Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comYaakov's Final Words and Blessings to His Sons cont'dYaakov continues speaking prophecies about each of his sons:GadAll of Gad's troops will return (with no man amongst them missing) to their land on the other side of the Jordan.AsherThe food that comes from the land of Asher will be rich, abundant with olives that produce a lot of oil.NaftaliRashi brings down three interpretations of the verse associated with Naftali:1)The portion of Naftali will include a very fertile valley called The Valley of Ginossar which will extend inland from the northwest shore of the Kinneret. This valley will ripen its fruit as fast as a deer runs. And people will give thanks and blessings for this fruit.2)Alternatively, the speed referred to as compared to a deer running could be Yaakov prophesying about the war of Sisra about which 10,000 men from Naftali arrived speedily to fight. And in this case, the thanks and blessings mentioned in the previous paragraph were not for the fruit but rather were Devorah and Barak singing praise to G-d.3) A third interpretation concerns the day Yaakov was buried and Esav tried to claim that the Mearat HaMachpela belonged to him and Naftali sped to Egypt to get the deed that proved that it belonged to Yaakov's family.And Onkelus translates the part of the verse about giving thanks as saying that Naftali will express his gratitude for his portion with beautiful praises.YosefYaakov speaks of Yosef's charm and how the Egyptian girls would step up to gaze upon his beauty.Onkelos gives an alternate translation to the girls (AKA daughters) gazing and says the "gazing" (עלי שור) is referring to the two tribes will come forth from Yosef (i.e. Ephraim and Menashe) and the "daughters" (בנות צעדה) are referring to the daughters of Tzlaphchad who came from Menashe's lineage. (Side note, the daughters of Tzlaphchad were important in that they spoke up in order to inherit their father's land since he had no sons and received land on both sides of the Jordan).Onkelos also gives an alternate translation to the word translated as "Yosef's charm" (פּרת יוסף) above and instead translates it to mean that he was "fruitful".Rashi links these different translations by relating a Midrash that talks about how when all of the brothers met with Esav, Yosef was the only one who walked in front of his mother Rachel to shield her from Esav's gaze to prevent him from setting his eyes on her. Since he so protected his mother from Esav's "gaze", he was granted to grow (i.e. be fruitful and multiply) "over the eye" of Esav and also to have beauty such that Egyptian women would step up to gaze at. He was also granted that the evil eye should not have affect over his offspring, as Yaakov blessed Yosef's sons (see earlier in parsha).Yaakov continues, relating how Yosef's brothers and Potiphar's wife embittered Yosef's life. Nevertheless. Yosef stayed strong and kept G-d's commandments and in return G-d granted him that Pharaoh should give him his ring and put him in such a high position of power and eventually having the dreams he had fulfilled in the form of him being a shepherd over his brothers.Yaakov also praises Yosef for restraining himself in regards to Potiphar's wife when he saw an image of his father appear to him and he dug his fingernails into the earth so that the physical discomfort from that would suppress his desire.Yaakov tells Yosef that this strength that he had in overcoming the temptation of Potiphar's wife came from the G-d of his forefathers and in the merit of him withstanding that, his offspring will be totally fertile, with the males having every drop of their semen be fit for conception and the females never miscarrying.Yaakov continues and tells Yosef that the blessings he received from his father Yitzchak became greater than the blessings Yitzchak received from Avraham as they had no bounds and kept growing and extended to the four corners of the earth. Avraham's blessing was only "northward" to the land of Israel. And to Yitzchak he gave a blessing for all of his children to have those lands. Whereas the blessing given to Yaakov was open ended saying that his offspring should burst forth "east, west, north and south".Yaakov concludes that all of the blessings should come to be for Yosef, the one who was "separated" from his brothers. Get full access to Sarede’s Substack at sarede.substack.com/subscribe
