Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. These are the Sons of Yaakov [1] When Hashem changed Avram to Avraham and Sarai to Sarah, this was not merely a change in their names but heralded the realization of His promises through a son that was to be born to both of them. Yaakov is changed to Yisrael; this is a change from Yaakov, the one who grasps the heel of Eisav, the downtrodden one, the one in galut, to Yisrael, the one who has power with G-d and with men. "In the verse 'and Moshe was the most humble of all men, anav', is spelt without a yud. Moshe took that yud and added it to Yehoshua's name in order to teach him the merit of humility that is essential to Jewish leadership "(Shem Mi- Shmuel). The choice of names that we give to our children, show our own value judgments, aspirations and ideological basis. When we name a child after a noble person, a saintly one, or after some spiritual occurrence, we are providing the child and the future with a guide that we wish them to follow. When students of mine were named Nimrod and Hagar, their parents were knowingly approving the antithesis of Avraham and Sarah. When we Hebraized our gentile surnames, we expressed our freedom from the yoke of Golah, through statehood. When in kibbutz we had a host of generals from the Tanach and a whole treasury of agricultural and nature terms, but no names of the Avot or Imahot, the break with our past and the desire to assimilate into the secular Israeli culture was clear, just as the giving of non-Jewish names even by religious Jews in the Golah, was and is an identification with the gentile world. "There are 4 types of names. Those whose names are pleasant but their actions are not, such is Ishmael, G-d hears, but he does not hear the word of G-d. Those whose names are unpleasant but their actions are pleasant, such as those of the Golah who nevertheless returned from Bavel with Ezra. Those whose names are unpleasant and so are their actions such as the Meraglim like S'thur, Nasi of Asher who was without yosher. Those whose names are pleasant as are their actions, these are the Tribes; Reuven, of whom Leah said: "See the difference between my son and that of my father-in-law. His son, Eisav sold his birthright willingly to Yaakov and then sought to kill him while mine, Reuven, did not, nevertheless he did not object when his birthright as first-born was taken from him and given to Yosef, Yehuda, and Levi" (Yalkut Shimoni, 126). So the names of Yaakov's children reveal the circumstances of their birth, their characters, and foretell their history. Not only the names but the order in which they appear in various places in the Torah, is related the specific purpose of the listing and a reflection of their spiritual roles. The names engraved on the Shoham, onyx stones on the shoulders of the Kohen Gadol, were according to the order of the birth of the Tribes except that Yehuda is inscribed first. This is either because he and his descendants are destined to be the kings or because his name alone contains all the letters of Hashem's Name (Torah T'mima). Reuven heads the Tribes in the census before they are to begin their journey from Har Sinai, where he is referred to as the firstborn of Israel even though that inheritance was transferred by human courts to Yosef, but because of Reuven's t'shuva G-d here retained his honorable status (Soforno, B'reishit 1:20). In the same listing, the sequence of Leah's sons is interrupted after Shimon, in favor of Gad, placing him before Yehuda, who was his senior. This is because Levi, being excluded in this census, the 5 sons of Leah would not have constituted 2 camps in the order of encampment. So, Gad the son of Zilpa was added to them, but in deference to him being the first born to his mother, he was placed before Yehuda (Ramban). In the order of the camps and their place during the journeying in the desert, we find that these were not in sequence of birth nor according to the mothers, but the vanguard was the camp headed by Yehuda, of whom it is written, 'He is a young lion', and by Dan, 'who will represent the rights of his people', in the rear. These most dangerous positions were headed by the most warlike and strong tribes. "There is a reference to the redemption of Israel in the names of the Tribes: This is installment #137 in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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