part going up and the other part going down. The wheel is driven by the sound of prayers and service that pleases the Almighty, the sound of the shofar, which is repentance, and on the other side the wheel lowers the blessings from heaven like water falling into the world.
We in the 21st century can compare the description to a musical concert of a singing star. A huge crowd gathers before a concert in the stadium for an hour, when the singer’s lovers are excited by the mere sight of the crowd.
Now the orchestra rises and starts playing, and the audience gets even more excited. These stages are an important part of the success of the evening
And now it’s time for the singer to perform. He peers behind the scenes and gets excited himself at the sight of the huge and enthusiastic crowd. His heart is full of love and emotion.
He decides to let this evening give this audience the best performance of his entire life. And when he takes the stage, the audience becomes even more excited, from now on he and the audience form one lump united by the magic of singing
So it was in the temple.
The crowd gathered in the morning with excitement. Purified themselves and watched the Levites , whose singing prompted the Priests to raise their hands and bless the people by YHVH Name,
.
As it is said – They would mention my name and I will bless them.
And their blessing would affect the entire Earth as YHVH had told to Abraham.
It is for that reason that King Solomon declared at the dedication of the Tempe ceremony, that this house would be a place of prayer for all the nations who would flock here to receive their blessings. Whenever is a calamity, a war, a hunger, and people would seek the Heavenly intervention, they would flock here.
Now we understand what Isaiah and Micah say:
“And in the last days the Temple Mount of the Lord
will be established at the top of the mountains
And he bore from the hills,
and all the nations flocked to him” (Isaiah 2:2)
And now that there is no Temple, how will the blessing come down from Israel to the whole world?
Israel has been declared as a kingdom of priests, for the congregation of and the seventy nations of Noah.
Israel is the priest, and now you, Noahides, comprise the audience.
The blessing that Israel can bring to the world, to you,
Depends on how you are excited, supporting Israel.
So, you are not bystanders.
Without your active participation, nothing may come out of Israel as a blessing to you.
Now we can understand the verse.
Jacob says, Gather and I will tell you – who will call you in the last days
The nations of the world are the ones who will call on Israel to pray and bless the whole world from there, from the Land of Israel.
Another, better interpretation: Jacob said: to get into the end of times, the nations would join you, pray with you to One G-d, YHVH. Together you will travel towards the last days, with prosperity, success and happiness.
The lesson is dedicated to Tennessee’s Zach Sanders that this idea of Noah’s role toward Israel was central to his life and guided him on his path
Gentiles will come to you from the wings of the earth and say, but our forefathers have fallen falsely and are useless. The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen
AMK Zak There are two stages here. One is leaving idolatry, and the other is helping Judah not to sin, not to despair, to continue on his path for all nations
Topics in Genesis-11/Jacob’s End of Time and Noahides
Rabbi Zvi Aviner
– happen to you יקרה אתכם
– call you יקרא אתכם