In a class given on the 28th of Kislev this year, Rav Ginsburgh joined his family for a traditional “Latkes Night,” which he dedicated to the connection between the two aspects of Mashiach, son of Joseph and son of David.
One of the topics that he explored in some length was the unique understanding of the connection between David and Joseph as presented by Rabbi Meir Margaliyot, author of Meir Netivim, who was the Ba’al Shem Tov’s first follower and was a leading rabbinical figure in his own right.
The full text of this farbrengen was first published in Hebrew in the Nifla’ot issue for Vayigash 5786.
Many are not familiar with the Ba’al Shem Tov’s early years, before he was commanded to reveal himself as a tzaddik. His first devout follower was the brother of a great figure in his own right, Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Ber Margaliyot, the chief rabbi of all of Podolia who famously argued with the Frankists (together with his rebbe, the Ba’al Shem Tov and Rabbi Chaim HaCohen Rappaport) in Lviv in 1759.
When he was a teenager, Yitzchak Dov brought his younger brother Meir Margaliyot to the Ba’al Shem Tov, who was then a ritual slaughterer. Rabbi Meir is known as the Ba’al Shem Tov’s first committed follower who years later, with the Ba’al Shem Tov’s blessing (and insistence), became the chief rabbi of Ostroh, one of the most important Jewish communities in Western Ukraine.
Interestingly, though the Ba’al Shem Tov was his rebbe and teacher, Rabbi Meir Margaliyot addresses him as “my friend and teacher” in their correspondence. No one else addressed the Ba’al Shem Tov this way. The Ba’al Shem Tov himself did not like the title “chasidim.” The 21 years before he revealed himself were described by his then followers with the verse, “Only good for Israel” (לֵאֲרׂשִיְבלֹטוְךַא). The value of “only” (ְךַא) is 21, and in those 21 years, it was only good for Israel—Israel Ba’al Shem Tov; those were the best years of his life.
Rabbi Meir Margaliyot’s works are known as Meir Netivim. They consist of both his responsa in halachah and a commentary on select topics from the Pentateuch illustrating his genius in gematria and mathematics. The greatest scholars of his generation described his writing as possible only with Divine Spirit, Ru’ach HaKodesh.
David’s Lifespan and the Gifts of the Patriarchs
One of the topics he innovates upon is the lifespan of King David. Adam, the first human, who was shown the history of all his progeny, saw that David would be given only 3 hours to live, and so he “donated” 70 years of his own life to David. But these 70 years constituted only the lifespan of David’s physical being. The life of his soul was given to him by the patriarchs. The Mittler Rebbe describes these two aspects of King David’s life as the “stimulus of his physical flesh” (רָׂשָּיבֵּיַתחּלוֲעַּפְתִה) and the “stimulus of his Divine life” (-ֱיֵּיַתחּלוֲעַּפְתִהַּהֹלו).
The 70 years given by the patriarchs are usually calculated in the following manner: Abraham passed away at the age of 175 and Isaac at the age of 180 so that he would not see his grandson Esau’s moral corruption. Nonetheless, those 5 years went to David. Jacob lived 147 years, 28 years less than Abraham. Those years went to David. Finally, Joseph lived to 110, 37 years less than his father Jacob, and those years went to David. In total, David received 70 years from Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.
Rabbi Meir Margaliyot notes that there is a different reckoning brought in the Zohar, which makes a great deal of sense, and it is surprisingly not mentioned in Chabad literature as far as I can recall. The Zohar writes that all 70 of David’s years came from Jacob and Joseph alone. The principle it follows is that every son should ideally match his father’s lifespan. So, Jacob lived 33 years less than Isaac and Joseph lived 37 years less than Jacob; together they gave David these 70 years. Obviously, this presents a simpler logic than the other calculation that assumes Abraham should ideally match his son’s Isaac’s lifespan. When David says in Psalms, “Open my eyes so that I may see the wonders of your Torah” (הָיטִּבַאיוַינֵלעַּגָךֶתרֹותִמֹאוָלפִנ), since the word “open” (לַּג) equals 33, he may be alluding to the 33 years he received from Jacob according to this more logical reckoning, since Jacob is considered the pillar of Torah.
In my opinion, this is a far more logical explanation when considering that according to it David—the archetypal soul of kingdom—receives from Jacob and Joseph the archetypal souls of beauty (tiferet) and foundation (yesod), the two sefirot that are just above kingdom on the middle axis.
Based on this reckoning, Rabbi Meir Margaliyot explains the verse, “By Your arm, You redeemed Your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph, selah” (ָּתְלַאָּגהָלֶףסֵסֹיוְבוֹקֲעַייֵנְּבָךֶּמַעַעֹרוְזִּב). The entire verse is describing the redemption, but what is the meaning of “the children of Jacob and Joseph” and why are they “Your people?” It would make sense that they would be the children of Jacob but why would “Your people” be the children of Joseph. A simple answer would be to look at these words numerically and notice that the average value of “Your people” (ָךֶּמַע), “Jacob” (בֹקֲעַי), and “Joseph” (ףֵסֹיו) is 156, the value of Joseph, so Joseph is the essence of these words.
The Targum and other commentaries look for the answer in Joseph’s role as the provider for all of his brothers in Egypt. Because he ensured their survival, he is seen as their father of sorts. But the Meir Netivim takes a different approach. He writes that though redemption applies to all of Israel, King David speaks of his personal redemption, “God is my rock and my redeemer” (יִלֲאֹגְיוִרּה'צו). David is thus both the Mashiach who will redeem, and the one who is redeemed. He represents the sefirah of kingdom, which has nothing of its own and therefore first needs God to redeem it. As we mentioned, he had no time allotted for his life and had to receive the gift of life from others—external life from Adam and inner life from Jacob and Joseph (following the Zohar’s reckoning mentioned earlier). This is why David refers to both Jacob and Joseph as his fathers. Indeed, when we add “David” (דִוָּד) to “Jacob and Joseph” (ףֵסֹיוְבוֹקֲעַי), the sum equals 358, the value of “Mashiach” (ַיחִׁשָמ)!
To this explanation we may add another observation that ties the verse to David. The value of the entire verse, “By Your arm, You redeemed Your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph, selah” (יֵנְּבָךֶּמַעַעֹרוְזִּבָּתְלַאָּגהָלֶףסֵסֹיוְבוֹקֲעַי) is 1350. Since it consists of 27 letters, the average value of each letter is 50, which is the value of the letter nun (נ), the 14th letter of the aleph-bet; and 14 is the value of “David” (דִוָּד). Thus, numerically, the entire verse alludes to King David.
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