We stand before the festival of Sukkot, the “time of our rejoicing": “Seven days you shall celebrate to the LORD your God in the place that the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you shall surely rejoice" .
After the Days of Awe, the Ten Days of Repentance, including Yom Kippur, Sukkot teaches us that the central service of God should be carried out with joy, with that joy reaching its peak on Simchat Torah. As Maimonides writes in the Laws of the Lulav : “The joy with which a person rejoices in the performance of a mitzvah and in the love of the Almighty who commanded it is a great service. Whoever prevents himself from this joy deserves to be punished, as it is said: ‘because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and goodness of heart.’" This is a remarkable verse from the portion of the curses in Ki Tavo, teaching us both the power of joy and what may happen, Heaven forbid, in its absence.
Joy brings completeness, and therefore “light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright of heart, gladness" . The Gemara in Tractate Ta’anit [15a] says: “The righteous - into their light; the upright - into their joy." Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook explains: “The light increases joy by nature in the soul... Hence the pleasantness of joy is the goal, and the light is Torah - it is the means."
It is natural that the measure of serving God with joy is established on Sukkot, in connection with the agricultural cycle, as the verse mentions the special timing: “in all your produce"; and likewise in the portion of Re’eh: “You shall celebrate the Festival of Sukkot for seven days when you gather in from your threshing floor and from your winepress." Here, material joy and spiritual joy come together - an ideal condition that teaches the obligation to serve God with joy throughout the year. Alongside this, there is, of course, a reminder of the teaching of Ben Zoma in Tractate Avot : “Who is rich? One who rejoices in his portion... as it is said: ‘You shall eat the labor of your hands - happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you’" . Happy in this world, and good for the world to come. According to the Sages, true wealth does not depend on what we possess, but on how we see and value what we have.
The difference between “wealth" and “happiness" in Hebrew is only one letter, teaching that wealth can lead to happiness only when it is accompanied by spiritual content, gratitude, and joy in life. Linguistically, the word “happiness" in Scripture is connected with blessing and praise, while “wealth" is connected with capital and material abundance. The Sages defined the “rich man" through joy". Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler writes in his book Michtav MeEliyahu that the unique nature of the joy of Sukkot is that it is the joy of cleaving to and trusting in God, which becomes possible only after the erasure of material and spiritual divisions during the Days of Judgment and the move into the shadow of faith in the sukkah.
It is also told about Rebbitzin Tzvia Kanievsky, may her memory be for a blessing, that in the final days of her life, a distressed woman came to her and shared her hardships. This took place during Chol HaMoed Sukkot, on 17 Tishrei, only a few hours before the Rebbetzin passed away to her eternal world. The Rebbetzin encouraged her and said: Do you know why the verse says, “and you shall be only joyful"? It teaches us that even when we feel “only" - when we feel pain and sorrow - we are commanded to rejoice: “and you shall be only joyful"!
However, since the central service of God throughout the year is intended to be performed with joy, it is puzzling why, in the portion of Vezot Habrachah read on Simchat Torah, in the blessings Moses gives the tribes on his final day, joy appears only once. This is in the verse: “And of Zebulun he said: Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, and Issachar in your tents. Peoples shall call to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for the abundance of the seas shall suckle, and the hidden treasures of the sand." This blessing requires special consideration because it is the only blessing given to two tribes together in the same verse. Needless to say, there is no coincidence here, and the matters were said intentionally, for we are speaking of Moses our teacher, the prophet of Israel - Moses seeking to ensure the perpetuity of the Jewish people in his blessings after all the “adventures" it experienced with him over the forty years from the Exodus from Egypt until the eve of its entry into the Land of Israel.
Before addressing this question, we note that Zebulun was born after Issachar, as explicitly stated in the portion of Vayeitzei , and in the order of Jacob’s sons in the portion of Vayishlach . Nevertheless, Jacob our father precedes Zebulun to Issachar in the blessing of the sons, and in Moses’ portion here, he unites Zebulun and Issachar in his blessing, to the point that it seems that Issachar’s happiness is embedded in Zebulun’s wealth, and Zebulun’s happiness in Issachar’s happiness. We find, in fact, different types of partnerships between them in the commentaries.
The Midrash says: Zebulun and Issachar made such a partnership - “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the seas" . Zebulun would go out for trade by ship and earn money, while the sons of Issachar would sit and engage in Torah. Therefore, Zebulun was placed before Issachar, because Issachar’s Torah was made possible through Zebulun .
And this is indeed the wording of Targum Jonathan ben Uziel: Moses, the prophet of God, blessed the tribe of Zebulun and said: Rejoice, household of Zebulun, when you go forth to your commerce, and the household of Issachar in the tents of your study halls. The Midrash Rabbah’s explanation, cited by the Kli Yakar, for the reason behind this joy is: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth" - because anyone who goes into commerce is not yet joyful when he leaves for the journey, since he does not know whether he will profit or not. But Zebulun was told to rejoice already when setting out, because his heart is certain that he will succeed in all his ways, since “Issachar is in your tents," engaged in Torah, and his merit will stand for him as well; for Zebulun was the one who would provide food for Issachar, as stated in the Midrash Rabbah.
However, Onkelos translates this verse as a partnership of a different type: “And to Zebulun he said - Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go forth to fight your enemies, and Issachar when you go to perform the appointed times in Jerusalem." And thus Rabbi Bachya ben Asher also says: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth" - meaning, for war!
Abarbanel explains that what is before us is another type of partnership: between a wholesaler and a retailer. This is his wording: Zebulun lived by the seashore and therefore engaged in commerce. It seems that there was a substantial partnership regarding their goods. The partnership was such that the sons of Zebulun traveled on ships and brought many goods, while the sons of Issachar handled those goods - whether through buying and selling or through full partnership. They would bring the goods to their tents in their cities, which were far from the seashore, and there they would sell them to all the people who came through their city gates. In this way, Zebulun benefited by bringing the goods, and Issachar by selling them. And on this, both were included in a single blessing: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth" - meaning, when you go forth from your land by sea in order to bring your goods, and Issachar will also rejoice when he is seated in his tents and does not leave his land by ship like the sons of Zebulun, because each of you will rejoice in his portion and in your success.
Concerning this partnership, the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch write that a person who cannot learn because he does not know how to learn at all, or because he is distracted by other matters, should provide for others who learn, and it will be considered as if he himself learns. The Beit Yosef clarifies that the strength and reward of one who provides support are based directly on the model of Zebulun and Issachar. So too in Sefer Chasidim [siman 1166]: “If a person has no time to learn, or does not understand - he should support those who study Torah, as Zebulun supported Issachar, and he has a share in Torah equal to him."
Rashi, based on the Sifrei, adds that the departure of the sons of Zebulun on ships to bring varied goods from afar to the Land of Israel sanctified the Name of Heaven among many peoples of the world. For many of them, as written in the continuation of the blessing, “Peoples shall call to the mountain," came to the Land of Israel to learn about the varied goods, and from this they also inquired into the character of this nation and the uniqueness of the Jewish people. In his words: “By means of the commerce of Zebulun, the nations will come to his land, and it stands on the coast; and they say: Since we have suffered up to this point, let us go to Jerusalem and see what is feared and what is done by this nation! And they see that all Israel serve one God and eat one food... And they say: Such a nation is not like any other, and they convert there, as it is said: ‘There they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness, because the abundance of the seas shall suckle’ - Zebulun and Issachar, for the sea provides them wealth in abundance" [Sifrei Devarim, paragraph 4].
Why, then, does the verb “to rejoice" appear only in the blessing of Zebulun and Issachar and not among the other tribes? It seems that Moses our teacher seeks to teach that joy rests only when the partnership is complete and fulfilled - when each partner rejoices in the other partner’s portion. Usually, the person who works and toils in the field or at sea may feel resentment that he is funding the one who sits in the tent, while the person who sits in the tent may feel frustrated that he is detached from the world of material affairs, advancement, and improvement. Moses’ call - “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, and Issachar in your tents" - comes to affirm that each of them is in his precise role and can rejoice in it fully. And although at first reading the verse appears to direct the command “rejoice" only to Zebulun, the grammatical and interpretive structure of the verse links the verb “rejoice" also to Issachar, as if it were written: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, and rejoice, Issachar, in your tents."
In the Hebrew biblical structure and in biblical poetry, a verb appearing in the first line of a sentence is used implicitly for the second line as well. The meaning of the verse is: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, and [rejoice] Issachar in your tents" - joy in achieving the goals. Zebulun rejoices when he goes out for commerce because he knows that his labor has spiritual value as well; Issachar rejoices in his tent because he has peace of mind to devote himself to Torah.
As for why Moses preceded Zebulun to Issachar, despite Issachar being greater than Zebulun, the Midrashim of the Sages, such as Genesis Rabbah 99:5 and Midrash Tanchuma, Parashat Vayechi, siman 11, respond that Moses preceded Zebulun to Issachar because Issachar could not have engaged in Torah unless Zebulun provided him with sustenance.
But it seems that here Moses is making a clear statement not only about the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Issachar, but as a model for every partnership and for the entire people. Each tribe has a mission and traits suited to that mission. As Midrash Tanchuma [Parashat Vayechi, siman 11] states, where the Sages turn the model of Zebulun and Issachar into a guide for the general public: “Rabbi Tanchuma said: Anyone who goes out for commerce and provides for those engaged in Torah is granted the blessing of Zebulun and Issachar... For anyone who engages in commerce and provides for Torah scholars, it is considered as though he is sitting and studying Torah."
Each and every tribe of the tribes of Israel makes up a part of the people’s puzzle, and it is not complete until all its parts are united and in their proper place - “together are the tribes of Israel." The head of the Shaalavim yeshiva and its founder, Rabbi Meir Shelzinger, may his memory be blessed, used to say that redemption will surely come when everyone values one another - when the people in the laundry, as in the Shaalavim kibbutz, properly appreciate the Torah learners in the yeshiva, and at the same time the Torah learners value those who do the laundry for them. In other words, when each part of the puzzle recognizes the importance of the other parts, understanding that without one of them the puzzle would be flawed and incomplete.
Perhaps, though, a puzzle is not the most fitting term for the structure of the Jewish people, because a puzzle connects one piece to another but does not express the mutual responsibility and guarantee between them. Moreover, the original meaning of the English word “puzzle" is confusion and uncertainty: toward the end of the 16th century, around 1590, the word appeared as a verb meaning to confuse or embarrass. Here, however, the reference is to the ideal whole that should be a light unto the nations, not to confuse them.
Therefore, perhaps a better analogy is the tribes of God as molecules. A molecule is a group of atoms bound to one another by a strong chemical bond, and it is the smallest particle that retains the basic properties of matter, a concept developed by the chemist Amadeo Avogadro. As is known, the structure of an atom consists of a nucleus of positively charged protons (+), uncharged neutrons, and electrons with a negative charge (-) surrounding them. And as the Gemara in Tractate Keritot [6a] and the Jerusalem Talmud in Tractate Yoma state regarding the incense, if the one who prepared it lacked one of the ten ingredients, he was liable to death - even if he lacked helbanah, which has a bad smell, corresponding to a negative electron. Rashi wrote that helbanah had a bad smell in order to unite the Jewish people... and to teach that sinners are also part of the whole .
Rabbeinu Yerucham wrote in his book Meshalim [Netiv 29] that a person who cannot learn because he is occupied with making a living can make an agreement with the one who provides for him and have a share in his Torah, as though he were truly learning. And just as his provider shares with him in this world, so too he will share with him in the reward in the World to Come. I heard in the name of the Gaon Rabbi Beruch Dov (Berel) Pobersky, head of the Ponovezh yeshiva, who asked: Why is the festival of Sukkot called in the plural, “Sukkot," and not “Sukkah"? He answered that we are dealing with two sukkot. From the elevation in the joy of the festival - when all of Israel become worthy to sit together through the unity of all the tribes of God in one sukkah - Israel hopes for the future to sit in an additional sukkah, in the sukkah made from the hide of the Leviathan, as mentioned in our prayer upon leaving the sukkah. A sukkah that is the sukkah of peace, for which we pray that the Holy One, blessed be He, “will spread over us and over all His people Israel and over Jerusalem" [Bava Batra 75a].
With God’s help, may we merit the blessing of a happy festival to every house in Israel.
The author is the CEO of Tzifha International Real Estate