How important is zealotry?
In this week’s parshah, Yaakov curses the fury of his sons Shimon and Levi and vows to “divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel” (Bereishis 49:7).
Most of us understand these words to mean that Shimon and Levi’s zealotry is dangerous and therefore must be diffused. But the Hebrew word for “divide them” is “achalkem,” which carries a positive connotation according to Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. It means “to apportion something valuable so that as many people as possible can have a part of it.”
In other words, “l’chalek” really means to distribute. Meanwhile, though, “afitzem” – “scatter them” – does carry a negative connotation. So what did Yaakov mean by saying he would “divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel”?
Rav Hirsch explains:
“Israel” symbolizes strength; “Jacob” symbolizes weakness. In “a flourishing state of Israel, [Shimon and Levi] are to be scattered” since their “excessive impetuosity and choleric disposition” can harm the Jewish people. Thus, when the Jews conquered the Land of Israel, Levi received no province of its own, and Shimon received landlocked territory – surrounded by that of Yehudah, making it “completely dependent on that powerful tribe.”
In a flourishing Jewish state, zealotry needs to be scattered – “afitzem b’Yisrael.”
In the exile, however, the opposite is true. “[I]n galut, where the pressure of our fate bows everything down and the nation itself is torn asunder, there the danger lies that all feelings of one’s own importance become lost and the sense of oppression kills all spiritual force and energy.”
In other words, the Jewish spirit is liable to be crushed. And so, “achalkem b’Yaakov.” Members of Shimon and Levi – “with their fiery and proud dispositions” – were distributed throughout the Jewish people in exile to “keep alive the energy and the courage, the fire and the noble Jewish pride of the Jewish spirit.”
Today, we live in a Jewish state. But is it the “flourishing state of Israel” of which Rav Hirsch speaks? If yes, zealotry’s influence needs to be kept in check. If not, it arguably needs to be strengthened. One thing is clear, though, from Rav Hirsch’s explanation: Impassioned zealotry is not always bad. Indeed, sometimes it’s vital.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of an upcoming work on etymological explanations in Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on Chumash.