V’Zos HaBerachah - 5th Portion

Join me as we learn the fifth Torah reading Thursday paraso. The fifth Torah reading, chapter 33, verse 22. As we continue the blessings that Yako that Moshe gives the children, the tribes of the Jewish people as they're about to enter the land of Israel on the last day of his life, on the day of his passing. We are now at the last few tribes and the tribe of Dun Omar. And to Dun he said, Gur a young lion flows from the Bashan. Dun was called a lion as Rashi explains because because he also lived by the border. Therefore, he was considered like a lion because lions are the strong ones that have to protect the people on the inside and therefore they put the strong people at the border as the tarum explains the words meaning that his land would then give the rest of the canals that would come from the bashan meaning the side of the Jordan which that was the area of the Bashan because the Jordan would go out of his portion of the dunis from the cave of Pamas which That is the city of Leashim which that was in the territory of Dunmer as it says in the book of Joshua that they call the area of Dun because that's where Dun was and the stream and the water that would flow from the Jordan wouldn't would start from the area of Bashan and therefore the Jordan River was considered as one that streamed from the Bashan. Another way of explaining this verse is just like this flow of water comes from one place and then it separates in two different areas. So to the tribe of D not they had two areas, two territories, different places in the land of Israel. At first they had an area in the northwest part of the land of Israel, the city of Echran and its surrounding cities. This was not enough for their people. So therefore they went and they conquered the cities of Lashem which is and that's in the northeast of the side of the land of Israel. Rashi proves that this area of Lashim now is not the same area but is in a different area because the Jordan comes out of the cave of the Jordan is goes along the whole eastern side of the land of Israel and it goes then from north along to the south side from north to south on the eastern side of the land of Israel and it ends by the edge of the Dead Sea which that's on the east side of the territory of Yehud that his area was on the south of Israel of the land of Israel for Yeshua as it's explained in the book of Yeshua was on his territory which was on the south and that's why it says when it talks about the territory of Dun that the pe the area of Dun the border of Dun went from there and then the people of Dun went and waged war against Russia. That means that their territory went from that whole area meaning northwest that that's where they started to conquer and because of that they went in a different direction and conquered the city of Lashem and ultimately that became the part of their territory territory as well. We now move on to the tribe of verse 23. He saidali is satisfied [clears throat] is satisfied desire and is full of God's blessings and possesses and go and possess Lake Kiner on the south. that his land satiated all the people that lived there because they had such good fruit that grew there and therefore all the people that enjoyed the fruit from that land. the was in his uh territory and he took and therefore he was able to take a large net a large area of land and that was big enough to be able to capture all the fish to catch the fish in the south of the kinerat and therefore they were able to have all these different types of nets that they were able to use to be able to catch the fish that were here in Russia like the words like go and conquer the fact that you have the trump the canellation which would be on the beginning of the word like not under not proves that it's telling you to go and do something like we find this in other different uh commandments like listen take no When you add a hey, but you put the cancellation on the first letter like all these kind of all of them as a terminology of commandment that he should go and conquer it. So too, Rashi brings a proof that you find this in the general book when it comes to Jewish Hebrew grammar which is called when it count when it enumerates the different alf that the word yasha is counted with the canellation at the beginning which gives you the meaning of a command. [snorts] Verse 24, the tribe of Usher. And to Usher, he said, "May Usher be blessed with sons. He will be he will gratify his brothers and he will s be sought after by his brothers." 24 I gives the following commentary. There isn't any of the other tribes that were blessed as much as usher with having sons. But I don't know how this works with the because you don't find practically speaking that usher should be blessed that he has so many sons when they do the counting of all the tribes. He that's where Rashi says. I don't know how this actually works out with the context of the verses. that he was uh he was sought after. He was gratified by his brothers in the word. Therefore, because they would have very good oils in his land and and instead of the oils and in exchange of the oils, his brothers would give him wheat and therefore everybody liked them because they wanted to get all the oil that was in his territory. Another explanation They had very nice daughters and therefore everybody wanted to marry in their family as it's discussed in the book of chronicles that the daughters of were married to the high priest as well as they were married to and the kings were anointed with the oil that came from his territory because since his area had so much oil that would go like a spring. There's a story that the Talmud discusses that once the people of Lutia, which is an area in the in the land of Syria, they needed oil and they appointed a messenger, a nonju to go and buy oil for them. And where did he go? He had to come to the area of Usher. And only over there was he able to find the oil. And as it talks about over there, they sold him the oil for 100,000 as this is discussed in the track date of 85b verse 25. Your locks are iron and copper and they are and your um and your days of your old age will be the days of your youth. over here when he talks about the locks your mountains are like locks and the land they are like rich of iron copper. over here he's talking about until now Moshas now started talking to all the different tribes to all the tribes together not only to one not only to one specific tribe but to all the tribes of the Jewish people as Rashi says as follows now he's talking to all the Jewish people that the strong people would be sitting on the border because the strong tribes as we mentioned before like the tribe of Dun was sitting on the border therefore the enemies would not be able to easily come into the land of Israel and therefore it's considered as if it's locked is closed with locks with um crow with bars of iron and copper another way to explain this verse your land is surrounded with mountains that you can carve from them iron and copper because this was in area and the territory of Israel and therefore was considered like the lock of the land of Israel. So one opinion is that it's talking to the general uh tribes of the Jewish people and telling them that they are protected because of the tribes. Another one that is talking specifically to the tribe of Usher that in his area the mountains had iron and copper that they could mine from. The good days of a person are called the days of your youth. because these are the days of your beginning. The days of your youth when you're strong should be the days of your when you get old that usually when a person gets old they're full of worry and their person's declining full of pain and suffering and wherever as the person declines in his health and therefore the blessing is that as he gets old he should be as young as and strong as he is in his youth. Another explanation [snorts] like the days that are good to you that the days that are good for you that as long as you're doing what God desires the wishes of God. So therefore then will be flowing then all your land will be flowing gold silver to the land of Israel. says that over here that as long as you follow what God says, then the nations around you are going to want to buy your fruits and buy whatever you have in your produce because since they'll be so good. So therefore, the all everything else will be flowing towards the land of Israel and everything else will be emptied of their gold and silver as they're going to be flowing to the land of Israel. Yes. There is no deity like God who rides the heavens is your assistance. With his majesty the skies know the Jewish people. There's no other god like in all the other gods. And there's their their strength. They're rock. They're not as strong as they're nothing like God. That means the God that rides into heaven. That's the God that's going to be there for your salvation. And with his greatness, he's able to go up into the heaven and watch and hover over you and protect you from all sides. This concludes the fifth Torah reading of face up.