From Light to Prism: The Ohr Ein Sof in the Shevatim

Understanding Shabbos through the lens of Parashas Vayechi

Shabbos Vayechi

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We have been learning about the great light, the Ohr Ein Sof, the Ohr hidden with Creation. The Ohr that Noach lacked the vessel to hold, that Avraham carried, that Yitzchak integrated with strength and peace. It is the same Ohr that Yaakov sought through darkness, tasted in moments of clarity, and then met again through concealment. This Ohr does not pass directly from Yaakov to his children, and it is not even given to the seeming heirs, Yehuda and Yosef. Instead Yaakov’s last words act as a prism. They name the vessels that carry the hidden Ohr through concealment, until it refracts as geulah.

Once Yaakov spoke to each shevet about its destiny ,then we see what becomes of this light. The Ohr Ein Sof remains mostly concealed, resting dormant inside the shevatim, until the end of days, a time of absolute darkness. At that time, the dormant traits which Yaakov named will begin to shine. They will each refract the same hidden Ohr in its own way, like a prism, and together they open the doorway to geulah. (Perhaps this is one root of the idea of the seventy faces of Torah.)

Yaakov gathered his children, and as my father, Rav Yaacov Haber, explains, he came to teach them what would become of this light. The pasuk¹ says, הקבצו ושמעו בני יעקב ושמעו אל־ישראל אביכם “Gather and listen, sons of Yaakov; listen to Israel your father.” The Beis Yaakov² hears two voices here. The voice of Yaakov and the voice of Yisrael. As Yaakov, he held the ability through bechirah to constrict himself, yield, forgive, and smooth everything over. As Yisrael, Hashem illuminated him with a firmer light, a restraint that kept him from yielding too far, because full revelation of the inner repair of the first three shevatim at that moment would have brought geulah into open view, and the time for that open revelation had not yet arrived. Their light remained concealed, reserved to reopen later in history.

Strangely, the blessing of Reuven, Shimon & Levi was more of a critique than a blessing.

The Izhbitzer explains that when it says, “Yaakov sought to reveal the end.” To bless the first three tribes (Reuven, Shimon and Levi) in a fully revealed way would have awakened the final clarity that belongs to completed tikkun. Exile exists because Israel’s preciousness sits under concealment, and the inner measure of those shevatim waited for its appointed time.³

Yaakov stopped this critique at Yehuda. Yehuda represents the heart of Israel, and the heart carries a point that no nation or language can touch. Yaakov’s words preserve Yehuda as the inner anchor that holds the nation steady through every concealment. (The final missing piece is Shimon’s full repair. Once that opens, redemption appears as a steady flow.)

Now it makes sense why Yaakov’s words sound like destiny more than blessing. He is mapping how each shevet carries its light until the moment it refracts into geulah. As my father explains, Yaakov told them not what will happen at the end of days (יֵקָרֶה), but what will be called forth from them (יִקָרֵא). More than a bracha, this was a nevuah or in modern terms, a calling.

Chazal say that Yaakov sought to reveal the end, and it became hidden from him. The Beis Yaakov explains⁴ that Yaakov wanted to reveal what redemption depends on, because in truth, any day can hold the moment of geulah. He wanted to plant in their hearts confidence and strength, a lived certainty that nothing holds power over them. The reason why the Torah records that Yaakov wanted to reveal the end of days, even though he was seemingly unable to, is because indeed something lasting took place. The Zohar explains that what needed to be revealed was revealed inwardly. What remained hidden was the open, full-force clarity, reserved for the end of days.

This is the meaning of “what will befall you at the end of days.” When the light becomes extremely concealed and understanding becomes so small that a person doubts everything he encounters, Klal Yisrael will still aim toward the deepest Divine will, even without conscious understanding. In the future it will be clarified that no Jewish soul ever deviated, even by a hair’s breadth, from Hashem’s will. Even when the Torah speaks in the language of punishment, it describes how things appear within human perception.

In this world, a person builds connection from below, slowly, through clarification. In the future, Hashem will show openly that Klal Yisrael always remained bound to Him, and that our actions always aligned with His will, “as though I never abandoned them.”

This pairs beautifully with the Tomer Devorah on “She’eiris Nachalaso.” Klal Yisrael are not only close to Hashem, we are bound to Him as His portion. When a Jew hurts, it is His pain, and when redemption comes, it is His redemption, so to speak.

This is the end of days: the revelation that the bond never loosened for even a moment. Then darkness turns to light, bitterness to sweetness, and sins into merits. From Yaakov’s very desire to reveal the end, he ensured one thing forever: The Jewish people carry an enduring inner certainty that Hashem will save them, in every circumstance, and that geulah always remains possible.

Sometimes a person’s understanding becomes hidden and the light of choice becomes concealed. At that moment he is like someone asleep, unable to turn himself by choice in any direction. The trick is to lock in direction early, through morning Shema and prayer, so commitment carries a person even when awareness runs low. These become spiritual guardrails for the entire day.⁵

During Yaakov’s lifetime, his sons lived with an orderly structure, illuminated by Yaakov’s light with tremendous clarity. Yaakov looked ahead and saw later generations, small in understanding and low in spiritual level, where even a small pleasure can overpower a person and sweep him up until he becomes absorbed in it. Therefore Yaakov Avinu prayed and he bound them with an oath. Just as morning prayer and Shema steady each individual every day, Yaakov’s prayer and oath steadied the entire people of Israel until the coming of the redeemer, so the light would never, God forbid, become completely hidden.

His oath, channeled through Yosef the Shomer HaBris, acts like a permanent “morning Shema” for all of Israel, keeping the bond alive even in total darkness. After a person clarifies himself as much as he can, and reaches a place where his own strength no longer clarifies further, he needs the firmness and power that comes from Yehuda’s light, so understanding stays standing and he avoids total despair. But the beginning of a person’s avodah starts with Yosef the righteous. Yosef represents steady work, continuity, and clarity in guarding holiness. Yehuda’s power enters afterward, once the process of clarification reaches its limit.

This is why Yaakov’s words to each shevet matter: each one carries a distinct way the hidden light holds through concealment, until it finally refracts in the geulah.

The Beis Yaakov⁶ notes a striking pattern: every blessing Yaakov gave a shevet appears later in Moshe’s berachos as well, as if Hashem signed His name to Yaakov’s words. The Mei HaShiloach explains that Yaakov began with “ויקרא” because he approached the moment as a cry and a tefillah, lifting his eyes and heart upward, waiting for the words Hashem would place in his mouth. Moshe began with “וזאת הברכה” because “זאת” means clarity, while Yaakov reached “זאת” only at the end, once it became clear that every word came from Hashem.

The Beis Yaakov adds that Yaakov spoke only within the boundaries of nevuah, shaping each shevet’s words according to its vessel. Like a wise shopkeeper who senses each container, he pours exactly what it can hold. “איש אשר כברכתו ברך אותם” means the brachah strengthens and expands what already lives inside the shevet, so that its ohr can shine in its own way when the time arrives. Once we see that Yaakov spoke only what Heaven placed in his mouth, the “calling” becomes clear: each shevet received its own measured beam, waiting to refract at the hour of geulah.

Each bracha becomes the language of that calling, an expression of how that shevet will reveal its ohr at the time of the geulah, like a prism.

Now let us understand the berachos in this vein.

Reuven

ראובן בכרי אתה כחי וראשית אוני יתר שאת ויתר עז. פחז כמים אל־תותר כי עלית משכבי אביך אז חללת יצועי עלה .

Reuven, you are my firstborn, you are my strength, and the beginning of my manhood; superior in rank and superior in power. Unstable as water, you shall no longer be superior, for you have gone up your father’s bed. You profaned He Who went up on my couch.

Yaakov’s opening words place Reuven at the point of origin. The Beis Yaakov explains that this was an actual bestowal of all three crowns, Bechora, Kehuna, and Malchus, because Reuven stood as the primary vessel of Yaakov’s deepest strengths⁷. Rav Moshe David Vali clarifies that Reuven received the essential core of Yaakov’s strength, not merely a portion of it, and that this core includes the unified roots of chesed and gevurah. For that reason, he was fit for both kehuna, which flows from chesed, and malchus, which is built from gevurah.

Reuven’s flaw emerges from that same fullness. The Beis Yaakov defines it as premature greatness, reaching for a level meant for the future, where this abundance still requires Yirah awe and Gevurah restraint⁸. When the crowns withdrew, they did so only outwardly. A gift once given leaves an imprint that sharpens longing and awakens tefillah and teshuvah, until the light returns with greater permanence and strength⁹. Reuven’s prism refracts the Ohr through delay rather than loss: essential greatness learns containment through concealment, and what returns is clarified and enduring.

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Shimon and Levi

שמעון ולוי אחים כלי חמס מכרתיהם. בסדם אל־תבא נפשי בקהלם אל־תחד כבדי כי באפם הרגו איש וברצנם עקרו־שור. ארור אפם כי עז ועברתם כי קשתה אחלקם ביעקב ואפיצם בישראל.

Shimon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of violence are their wares. My soul will not enter their secret council, let my honor not be identified with their assembly. For in their anger they killed a man, and through their willfulness they maimed an ox. Cursed be their anger for it is powerful, and their fury for it is cruel. I will divide them throughout Yaakov and scatter them throughout [the land of] Israel.

Yaakov identifies Shimon and Levi as sharing one root, the root of gevurah, a force of intensity and precision that holds great power and great danger. Rav Moshe David Vali explains that their sin lay not only in violence, but in allowing the Sitra Achra to attach itself to that force, imitating justice while ending in destruction. For this reason Yaakov says, בסדם אל־תבא נפשי בקהלם אל־תחד כבדי “Let my soul not enter their counsel, and in their assembly let my honor not be joined.” The Beis Yaakov stresses that this separation does not reject their essence. Yaakov refuses to attach kavod to an undiluted power, because relying on later repair never substitutes for present restraint¹⁰.

Their rectification comes through dispersion. אחלקם ביעקב ואפיצם בישראל. “I will divide them in Yaakov and scatter them in Israel” functions as dilution, integrating their gevurah among the other shevatim so its sharpness sweetens into service¹¹. The Beis Yaakov understands this separation itself as hidden repair: by refusing to bind his honor to their inner council, Yaakov ensured that later failure would not root in their deepest point, preserving the possibility of teshuvah and return¹². Shimon and Levi’s prism shines only when intensity releases isolation and becomes absorbed into the collective body of Israel.

Yehuda

יהודה אתה יודוך אחיך ידך בערף איביך ישתחוו לך בני אביך. גור אריה יהודה מטרף בני עלית כרע רבץ כאריה וכלביא מי יקימנו. לא־יסור שבט מיהודה ומחקק מבין רגליו עד כי־יבא שילה ולו יקהת עמים. אסרי לגפן עירה ולשרקה בני אתנו כבס ביין לבשו ובדם־ענבים סותה. חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן־שנים מחלב.

Yehuda, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will prostrate themselves to you.

Yehuda is like a young lion. You have risen above plunder my son. He crouches, rests like a lion, like an awesome lion, who will rouse him?

The rod will not depart from Yehuda, nor a law-enforcer from between his feet, until Shiloh Comes, and to him shall be an assembly of nations.

He loads his young donkey with grapes of a vine, and his she-donkey’s foal with a vine-branch. He washes his clothes in wine, and his cloak in the blood of grapes.

His eyes are red from wine, and his teeth are white [from an abundance of] milk.

Yehuda marks the turn from the first three shevatim, where Yaakov’s words still carry sharp restraint, into the national heart-point. The Beis Yaakov explains that when Yaakov reached Yehuda, he saw that the earlier concealment did not rest on hopeless failure, because their inner root held repair, and open revelation simply did not belong to that moment¹³. Yehuda, however, points to the heart, and the heart of Klal Yisrael is invincible. He stands as Tzur Yisrael, as She’eiris Nachalaso, the inner anchor that no nation or language can touch.

His leadership means that owning and knowing go hand in hand. The Beis Yaakov describes a kind of person who possesses something precious while the understanding sits elsewhere, like Pharaoh, whose dream already held the correct counsel, yet required Yosef to interpret it. Yehuda carries a different structure. He possesses the truth and he knows what he possesses. He initiates processes and completes them, because his inner truth sits in conscious awareness rather than hiding behind confusion¹⁴.

From there, Yehuda’s prism shines through directness with Hashem, especially after failure. The Beis Yaakov says Yehuda’s power is facing Hashem straight on, surviving despair without breaking, and then rising absolutely, which is why redemption comes through him¹⁵. Rav Moshe David Vali frames this as the architecture of malchus strengthened by gevura. Yehuda receives the force needed to subdue opposition into holiness, and his malchus emerges precisely through admission and return, measure for measure with the episode of Tamar, so his brothers will acknowledge that malchus belongs to him . Even when the “scepter” seems absent in history, that kingship continues in hidden governance, restraining hostile powers so the Jewish people endure exile, until the lion rises again in revealed strength with Shiloh. Yehuda’s light, then, is the heart that keeps awareness intact, the malchut that keeps direction intact, and the courage that meets collapse and still turns it into the beginning of geulah.

Zevulun

זבולן לחוף ימים ישכן והוא לחוף אנית וירכתו על־צידן.

Zevulun will settle on seashores, he will be a harbor for ships; his border will reach Sidon.

Zevulun shines as calm avodah inside risk. The Mei HaShiloach describes a quality of awe that contains inner yishuv ha’daas, as Chazal say, “A ship is inherently calm,” and this is Zevulun’s greatness: calm within fear, steady function in uncertain places without inner collapse¹⁶. That steadiness expresses itself in Yaakov’s bracha: “Zevulun will dwell by the shore of seas, and he will be a shore for ships,” a life lived at the edge, where movement, danger, and dependence meet. Rav Moshe David Vali understands חוף ימים “the shore of seas” as the great collecting place of shefa, and חוף אנית “a shore for ships” as the arrival point of many channels. Yet Zevulun does not reach that upper domain through retreat, but through support. Since Yissachar roots himself there through constant Torah, the pasuk says והוא לחוף “and he will be a shore,” teaching that one who supports Torah merits entry into the scholar’s domain and receives precedence, because “if there is no flour, there is no Torah”. In this way, Zevulun’s commerce becomes a vessel for truth itself, strengthening emes in the world and weakening the pull of falsehood.

This is why the bracha ends with וירכתו על־צידן. “his flank will reach Sidon.” Rav Moshe David Vali explains that Sidon hints to the Other Side, and Zevulun subdues it through the simple, unglorified act of holding Torah up in the world. ירך, “Flank” implies dismissal from below, without granting honor to opposition, because his work keeps the structure of Malchus standing in all ten levels (sefiros), hinted by the ten words of his blessing. Even the story of Yonah fits this prism. The Yerushalmi identifies Yonah as coming from Zevulun, with his mother from Asher and his father from Zevulun, a soul formed from steadiness joined with inner sweetness, able to enter storm and fear and still return to mission¹⁷. Zevulun’s light, then, refracts the hidden Ohr as composed courage: a calm heart that supports Torah, stands at the boundary, and holds Israel steady where the waters feel deepest.

Yissaschar

יששכר חמר גרם רבץ בין המשפתים. וירא מנחה כי טוב ואת־הארץ כי נעמה ויט שכמו לסבל ויהי למס־עבד.

Yissachar is a bony donkey, crouching between the borders. He saw that rest is good, and that the land is pleasant; he bent his shoulder to bear the burden; and became a servant to pay the tribute.

Yissaschar is the prism of Torah’s inner weight and Torah’s inner rest. Rabbeinu Bechaye compares him to a powerful donkey with heavy bones and little flesh, a life built on endurance rather than display. Yissaschar carries Torah as a sustained burden, trading comfort, power, and visibility for depth, clarity, and understanding. His strength is inner stamina, the ability to sit, bear, think, and serve all of Israel from within by interpreting Torah, discerning time without noise or force. The Kedushas Levi sharpens this into a psychology of avodah: Yissaschar represents machshavah itself. Thought involved in serving Hashem stays restless until it reaches articulation, and only when it comes into speech does it find menuchah. רבץ בין המשפתים “Crouching between the lips” means that settled understanding arrives when inner Torah becomes sayable, grounded, and communicable, and that is why “he saw rest that it was good”¹⁸.

The Maor VaShemesh links that menuchah to Shabbos, where the hidden “good light” from Creation becomes revealed according to a person’s weekday avodah in Torah, tefillah, and ol malchut shamayim. Shabbos functions as a small measure of the World to Come, and the light a person receives then reflects what he earned through labor during the six days. ויט שכמו לסבל “He bent his shoulder to bear” becomes the willingness to carry the yoke with effort, and the outcome is inner rule: the yetzer hara shifts into a servant, and drive becomes harnessed rather than ruling¹⁹. Yissaschar’s light, then, refracts the Ohr through quiet power: burden that produces clarity, thought that finds rest in true expression, and menuchah that reveals hidden light in measured form.

Dan

דן ידין עמו כאחד שבטי ישראל. יהי־דן נחש עלי־דרך שפיפן עלי־ארח הנשך עקבי־סוס ויפל רכבו אחור. לישועתך קויתי ה׳.

Dan will avenge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent on the road, a viper on the path, that bites the horse’s heel so that the rider falls backward. For your deliverance, I wait, Hashem.

Dan refracts the Ohr by revealing the limit of human-led salvation. The Beis Yaakov explains that Dan carries the point where redemption through people reaches its boundary. Any salvation that arrives through human hands remains partial and vulnerable, because human inconsistency and limitation always leave an opening for collapse. Even the greatest figures produce only temporary repair, and this recognition brings Yaakov to Dan’s cry, לישועתך קויתי ה׳. “For Your salvation I hope, Hashem,” a refusal to settle for interim victories and a demand for ultimate, unassailable geulah that comes only from Hashem directly, without intermediaries²⁰.

Dan’s place at the bottom gives this cry its sharpness. He is Din operating at the edge where Kedusha meets the klipah face to face. That is why Yaakov uses the imagery of the “snake,” a force that strikes low, at the heel, and topples “horse and rider” by the smallest leverage point. On the surface, this maps to Shimshon, whose victories arrive through daring tactics yet end in a human end, and the contrast itself draws out Yaakov’s hope for the complete salvation that only Hashem provides²¹. In the deeper pattern, Dan becomes the strategy of עקבתא דמשיחא, literally the heels of Mashiach, pushing the klipah backward at its lowest point until it loses footing entirely, and then the salvation comes as Hashem’s direct act, permanent and whole²².

Gad

גד גדוד יגודנו והוא יגד עקב.

Gad will be an assailing troop; he will be a troop at their heels.

Gad refracts the Ohr through smallness that turns into gathering and pressure that turns into permanence. The Beis Yaakov brings the Zohar’s pattern that Gad shares with Reuven: something is taken, and the removal itself creates a claim that awakens tefillah. So the later restoration arrives as a complete and enduring acquisition, “with extra strength”²³. That same structure appears inside Gad’s bracha: “Gad, a troop will troop him, and he will troop at the heel.” The Beis Yaakov explains that Gad accepts goodness only as love from the Giver. So his natural mode is fine and concentrated, where the Giver remains felt. “Gad” also signals smallness, like a tiny grain, because abundant flow can dull awareness of love. Therefore Yaakov blesses him with “troops,” connection with the many, because in peace and unity, all good becomes whole²⁴. The Mei HaShiloach echoes this: Gad’s tikkun is companionship, because joining the many turns smallness into fullness, and restores joy and strength through connection.

A second beam of Gad’s prism is the power to bind what feels scattered. The Mei HaShiloach describes Gad as carrying a seriousness linked with yissurim, a truth-through-pressure quality that can narrow joy and isolate a person, and the bracha of “troops” comes as the tikkun. The joy inherent in being part of a wider community prevents that intensity from hardening into loneliness. In history this appears as tactical steadiness. The Netziv describes Gad as calm when surrounded, confident even under encirclement, and able to strike back “at the heel,” winning on the back end rather than by early display. In the future, this will become a literal gathering. The Maor VaShemesh ties Gad to Eliyahu, “from the inhabitants of Gilad,” whose work is peacemaking and resolving dispute, bundling Israel into one at the “heel,” in the footsteps of Mashiach. Gad’s light, then, is not expansion but preservation: concentrated goodness that stays meaningful, strength that keeps integrity intact under pressure, and the final ability to pull the many into one, so hidden goodness becomes whole and geulah can take form²⁵.

Asher

מאשר שמנה לחמו והוא יתן מעדני־מלך

From Asher will come oily food, he will provide delicacies for the king.

Asher refracts the Ohr as clean abundance that stays conscious of its Source. “From Asher: his bread will be rich, and he will give the delights of a king” describes a shefa that feels full and nourishing, yet the Kedushas Levi flips the center of gravity. The richness does not aim at self-indulgence. The main pleasure is that the Creator has joy from a person’s goodness. “Delights of a king” means the delights go to the King, because the deepest ta’anug is giving Hashem ta’anug through loving service, fulfilling “Hashem will rejoice in His works”²⁶. In this prism, Asher’s “wealth” is a refined kind of good that becomes gratitude, generosity, and settled Daas, a comfort that fuels kedushah rather than sleepwalking into ease²⁷.

The Sfas Emes adds Asher’s structural role as a distributor of blessing. The Zohar ties שמנה לחמו to the lechem mishneh of Shabbos, a doubled flow that comes from two pipelines: The inherent holiness of Shabbos and the weekday effort that earns expanded revelation, “whoever toils on Friday eats on Shabbos.” Asher stands at the edge and spreads outward, channeling Torah-life into the world so vitality reaches beyond the inner circle. In that sense, Asher parallels the Issachar–Zevulun structure: inner Torah joined with practical effort yields a doubled blessing, and Asher carries that doubled abundance outward in a way people can live on²⁸. Asher’s light, then, is abundance with awareness, pleasure that serves love, and shefa that moves from holiness into life without losing its taste of the King.

Naftali

נפתלי אילה שלחה הנתן אמרי־שפר.

Naftali is a gazelle-like messenger, he delivers pleasant Sayings.

Naftali refracts the Ohr as spiritual speed that carries prayer, clarity, and beautiful speech straight toward Hashem. Rabbeinu Bachya frames his gift as exceptional swiftness in bringing the prayers of Israel to the Throne of Glory, a messenger-force that does not stall. This bracha becomes the inner engine of that speed. The sefer Imrei Shefer understands it as zerizus, or alacrity, in avodas Hashem, where alacrity itself earns “pleasant, beloved words” before the Holy One²⁹. The Mei HaShiloach deepens this as instant recognition. Naftali sees the world and immediately asks, “Who created this,” and therefore his “words of beauty” become constant blessing and gratitude, speech that keeps returning everything to its Source.

That same quickness also steadies the public realm. Rebbe Nosson in Likutei Halachos explains that Naftali had clarified judgment and counsel, the kind of words that settle disputes and restore order. Naftali runs, brings the proof, quieting the quarrel, and this becomes the inner meaning of השיבה שופטינו “Restore our judges”. Kingship rises through mishpat, and mishpat becomes clear through the right words at the right time³⁰. The Kedushas Levi locates the root of this gift in emunah. Legs correspond to faith, and the “dispatched deer” hints to strong legs, strong emunah, so praise and song pour out naturally as “words of beauty” אמרי־שפר³¹. Naftali’s prism, then, is fast feet and sweet lips: quick recognition of Hashem, quick delivery of אמת into usable language, and speech that makes peace, lifts tefillah, and moves Israel forward³².

Yosef

בן פרת יוסף בן פרת עלי־עין בנות צעדה עלי־שור

A fruitful son is Yoseif, a fruitful son at the well [source]. Daughters tread on the wall.

Yosef refracts the Ohr as yesod, the steady channel that keeps life, blessing, and continuity moving without leakage. His light is not dramatic expansion, rather it is reliable transmission: carrying responsibility, guarding integrity, and building systems that hold. This is why his strength reads as “pipeline” avodah, steady and clean, where the work is constant rather than display. “בן פורת עלי עין” becomes the anti–ayin hara posture of yesod itself: modesty, privacy, and protection of dignity. Yosef guards what deserves covering, especially the dignity of others, and that creates a spiritual covering over him as well, so results speak while the self stays quiet³³.

וימררהו ורבו וישטמהו בעלי חצים

They made him bitter and quarreled with him. Expert bowmen with hatred made him their target.

His prism shines brightest under attack. “וימררוהו ורבו… וישטמוהו בעלי חצים” describes pressures, accusations, and seductions aimed at breaking truth, yet Yosef’s response is not noise but anchoring.

ותשב באיתן קשתו ויפזו זרעי ידיו מידי אביר יעקב משם רעה אבן ישראל

His bow remained in strength, his arms were bedecked with gold, by the hand of Mighty One of Yaakov; from there he became the shepherd [the provider], the stone of Israel.

“ותשב באיתן קשתו” names his weapon as the discipline of the bris, the Shomer HaBris. This is portrayed via the consistent boundaries that keep him tied to the strength of the Avot, even in the most intense temptation. When he stays unbroken, even opposition becomes forced into service, and resistance itself turns into added blessing rather than derailment³⁴.

Yosef’s leadership remains sourced in Hashem rather than people, so approval never intoxicates and rejection never crushes. From that posture he becomes “משם רועה אבן ישראל,” the one who sustains the family and later the nation, materially and spiritually, keeping the bond alive through concealment by the simple power of disciplined integrity.³⁵

Binyamin

בנימין זאב יטרף בבקר יאכל עד ולערב יחלק שלל

Binyamin is like a wolf that preys. In the morning he will eat a portion, and in the evening he will divide the spoil.

Binyamin refracts the Ohr as an intense drive that becomes avodah when it is harnessed. “Binyamin is a wolf that tears” describes momentum, appetite, and urgency, a mode that moves fast and grabs the next opening. This energy builds, yet it also carries a risk: taking what is “right” before it is ripe. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali points to Binyamin’s pattern of snatching, where desire outruns timing, and the tikkun becomes boundaries and patience, ambition ruled by assignment rather than hunger.

When refined, that same appetite turns into holy service. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali understands the “wolf” as the Mizbeach in Binyamin’s portion, constantly “consuming” korbanot, meaning that Binyamin’s highest expression is a steady avodah that processes intensity into closeness to Hashem.
בבקר יאכל עד ולערב יחלק שלל “In the morning he will eat prey, and in the evening he will divide spoil” becomes daily discipline: receive holiness early, when chesed and shefa expand, then manage the outer edges later, allocating the minimum to what must be handled without letting night rule the soul. Binyamin’s prism shines when drive becomes devotion, speed becomes service, and desire becomes a clean כלי for the fire of the Mizbeach³⁶.

This completes the prism. The Beis Yaakov explains that the shevatim are called in Sefer HaBahir “diagonal boundaries,” meaning no one reflects the light of another. Each shevet carries a distinct expression of the Ohr, and the same trait can appear as failure in one and greatness in another³⁷.

Think of white light shining through a prism. The result is a rainbow; all those colors are within the white light, but they are not expressed individually until the prism reveals them, each in its own measure.

What Yosef must release, Yehuda must hold. If Yosef clings to grievance, it undermines his avodah, because his work is to pass beyond personal measure, so Heaven passes beyond measure with him. But when Yehuda refuses to overlook, that refusal itself can define him as a talmid chacham, because his role requires firmness and an unyielding hold on truth. The difference is precision. Each shevet shines its light only by staying loyal to its own vessel. Together, these diagonal lights form a single refracted whole, where contradiction disappears and the hidden Ohr moves toward its final, unified revelation.

Conclusion

Rav Moshe Dovid Vali explains that the Shechinah spoke through Yaakov, so each line functioned as spiritual channeling rather than personal opinion. Therefore “איש אשר כברכתו” means: each shevet received the specific bracha aligned with its shoresh, its unique way of carrying and revealing Shechinah in the world.

The Beis Yaakov adds one more layer: the final missing piece needed for the Geula is Shimon’s full tikkun. However, the definition was not clearly revealed. Once it becomes revealed, redemption appears as total and uninterrupted flow³⁸.³⁹

The Zohar⁴⁰ teaches that Yaakov reached his greatest joy and peace while living in Mitzrayim, a place associated with impurity. The contrast itself teaches the point. Yaakov found menuchah by seeing Mitzrayim as a temporary stage, not a destination, and by holding fast to holiness and to the knowledge that Hashem remains with us within concealment.

As we move from Sefer Bereishis into Sefer Shemos, into galus, and into the long unfolding of history, we try to tap into our reflective light, a prism of the Ohr Ein Sof, by listening to our calling. At times we grasp it in moments of clarity, and at times it slips into concealment, until the great day when we can sing Mizmor shir LeYom HaShabbos, a day that holds future and past together⁴¹. The Beis Yaakov frames Shabbos as the meeting point of branches and root, difference and unity, morning kindness and night faithfulness, teaching how hidden light rests inside restraint until it reaches full revelation⁴².

Shabbos also trains the vessel. It draws life from the source before life takes shape in garments, and it blesses the six days from above, so Torah, tefillah, and ol malchut shamayim become the weekday labor that opens deeper Shabbos light⁴³. This is the final arc of the prism: each shevet carries its measured beam through concealment, and together they prepare the world for the moment when concealment turns into clarity, and the hidden Ohr shines as geulah, as Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael.

1. Bereishis 49:2

2. Beis Yaakov Vayech §59

3. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §53

4. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §55

5. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §24

6. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §52

7. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §61

8. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §62

9. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §61

10. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §63

11. Rav Moshe David Vali – Shimon & Levi

12. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §63

13. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §63

14. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §64

15. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §66

16. Mei HaShiloach, Shemot §1

17. Yerushalmi Sukkah 5:1

18. Kedushas Levi, Vayechi §13

19. Maor Vshemesh, Vayechi §11

20. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §73

21. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §73

22. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

23. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §61

24. Beis Yaakov — Vayechi §74

25. Beis Yaakov — Vayechi §75; Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

26. Kedushas Levi — Vayechi 18; 21

27. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

28. Sfas Emes — Vayechi 4:4

29. Imrei Shefer, Ma’amar Kedoshin §3

30. Likutei Halachos, O.C., Tefillah 5:3:8

31. Kedushas Levi — Vayechi §23

32. Rabbeinu Bachya

33. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

34. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

35. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

36. Rav Moshe Dovid Vali

37. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §83

38. Beis Yaakov Vayechi §53

39. In a footnote he points to the Tiferes HaChanochi, a kabbalistic sefer by Rav Gershon Henoch Leiner, son of the Beis Yaakov, known as the Radzyner Rebbe and the Sod Yesharim, where he explains that Shimon’s tikkun alone remains unrevealed. He writes that Rav Shimon bar Yochai marked the beginning of that tikkun, which appears to involve the capacity to listen.

40. Vol 1 pg 216b

41. Beis Yaakov, Vayechi §1

42. Beis Yaakov, Vayechi §1

43. Beis Yaakov, Vayechi §2