1) A few weeks/months ago, around the time of the Yamim Noraim, Sivan Rahav Meir visited the NY area and spoke in a few shuls and schools. In the talk I heard she quoted (if I remember correctly) a vort of the Sefas Emes on our parsha. Yaakov blessed Ephraim and Menashe, "V'yidgu la'rov b'kerev ha'aretz." Rashi explains that "v'yidgu" means that they should multiply like fish=dag, which are immune from ayin ha'ra.
Sefas Emes asks: the bracha is a stirah minei u'bei, a self-contradiction. How can Ephraim and Menashe be given a blessing to be like fish "b'kerev ha'aretz," in the midst of the land? Fish live in the sea, not on land?
Sefas Emes answers that the lesson Yaakov wanted Ephraim and Menashe to absorb -- the lesson for us to absorb -- is that of course we want to be successful and thrive in and contribute to and have a positive impact on whatever land, whatever society, we find ourselves in -- b'kerev ha'aretz. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that however successful we are in that environment, we are still like a fish out of water. Galus is not our home. Galus is not where we belong.
2) Yaakov wants to tell his children "eis asher yikra eschem b'acharis ha'yamim," what will happen to them at the end of time. The word the pasuk uses is not yikrah with a hey at the end, but rather yikra with an aleph at the end. Jewish destiny is not mikreh, with a hey, just happenstance. Rather, it is the inevitable conclusion to our history which calls to us, yikra with an aleph, from across time and across generations.
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1) like fish "b'kerev ha'aretz,"
ReplyDeletewouldn't the simple meaning be 'like fish in the lakes' in or near Goshen? (drush might then be something about pnimiyus versus the chitzoniyus of the open sea...)
"whatever land"
though when a) the klal is established in eretz Yisrael and b) the knowledge of G-d there fills the land as the water covers the sea, then the "self-contradiction" dissolves [or floats, if one uses a snorkel] *
*Yoel 2:27, b'kerev Yisrael + Yoel 3:1, widespread nevua, as an example of a + b
2) Yaakov says to his sons, 'right now it is I who calls you; let me tell you Who*/who**/asher, "at the end of time", will call/yikra you...'
*Chabakuk 2:14?
**Yeshayahu 11:9, kee malaw...?
"not mikreh, with a hey"
ReplyDeleteGreat observation. It's interesting that the Radak says that it's a legitimate variation on "occur" and the Minchas Shai says nothing - but that does not diminish your point. The choice of that form reflects Yaakov's main point, which is that they have a tafkid and a fate, and the word mikreh is to be avoided.