Or HaChaim on Genesis 49:11/אור החיים על בראשית מ״ט:י״א

1 אסרי לגפן עירה, "He ties his ass to a vine, etc." 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. עד כי יבא שילה. 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 in Psalms 80,9: "You plucked up a vine from Egypt, You expelled nations and planted it." 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 in Genesis 22,5 where Abraham compares the Gentiles to the donkey (according to Kidushin 68). We also have a very clear such comparison in Ezekiel 23,20 where the prophet compares Israel's promiscuity with Gentiles as a lust for the flesh of donkeys. When Jacob proceeds to speak of the שרקה 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 קליפה. He calls the male, עיר, whereas he calls the female אתון. When speaking of Israel as a whole, i.e. גפן 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.

2Alternatively, 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 he first redemption, Jacob said: אסרי לגפן עירה, 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 שרקה, the whistle, in the sense that the prophet Zachariah did in Zachariah 10,8: אשרקה להם ואקבצם כי פדית, "I will whistle to them and gather them, for I will redeem them." Jacob speaks of בני אתונו, 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 בני אתונו, the offspring of the original עירה.

3Perhaps Jacob referred to a concept which we know from the Zohar Pinchas page 231, that in the domain of the סטרא אחרא, the realm of the spiritually negative manifestations of the ten emanations, the power of female is actually stronger than that of the male. The male just takes the "left-overs" of the female and is therefore known as the יותרת הכבד. [We find two expressions involving the כבד in Leviticus 9,10 where the Torah speaks of: ואת היותרת מן הכבד, "the addition coming out of the כבד," and in Leviticus 3,15 where same is described as: ואת היותרת על הכבד, "the addition which is on the כבד." According to the Zohar the word כבד does not merely mean liver but is a hyperbole for the male with whom Lilith consorts. The spiritually negative forces in this world are sometimes referred to as Samael sometimes as the serpent. Samael is the male part of that team, Lilith, is the female. When adultery is committed, the female partner is released from the כבד, i.e. מן הכבד. Having once been released it assumes a dominance over its former partner so that it will qualify for the description על הכבד, "on top of the כבד." It follows that in the scheme of the powers of evil described by the Zohar, the female is viewed as stronger than the male. Ed.] Jacob described that in his dreams he found it relatively easy to battle the male forces i.e. Samael, whereas he found it much more exhausting to battle the female forces i.e. Lilith. Even when he finally won a victory against those forces, such a victory was not absolute and his dominance could not be compared to his dominance over the parallel male forces of Satan. In view of Jacob's personal experiences in battling the forces of Satan he referred to the שרקה as the female of these forces and said: At the time when G'd will whistle, i.e. announce the coming of the final redemption and will gather in the children of the she-ass, i.e. the forces which emanate from the female of the קליפה, He will also "tie them up," i.e. subdue them, before Israel.

4Do 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; you, my reader, are surely familiar with the words of the Zohar section 2, 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 their ancestors as is written in Kohelet 1,9: "מה שהיה הוא שיהיה. The first letters of the first three words of that line form the acronym משה. 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 Yehudah and will either be descended from king David or will be king David himself reincarnate (compare Sanhedrin 98 based on Ezekiel 37,24: "and My servant David will be king over them"). In view of all these prophecies how could we say that the redeemer of the future will come from the tribe of Levi?

5You must realise 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 שילה (numerical value of =345משה).

6כבס ביין לבושו, "he will launder his garments in wine, etc." In order to understand these words we must recall a statement in the Zohar Chadash on Parshat Bereshit that in order to be redeemed from the fourth of the four exiles Israel experiences we must possess the redeeming merit of Torah study and Torah knowledge. In the absence of such merit the redemption may be long delayed. Jacob alluded to this when he said כבס ביין לבושו. The specific strength of the king who will be the Messiah is his preoccupation with Torah. The Torah knowledge is symbolised by his wearing purple robes (colour of wine).

7If at the appointed time, G'd forbid, the Jewish people will not be able to provide such a purple mantle for their redeemer because they are devoid of Torah knowledge, then the redemption will be characterised by the advent of a cruel king, someone like Haman, and the "blood of grapes," i.e. real Jewish blood, instead of blood commuted into the wine of Torah learning, will flow in order that G'd will be able to keep to His schedule for the redemption (compare Sanhedrin 97). The "sparks" of sanctity remaining amongst the Jews may then be released only through very painful afflictions. In other words, Jacob warns that redemption can come about by means of a dignified mode of life, one that includes Torah study, or, G'd forbid, by means of a demeaning way of life and the resultant loss of dignity. The reason Jacob chose the simile of grapes is that in order to produce wine from grapes they have to be pressed, i.e. they have to be "tortured" to release the best that is within them.

8The reason that Jacob speaks only about דם ענבים, blood from the grapes, and not from a branch of the vine or a whole cluster of grapes for instance, is to console us that even if the redemption will become possible only by means of additional afflictions it will not cause a major dismemberment of the Jewish people.

9Just as the grapes are a minor part of the whole vine, so the garment of the Messiah described here is not כסות, something large enough to serve as a total garment, but a diminutive סותה, a mini-garment. There would not ever be sufficient blood from the grapes to enable a whole garment to be drenched in it, as opposed to a redemption which occurs as a result of the people's Torah's study, the merit of which would suffice to dye the whole mantle of the Messiah purple.