"The Scepter Shall Not Depart from Judah"

Before you is the full lesson delivered on the Holy Shabbat of Parshas Vayechi 5786 by the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days), at the Kiddusha Rabba (festive Shabbat morning meal) after the conclusion of the Musaf prayer:

The lesson was written according to the listener's understanding; if there is an error, it should be attributed to the writer and not, G-d forbid, to our teacher the Rav shlit"a.

There was once a woman named Sisai; she jumped from the roof. Why did she jump from the roof? She committed suicide in the literal sense, she jumped from the roof—Jumped off the roof. She was apparently [like] Shuvu Banim... so why did she jump from the roof? Bring a Gemara (Talmud) Bava Batra. The Gemara on page 3b says that Herod killed the entire Hasmonean house, and only one girl remained. She went up to the roof, jumped, and said: "Anyone who comes and says he is from the Hasmonean house—he is a slave." This is also a Gemara in Kiddushin page 70a; the Gemara says: Anyone who says he is from the Hasmonean house is a slave, because Herod killed the entire Hasmonean house, and not even one girl remained, for she also jumped from the roof and died.

Then Shmuel arrived in Nehardea, and he taught this and said that there are many here who are slaves. So they came to stone him with stones. From here is proof that they were Shuvu Banim, because they lifted giant stones to throw at Shmuel. So he said about them: "If you remain silent—then fine, but if not, I will declare all of you to be mamzerim (illegitimate)." Immediately, they put down all the stones and threw them into the river, and they blocked the river with them. Pashchur had four hundred slaves or four thousand slaves, and they were all absorbed into the families of the Kehunah (priesthood). They all married women from priestly families; they were absorbed within the families of the Kehunah.

And why did this happen to the Hasmonean house, that they were all wiped out? The Ramban (Nachmanides) explains this on our Torah portion. Why was the entire Hasmonean house wiped out? Because they took the kingship, even though they were not from the House of David. On the verse 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah' (Genesis 49:10), it is explained that the kingship can only belong to someone from the House of David, and they were not from the House of David. It was forbidden for them to take the kingship.

So only someone from the House of David can take the kingship. 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah,' and therefore they were punished such that nothing remained of the Hasmoneans, even though they were tzaddikim (righteous men), because it was forbidden for them to be kings.

Now it is 'Shabbat Chazak' (the Shabbat concluding a book of the Torah). Chazak (strong) has the gematria (numerical value) of Moshe. How is Chazak the gematria of Moshe? Because Chazak is 115, and Moshe is 345. So how is it the gematria of Moshe?

It works out, just as 'Karkar' is the gematria of 'Pe'ah' (sidelock). 'And undermine (v'karkar) all the children of Seth' (Numbers 24:17). How is Karkar the gematria of Pe'ah? Karkar is six hundred. Each Pe'ah is three hundred, because Pe'ah is 86. So how is it the gematria of six hundred—Karkar? The Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) says: Pe'ah is gematria 86, which is the name Elo-him. And Elo-him in its 'filled' form (spelling out the letters) is gematria 300: Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yud-Mem—is gematria three hundred. Double that—two Pe'os—is six hundred, the gematria of Karkar.

So how is Moshe the gematria of Chazak? Because Chazak (115) plus Chazak (115) is twice, which is 230. And 'v'Nischazek' (and let us be strengthened)—there is another 'Chazak' (115) within the word v'Nischazek. So three times Chazak (115 X 3 = 345) is the gematria of Moshe. And what remains is 'v'Nit' (the remaining letters of v'Nischazek)—so 'v'Nit', and the letter Kuf is Yosef, and the letter Tav hints that he shines below ten handbreadths. Yosef shines to below ten handbreadths.

So 'Chazak Chazak v'Nischazek' is the gematria of Moshe Yosef.

It is written in the portion: 'And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen' (Genesis 50:9). Why did Yosef take horsemen to the funeral? Horsemen means tanks, it means MiGs (fighter jets). Since when do people take tanks to a funeral? You go to a funeral—you take tanks? Rather, Yosef was preparing for a world war. He prepared for the fact that there was going to be a world war at the funeral of Yaakov (Jacob), and Zepho arrived to fight with him—Zepho the son of Eliphaz, because Esau did not want to give up on Me'arat HaMachpelah (the Cave of the Patriarchs).

The Arabs to this day are not willing to give up on Me'arat HaMachpelah. In the merit of Shuvu Banim—both Me'arat HaMachpelah and Kever Rachel (Rachel's Tomb) are open today. In the merit of Shuvu Banim. This was in the year 5743 (1983), when we said to travel there for an entire week—every day a hundred people, twenty vehicles, twenty-five vehicles. And we traveled every day. When we arrived there, we saw a convoy of UN vehicles, but we didn't know what they wanted. We saw them, we saw the convoy of UN vehicles standing there. Afterwards, it became clear that they came to see if Jews arrive there or if it could be given to the Waqf (Islamic trust), to the Arabs. Because they said that Jews don't come there. And then they arrived to see, and they saw for an entire week that every day a hundred people come there. So they decided that it was impossible to transfer it to the Arabs.

And also Kever Rachel—Shuvu Banim opened it. They would walk through the gunfire with babies on their shoulders. Nachman [Zucker] took Naftali with him on his shoulders, and also Ben Sasson took his Naftali on his shoulders. And they walked through the gunfire; the Arabs would shoot because they thought they were soldiers, and the soldiers would shoot because they thought they were terrorists. And they ran through the gunfire. After that, they found an opening in the back of the tomb, so they entered from there. Suddenly, they heard shouting outside. Then [the authorities] came and saw that they had entered. So they saw that people were not willing to give it up, and they were forced to open it.

So there was a war with Zepho over Chevron (Hebron). January—is named after Zepho. The Abarbanel says in chapter 35 that January is named after Zepho, because there is the Jaguar—which is a leopard, a tiger. We walked in the jungles, we went to look for tigers, but we didn't find them. Apparently, they heard that Shuvu Banim arrived—so they fled. A tiger is a lion. The Gemara says in Chullin 59b: A tiger is a lion. The Gemara says: The tiger is the lion of the upper forest, for [the Emperor] wanted them to show him a lion.

Now Yehuda Schwartz showed me a chiddush (new Torah insight) that I had not seen. I don't know how I haven't seen it until today. It is written in the Targum (Aramaic translation) on Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles) (I Chronicles 11:22) that Benaiah ben Jehoiada, who struck the lion inside the pit on a snowy day—this was on Asara B'Tevet (the 10th of Tevet). He killed it inside the pit, and the insight is that in a pit there is no room to fight, and despite this, he defeated it. So this was on Asara B'Tevet. Now Yehuda Schwartz showed me this: Why on Asara B'Tevet? Why not on the 17th of Tammuz? Why not on Tisha B'Av? This is what the Targum on Chronicles writes. The Targum of Rav Yosef on Chronicles (Chapter 11, Verse 22) says: When did he kill the lion—it was on Asara B'Tevet.

So Zepho, when he became king in Rome, he conquered Rome. The city of Genoa—is named after him, after January, which is Zepho. So he arrived to fight, to not allow the burial of Yaakov. And then they captured him and put him in prison for eighty-one years.