V'Zot HaBerachah, וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה "And This Is the Blessing" Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12

V'Zot HaBerachah / On the Blessing From The Man of God

Poetic notes on the parashat V'Zot HaBerachah*,

with reference to the Shabbat Chol Hamoed Torah Reading

Exodus 33:12-34:26 for Sukkot

Face to face with death,

the man of God blessed Israel

Moses blessed mother Israel

His blessing promised life from death

to all her tribes

From before the foundation of the world,

if there would be a creation,

its nature would be severe,

it would be severely limited by nature

Its immediate condition would be critical

From its foundation stone to its capstone

it could break

it could shatter

Actions would need to be executed

Lives would hang in the balance

For this, Adam was created

But Adam tilted the scales

and soured their souls

and ruptured the harmonic ties

that they had with God

Even greater actions

needed to be executed

All lives were at stake

and there was now no balance

This is revealed in his blessing

with which the man of God

when face to face with death

blessed the tribes of Israel

He began to speak and say,

HaShem was with mother Israel

all the way to and from Sinai

She saw Him coming to her

from Esau’s land of Seir

She saw him arrive shining with light

from Ishmael’s Mount Paran

She saw him arrive

surrounded by holy myriads

holding in his right hand

a fiery edict of love for her,

a law for her alone

Truly, so very deeply,

You, HaShem, are in love with a people

You have given the mother

and all of her children

sanctuary in the hollow of Your hand

Her young flocked together with her,

keeping closely in Your footsteps,

assembling at Your feet

Your words were their new grown wings

They tried them, they strained and moved them

Your words raised them up

What are these words

that gave wings to the children of Israel?

The words of Torah,

an instruction faithfully delivered to us

through Moses, the best man of God,

to be a wedding engagement present,

a matrimonial inheritance,

for the whole body of the family of Jacob

Thus it was, on the day of beauty,

The day of Jeshurun’s beauty,

that HaShem became king

He became king

in the heart and soul of Jeshurun,

This was the day when her teachers

unified in one choir and song

the tribes of once enslaved and divided Israel,

the day their king set their voices free as one

May Reuven be rejuvenated and not die

and the count of the firstborn tribe of Israel

not be as if a count of corpses

When the Ark is taken captive by Philistines

and the Torah is subjected

to a nation which thinks it nothing,

remember that the Covenant was given to Abraham

when Israel was like a few living corpses

May Reuven be rejuvenated and not be lost

May he be reunited with the Covenant

May he be counted like the galaxies of stars

For you, Reuven, are God’s Adam

And Simeon is your hidden right arm

Together you will overcome

the arrogance of the nations

and manifest the grace and humility of God

This covenant blessing

this blessing of Reuven the firstborn

and of all his brothers

Moses placed with a special blessing

on the shoulders of Judah

praying, Hear, HaShem, the voice of Judah

in the songs of David

sung in the voice of Mashiach

May he return in peace to his people

after defeating all pretenders to the throne

What alien would presume to occupy the land

and hold the tribes of Israel hostage?

By the arm of Judah

May the weapon of death be defeated

may Reuven be rejuvenated

and Simeon inherit the land of Israel

and Levi serve God’s house forever!

For you, Judah, are God’s lion,

The prince of His lions

It is your roar that will silence heaven and earth

The holy spirit of Your Thummim and Urim

will be preserved for You, HaShem,

in the voice of Your Hassid,

the Master of faith and kindness

Aaron kept Your secret at Massah

Levi kept Your faith at the waters of Meribah

When no other tribe

stood with Abraham

and said to Adam and Eve

I am like the newborn of HaShem

I no longer belong to you,

the tribe of Levi stood its ground

and confessed this confession with Abraham

Even to his own brothers who sinned, he said,

I can no longer see you

Like his father, Jacob

Levi left his own children in HaShem’s hands

and did not faint on account of them

but observed Your word

and kept Your covenant

Therefore, Levi’s children will educate Jacob

in Your judgments

They will guide Israel

in understanding Your Torah Instruction

Therefore they shall be the ones

who place the incense of prayers before You

Indeed, they shall be the ones

who offer on Your altar the whole burnt offering

which acknowledges You in all things

May HaShem bless Levi’s spiritual aspirations

and establish in reality the fruit

of his spiritual efforts and endeavours;

May He undermine the degenerative power

of the evil inclination

and of those who fight against the efforts of Levi,

so that they will never defeat him

For you Levi, are God’s highest eagle

having His messages to declare

seen by no eye but His eye alone

Facing Benjamin he said:

I love you, Benjamin!

You are beloved of HaShem,

In the night, he rests securely beside Him;

Constantly, He protects him,

For He gently holds Benjamin between His shoulders

For you, Benjamin, are God’s calf

leaping over this world to the world to come

Facing Joseph he said,

The eternal gift of your land

comes to you from the blessings of HaShem,

only from the gracious fortunes of heaven,

falling like its dew,

and from where that dew pools

in the deepest depths below

indeed, the eternal gift of your land

is given to you, Joseph,

with the fortune of life produced by the sun,

and with the fortune of hope produced by the moon,

and the fortune of the primary mountain pillars

from the beginning of creation

and the fortune of the everlasting hills

of the creation that is yet to come,

and the fortune of the earth itself and its eternal fullness,

due to the desire of the One who dwells in the thorn bush,

like Israel dwells in a sukkah

His desire is that all this fortune

should rest on the head

of the one separated from his brothers

For you, Joseph, are God’s ox

plowing the whole earth

cultivating it for judgment and redemption

Joseph, the firstborn ox

Joseph, the firstling bull

glorious in majesty are his untamed horns

His wild horns gather peoples together

from all the ends of the earth

Here are the myriads of Ephraim

Here are the thousands of Manasseh

all of them yoked together as one

yoked together as Joseph

overturning the world

Zebulun and Issachar, Rejoice!

Rejoice in your setting out with Zebulun

and your staying here at home

with Issachar in your tents

For you are lions of the pride of Judah,

the lion of HaShem

You run out with Abraham's spirit

to meet passing souls

and with Abraham's spirit

you bring them

into your tent of hospitality and Torah kindness

Through you, peoples from all directions

are called by the holy mountain to come up to her!

There they offer up a sacrifice of righteousness

For the peoples are nursed from the flowing blessings

For the blessings of the mountain of HaShem

are the blessings flowing from the seas

and from the nutrients of deep treasures,

like treasures cast up by the sands on the shores

Facing Gad he said,

Blessed is He who enlarges you, Gad!

You are God’s eagle who comes down like a lion of the sky

and rips Armilus, the scalp of Pharaoh, from Pharaoh’s head,

and first rips Babylon his limb,

his taproot to evil, from his shoulder

Gad recognized that the prime lot of inheritance

fell outside the first boundaries of the land,

where the lawgiver is concealed

He took responsibility for that portion himself

Therefore the army of Gad is at the head of the army of Israel

He performed the righteousness of HaShem with Israel

in the place and spirit of the hidden lawgiver

Facing Dan he said,

Dan too is God’s fierce eagle

Swooping through the air like a young lion

leaping from Bashan

to capture the evil inclination in his beak

to tear Amalek with his talons

Facing Naftali he said,

You are God's speeding eagle

that races like a young stag across the land

filled with the fullness of joyous news from HaShem

And He flies across the land together with you

Your inheritance is the northern sea and the southern shore

in order that you might know

to take possession with your swift feet

of the new world and the old,

For the gift of the news you bring

is the inheritance of this dry spiritual world

and the reward of the lavish spiritual world to come

For how shall it be known, HaShem

that Your people have gained Your grace and favour

unless You run with their feet

and with their wings You fly?

Facing Asher he said,

You are God’s eagle that ascends with offspring,

leading the way for all your brothers

in bringing forth children like the stars of heaven,

through you shall the tribes be fruitful,

through Asher ’s anointing the foot of faith with holy oil

Asher’s gates are the lifeline of Israel

May your lifeline be strong like bronze

and your gates be like iron

and in the midst of your years

may HaShem hold your hand

as in the days of your youth

Jeshurun, there is nothing and no one like your God

riding on His chariot through four universes to help you,

appearing across the milky way skies

to arrive before you in Jerusalem in his majesty

There the end of our long quiet sighing shall be

on the Festival of Pure Joy

in Jerusalem

Then HaShem shall be seen by all

to go everywhere in our midst!

As Israel everywhere dwells in the sukkah,

in this very manner,

Hashem will be seen everywhere

to dwell in the midst of the Jewish people

He will dwell in His people as a flame,

a flame in a thorn bush,

yet not consuming them

We said, If HaShem did not go with us

how would the nations believe

that He had forgiven us?

We moaned when we understood

that they could not see Benjamin

between His shoulders

Judah, stand up and speak like a lion

as you spoke in the days of Egypt!

He will roar to the nations

that Jews are not a mere collective

of survivors and heroes,

but are still two full tribes named by God

Israel is preserved as Judah

And Judah has preserved Israel in Benjamin

Israel is corporate and whole!

We prayed to HaShem,

May the blessings of the man of God be known

among the nations!

For we recognized that the nations

will not believe that HaShem goes with us

when they do not see that HaShem Himself

is running like a hart with Naphtali,

to bring good news to Jacob,

when they do not see that He is

yoked with Ephraim and Manasseh

plowing the earth for judgment and redemption,

when they do not see that He is

inviting all the ends of the earth

into Abraham’s tent

with Zebulun and Issachar,

when they do not see that He is

overcoming the evil inclination

with Gad and Dan,

and anointing the feet of his servants with oil

with Asher

and preparing the way of Mashiach

over all the lands and all the seas

with Reuven, with Simeon and with Levi

Then, when the nations are blind and do not see

how will they know that HaShem goes with us?

Until they see, how will they believe

that Israel has been shown His grace and favour?

How will they believe and know

that all the twelve tribes of Israel

will yet dwell with Him in Jerusalem?

Let Judah now roar

and let Benjamin now be revealed

and let Joseph embrace him,

and let there be two witnesses

to let all the nations know for certain

that HaShem has forgiven His people, Israel

*With reference primarily to the commentary of Ramban,. Also with some consultation of the commentaries of Tur HaAroch; Siftei Chakhamim; Rashbam; Rabbeinu Bahya; Or HaChaim; Daat Zkenim; Chizkuni; Sforno; Ibn Ezra and Rashi