The Power of Benjamin—7 Bows to Esau—Who Will Defeat Amalek

Benjamin—the Thigh—Netzach

The Torah describes Jacob’s nighttime struggle with Esau’s guardian angel. The angel felt Jacob from every side, trying to find a weak point in his spiritual nature, in the structure of his attributes, but found none. Jacob, the most perfect of our forefathers, endured this difficult trial and prevailed. Nevertheless, the angel did manage to strike him—the power of impurity struck holiness in the thigh. The thigh is associated with the Divine attribute of Netzach. As a result of the struggle, Jacob limped, both literally and figuratively. The book “Pardes” by the great Ramakh contains an entire section, “Yerekh Yaakov”, devoted to this subject. The next morning brought the famous meeting between Jacob’s family and Esau. The youngest of the brothers, Benjamin, suffered the least from it, and this is connected with his special holiness. All eleven brothers were forced to bow to Esau. A bow—or, more precisely in this case, falling facedown—causes Divine power to descend from Above. By falling facedown before Esau, the brothers transferred this power to him and thereby established his dominion over the attribute of Netzach. Regarding Jacob himself, the Holy Zohar asks how it was possible for him to bow before the wicked Esau. It answers that during this encounter, the presence of the Shekhinah was revealed, and it was before Her that he bowed seven times. No such explanation exists regarding the brothers. Therefore, they bowed directly before Esau. Only Benjamin did not take part, because by that time he had not yet been born. Therefore, his connection with Netzach remained the strongest. This power—the power to subdue Esau through his descendant Amalek—passed to King Saul, a descendant of Benjamin. The Prophet Samuel, anointing Saul as king, was guided by Ruach HaKodesh. He knew that Saul alone had the ability to repair the damage to the attribute of Netzach. The Sefirah of Netzach is the channel through which prophecy enters the world. The Prophet Samuel knew that Saul possessed the power to restore and repair the attribute of Netzach. Anointing a king is performed with olive oil, which expresses the highest attribute of Chokhmah in this world—the source of everything, the root from which the process of repair must begin. Samuel himself was a Levite, a representative of the tribe whose soul-root is connected with the Sefirah of Gevurah, the attribute of Judgment, whose byproduct is evil. The attribute of Judgment seeks to curtail and diminish the flow of Divine blessing into the world, while the concealment of the Divine Presence allows its opposite, evil, to exist. When Samuel received Saul, he ordered that the thigh portion—the very part that had been injured—be served at the meal. (I Samuel 9:23) During this meal, through special kavanot, they began a joint tikkun, and the attribute of Netzach began to be repaired. On his way from Samuel, Saul encountered a group of prophets prophesying under the influence of a special Spirit from the Almighty. As he joined them, this Spirit also descended upon Saul, and he too began to prophesy. The Tanakh says that he became an entirely different person, so much so that a proverb arose about him: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” The Prophet Samuel conveyed to him the Almighty’s mitzvah: to destroy Amalek. And then Saul made a terrible mistake. Listening to the advice of his counselors and the Sanhedrin, contrary to his own understanding, he spared the livestock and King Agag, who in that one night managed to leave descendants, including the lineage of the wicked Haman. As a result, the entire repair of Netzach was placed in jeopardy. Samuel prayed all night, and his prayer was partially accepted. In response to Saul’s request, he said that the Almighty is not a man and will not change His mind. However, “Netzach Yisrael lo yeshaker”, Samuel said—in other words, all is not lost after all; the attribute of Netzach will not change. The final tikkun of the Sefirah of Netzach was accomplished by King David. Anointed with oil by the word of the Almighty, just as Saul had been, he possessed a special quality. David composed songs and praises to the Creator that have the power to sweeten the judgments and repair their byproducts. From his time onward, prophecy truly became a widespread phenomenon among the Jewish people. The Talmud, in Tractate Megillah, says that there were no fewer than 1.2 million prophets among us. Even the soldiers Saul sent to arrest David received the prophetic Spirit and began to prophesy. We can see that the Almighty punished Saul according to the principle of measure for measure. Saul failed to complete the tikkun of the Sefirah of Netzach, the source of the prophetic Spirit, and in response, the Creator’s Spirit departed from him, while a spirit of impurity, melancholy, and despair came in its place. Only David was able to drive it away with his songs. Saul failed to bring prophecy to the Jewish people. In response, at the critical moment before the battle with the Philistines, G-d answered him neither through the prophets nor through the Urim and Thummim, and Saul was forced to summon the spirit of the deceased Prophet Samuel through sorcery. Mordechai, a descendant of Benjamin and Saul, absolutely refused to bow to Haman, a descendant of Esau and Amalek. The Holy Zohar reports that when Mordechai met Haman, he even showed him his thigh, thereby telling him that the Jews would prevail and that nothing would destroy the Jews’ connection with G-d. (The Power of Tehillim, based on the book “At the Holiday Table” by Rabbi Yaakov Doktor)