Vines and Branches

"He ties his ass to a vine, etc." (Gen. 49:11)

There are numerous explanations of this verse; their common denominator is that they are all of a homiletical nature. Perhaps the verse is again speaking about the arrival of the Messiah who has been mentioned at the end of the last verse, i.e. "till Shiloh arrives." Jacob had described that period as one when all the nations of the world will seek out the Messiah.

This verse would then describe the Messiah as tying his donkey to the vine, i.e. Israel. Israel has been compared to the vine: "You plucked up a vine from Egypt, You expelled nations and planted it." (Psalms 80:9) The "donkey" in this verse refers to the gentile nations. We have several instances in the Bible in which the gentile nations are compared to donkeys. The first such instance is where Abraham compares the gentiles to the donkey. (Genesis 22:5, according to Kidushin 68)

When Jacob proceeds to speak of the 'soreka' - an especially long vine, as a branch to which the Messiah will tie his she-ass’s colt, he makes a fine distinction between the male and female souls that originate in the domain of the kelipa. He calls the male, 'ir', whereas he calls the female 'aton'. Then, speaking of Israel as a whole, i.e. gefen, he describes the Messiah as tying the male gentiles to the whole vine, whereas when speaking of the female gentiles he speaks of the Messiah tying them to a single branch of that vine. Not that much restraining power is needed to control the females.

Alternatively, our verse speaks of two different periods of well known redemptions. The first is the redemption from Egypt, whereas the second refers to the ultimate redemption in the days of the Messiah who is descended from David. Concerning the first redemption, Jacob said: "he ties his donkey to a vine", similar to the verse in Psalms (80:9), a period when G‑d humbled a single nation before the Jews, i.e. the Egyptians. Concerning the redemption in the future, Jacob speaks of the 'shreka', the whistle, in the sense that the prophet Zachariah did: "I will whistle to them and gather them, for I will redeem them." (Zachariah 10:8)

Jacob speaks of bnei atono, i.e. the plural, since at that time Israel will be redeemed from many different nations. At the time of the Exodus, the redemption comprised the defeat of Egypt and the Canaanites, i.e. seven of the Canaanite nations. The remainder of the seventy nations were not humbled before Israel at that time. When the final redemption will occur, all the other nations too will be humbled before Israel. These are the bnei atono, the offspring of the original ira.

Do not be concerned at the fact that we divide this verse by applying part to the time of Moses and part to the time of the redemption at the time of the Messiah; surely you are familiar with the words of the Zohar (II page 120) that Moses is viewed as the redeemer who redeemed our forefathers and as the redeemer who will lead their children back to the land of the ancestors as is written: "What will be is what will be." (Ecclesiastes 1:9); the first letters of the first three words of that line (In Hebrew) form the acronym Mosh"e [i.e. Moses]. Solomon alludes to the fact that he who has been a redeemer in the past will again be a redeemer in the future.

Do not counter by saying that the redeemer of the future will be from the tribe of Judah and will either be a descendant of King David or will be King David himself reincarnate1 In view of all these prophesies, how could we say that the redeemer of the future will come from the tribe of Levi?

You must realize that the soul of Moses was composed of all twelve tribes of Israel, all the 600,000 being "branches" of it. David’s soul therefore was also a branch of Moses’ soul. This is also why you find that while in the desert Moses performed the duties of both king, priest, Levite, prophet, scholar and ,military hero. He was only able to perform all these functions because his soul comprised all branches of holiness. When the redeemer will appear in the future, it will be revealed that Moses was the root of all monarchy in Israel and that David will be perceived as Shiloh.