Major section of the Sedra comprises the blessings which Jacob gave his children before he passed away. After addressing his three oldest sons, Reuben, Shimon and Levi, he turns to Judah. “Judah, you, your brothers will accept [your authority]. Your hand will be on the nape of the neck of your enemies...”
A mysterious aspect of the text is the word ‘you’ which comes after Judah’s name. One might also ask what is meant by the reference to ‘enemies’..?
Chassidic teachings explain that Judah represents the Attribute Kingship, and indeed, descended from Judah were David King of Israel and the Kings who followed, from Solomon onwards. However, considering Kingship as an Attribute of the Divine, the Sefirah Malchut, we can understand Judah as an aspect of our service of the Divine.
Kingship represents selflessness. Although we might think of kings as wielding personal power, the Jewish concept of a King is of a person selfless before the Divine. Judah’s brothers signify other aspects of Divine service and of the Divine Attributes. They accept Judah’s authority, for it is through Kingship that all the other Sefirot become manifest.
Now we can understand the meaning of the extra word ‘you’. The Zohar comments that the word ‘You’ denotes three specific spiritual levels: Kingship, Kindness and Wisdom. This means that Jacob is emphasising the deep quality of Judah. The first is his connection with Kingship. Second, the fact that the role of Kingship is in order to manifest the other Sefirot, particularly the Sefirah Chesed, Kindness, which is like a flow throughout the system of the Sefirot, flowing from the highest levels downwards.
Finally, the word ‘You’ emphasises the connection with Wisdom. Wisdom is the first Sefirah, it is the point of connection with the Divine and it is also totally abnegated in relation to the Divine. This abnegation characterises Judah – from the highest level, Wisdom, down to the lowest level, Kingship. And his role is the revelation of Kindness.
The Kabbalists explain that from the Attribute Kingship in the highest spiritual world, Atzilut or Emanation, there is a flow down into the lower worlds: Creation, Formation, Action. This is the role of Judah, to enable this flow and revelation to take place, by means of his (or her) selflessness.
In this sense the blessing to Judah relates to each one of us. It focuses on a vital aspect of our spiritual self, which is both bonded above in Wisdom but also active below, down to the simplest and lowest levels of life.
Our next question concerns the ‘enemies’.
From the earlier explanation, it is clear that the goal of the Judah aspect of our being is to reach down into the lowest realms and create there a ‘Dwelling for the Divine’. How is this dwelling created? Through our struggle with negative forces, in ourselves or in our surroundings. Our battle for self-control and restraint has an exalted value in the eyes of the Divine. As Rabbi Shneur Zalman writes in Tanya ‘Thus it arose in the Divine Will.. that He should gain pleasure when ‘the other side’ [ie of impurity, of negativity, of the desire for sin] is quelled, and darkness is changed to light, that the Divine radiance should shine in that place of darkness.’ And then, the light which is seen despite the darkness is ever more bright.
This is our mission: to enter that dark realm of ‘enemies’, ie of kelipot, literally ‘shells’, concealment of holiness, bad desires, bad thoughts, and so on – and to restrain ourselves from bad, to create goodness (guided by the Torah) instead of succumbing to the negative.
And through this we reach an even higher level of ‘You’, higher than Wisdom which is the first of the Sefirot, indeed utterly beyond the Sefirot. We reach ‘You’ the Essence of the Divine, that universal Essence of G-d to which every child can relate.
This leads to the time of Moshiach, as mentioned also by Jacob
When no longer will there need to be the quelling, the self restraint – because all negative forces will themselves be transformed to holiness.
And then our relation with the nations of the world will also be transformed. They will assist us in our task to connect with the Divine, and to connect the world to the Divine, with the coming of Moshiach – may that take place speedily!
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