Monday, December 12, 2016

The Birth Of Yisrael

In the beginning, in the kingdom of Yisrael, it was said as follows, by E: Avraham begot Yishmael and Yitzchak, and Yitzchak was taken. In stead of Yitzchak, Avraham begot Zimran and Yokshan, and Medan and Midian, and Ya'akov and Esav. And Ya'akov begot Reuven, Dan and Naftali, and Yissachar and Zevulun, and Yosef and Benyamin. Note that Yehudah was not mentioned.

When the kingdom of Yehudah started to arise, in Yehudah it was said as follows, by J: Avraham begot Yishmael and Yehudah, and Reuven, and Gad and Asher. Yehudah begot Er and Onan, and Shelah, and Shim'on and Levi. Er and Onan died, and Yehudah begot in their stead, the twins: Edom, the one with the scarlet thread on his hand, and Yaakov, who outwitted (akav) his brother in the womb (Hoshea 12:4) (Y. Zakovitch, Jacob, p. 18-19). In addition, he begot a daughter, Dinah.

Yisrael, as we read about it in the Torah, was born when the kingdom of Yisrael was destroyed. It was said as follows, by RJE: Avraham begot Yishmael and Yitzchak. And he begot Zimran and Yokshan, and Medan and Midian, and Ishbak and Shuach. (The latter two names are obtained from Ya'akov and Esav through appropriate substitution of the letter Ayin, and reordering of the letters.) And Yitzchak begot the twins Esav and Ya'akov, and Ya'akov begot his twelve sons, the seven mentioned above, plus Shim'on and Levi, plus Yehudah, plus Gad and Asher. And he begot a daughter, Dinah.

Yisrael, as we read in the Torah, had twelve sons, and a daughter, but Esav was not among the sons. Even though Esav, the kingdom of Edom, was in the end converted to Judaism. And today, the area of Edom is part of the State of Israel. History is full of surprises. Esav was (most prophetically) included in the J vision of Yehudah, and, it must be noted, Reuven, Gad and Asher were not. Asher was a problematic area at the time of J, the southern part of Phoenicia, as it is today, with Hezbollah. Although, the southern tip of Asher is in Israel. Gad, however, at the eastern shore of the Jordan river, is totally outside of the current border. Interestingly, Reuven, the firstborn of Yisrael, according to the standard story, is also outside of modern Israel. It is at the Jordanian side of the northern part of the Dead Sea shore, to the South of Gad.

Every religious person knows that Yisrael had twelve sons, and that Yehudah was among the sons. That is simple. Few know that he had seven sons, and that Yehudah was not among them. That is a secret, which has become known in modern times. Very few know that Yisrael was the son of Yehudah. There is a connection between Yehudah and Yisrael, but the connection is opposite to what might seem. That is a secret of secrets.

בַּבֶּטֶן, עָקַב אֶת-אָחִיו; וּבְאוֹנוֹ, שָׂרָה אֶת-אֱלֹהִים

(Hoshea 12:4)