Tag Archives: Edmond de Rothschild

Joseph and the Rothschilds

This week’s parasha, Vayeshev, relays the infamous story of the Sale of Joseph. As explored in the past, a careful reading of the text shows that Joseph’s brothers didn’t necessarily sell him (see ‘Was Joseph Really Sold by His Brothers?’ in Garments of Light, Volume One). They threw him in a pit and abandoned him. They then discussed what to do next, and Yehudah only suggested selling him. While they were still deliberating, Reuben goes to get Joseph from the pit and discovers that he is no longer there. Midianites had found Joseph and enslaved him, then sold him to Ishmaelites that took him down to Egypt. Reuben runs to his brothers to relay that Joseph is gone! (Genesis 37:29-30)

The plain reading of the text suggests the brothers did not sell Joseph. However, because they abandoned him and seriously considered selling him, they took on the blame for it anyway. Most commentaries, including Rashi, insist that the brothers really were directly involved in the sale, but some commentators argue otherwise, including Rashi’s grandson Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, c. 1085-1158), who wrote:

… עברו אנשים מדיינים אחרים דרך שם, וראוהו בבור ומשכוהו ומכרוהו המדיינים לישמעאלים. ויש לומר שהאחים לא ידעו, ואף על פי אשר כתב: אשר מכרתם אותי מצרימה (בראשית מ”ה:ד’), יש לומר: שהגרמת מעשיהם סייעה במכירתו. זה נראה לי לפי עומק דרך פשוטו של מקרא. כי ויעברו אנשים מדיינים – משמע על ידי מקרה, והם מכרוהו לישמעאלים.

… other, Midianite people passed by there and saw [Joseph] in the pit and pulled him out and sold him to the Ishmaelites. One could say that the brothers did not know of this, even though it is later written “that you sold me to Egypt” (Genesis 45:4) this is to mean that their actions indirectly caused his sale. This appears to me to be the more profound simple understanding of the verses, for “Midianite people passed by” coincidentally at that time, and they sold him to the Ishmaelites.

This interpretation would explain many other details, for instance, why were the brothers so shocked to see Joseph years later in Egypt? If they had sold him to a slave caravan going down to Egypt, why would they be surprised to find him there? They should have known he is in Egypt! In fact, we know the brothers all repented wholeheartedly, so why did they not, at some point, go down to Egypt and look for him or try to bring him back? The evidence is quite strong that the brothers genuinely did not know where he was.

A related follow-up question: Which brothers were there when Joseph was sold to begin with? The parasha begins by telling us that Joseph “tended the flocks with his brothers, and he was a youth with the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah.” (Genesis 37:2) It seems Joseph spent most of his time with the four sons from the concubine-wives, ie. Dan, Naftali, Gad, and Asher—the younger siblings. The sons of Leah, meanwhile, kept to themselves, perhaps because of seniority or maybe even an air of superiority. It seems to be that Joseph and the four sons of the concubine wives stayed close to home and shepherded their flocks near Jacob’s tent, while the sons of Leah were shepherding further away near Shechem and Dotan, which is why Jacob sends Joseph on a mission to find them and see what they are up to (Genesis 37:14). Note how the only brothers that are named in the account surrounding the sale are Reuben, Shimon, and Judah—three of the six sons of Leah. None of the other brothers are mentioned. One could make the case that maybe only the sons of Leah were involved.

The Sefirot of Mochin above (in blue) and the Sefirot of the Middot below (in red) on the mystical “Tree of Life”.

Kabbalistically, the children of Leah make up a complete set corresponding to the lower Sefirot. Recall that the Ten Sefirot are divided up into the three lofty Mochin (“intellectual” faculties) and the seven lower Middot (“emotional” faculties). The firstborn Reuben, the kind one who tried to save Joseph, is Chessed, the first of the Middot. Chessed is associated with water, and Jacob later describes Reuben as pachaz k’mayim, “impetuous like water”. Second-born Shimon, the strongest, feistiest, and most judgemental of the brothers, neatly corresponds to second Gevurah, or Din, “severity” and “judgement”. The priestly Levi is Tiferet, the repentant Yehudah is Netzach, and Issachar and Zevulun are Hod and Yesod. Their sister Dinah, of course, corresponds to the feminine Malkhut.

It appears from the plain text of the parasha that the children of Leah mostly kept to their own “Sefirotic” group. That said, we find that Reuben was not with them when they discussed the sale of Joseph. The Zohar (I, 185b) explains that the sons of Jacob took turns tending to their father’s needs. That day was the day that Reuben was responsible for Jacob, so he was away with his father. This explains why Reuben only reappears later in the narrative. He only rushed back, the Zohar says, to save Joseph from the pit, and was completely unaware of the sale (וְאֲפִילּוּ רְאוּבֵן לָא יָדַע מֵהַהוּא זְבִינָא דְיוֹסֵף). He would not find out until many years later in Egypt. If we put all of this information together, it appears only five of the brothers were directly involved: Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, Issachar, and Zevulun. All ten are ultimately held culpable because brothers are all responsible for each other, and should always be aware of each other’s whereabouts and wellbeing. The fact that they let Joseph get sold into slavery was an absolute failure on the part of all ten, even those who were not technically involved. And that’s why we have so many traditions and teachings about the need for all ten brothers to be rectified, including through the Ten Martyrs later in history (see ‘The Ten Martyrs & the Message of Yom Kippur’ in Garments of Light, Volume Two).

But what of the five brothers that were mainly culpable? They would certainly need a special, additional tikkun. As we look through Jewish history, we find several more groups of “five brothers” that are of tremendous significance. Each of these groups of five propel Judaism forward and usher in a new era in Jewish history. Who are these groups of five and how do they relate to the five brothers of Joseph?

The Maccabees & the Tannaim

We find a set of five brothers with similar names to the first set in the story of Chanukah. Parashat Vayeshev is always read right around Chanukah time, and there are no coincidences in the Jewish calendar! Could it be that the righteous Yehudah, who takes the lead among the sons of Jacob and takes the lead in repentance, returns as Yehudah Maccabee, who takes the lead among the sons of Matityahu and takes the lead to save Judaism in the Second Temple era? Shimon, who was the most culpable of the sons and was not even blessed by Jacob on his deathbed (Genesis 49), returns as Simon Thassi, “Shimon the Righteous”, the last surviving son of the Maccabees and arguably the first rabbi. What a tikkun that would make! Levi, the family priest in Jacob’s time, returns as Elazar, described as the most “religious” of the Maccabees, the one tasked with learning and praying while the other brothers fought the Seleucids (see II Maccabees 8:22-23). Elazar eventually joins the battle himself, and tragically gets trampled by a war elephant. The little-known Issachar and Zevulun, who are not mentioned in the Genesis account, parallel Yonatan and Yochanan, of whom we also know the least about when it comes to the Maccabees.

In fact, as explored in the past, it is possible that these same five souls return once again in the students of Rabbi Akiva: Yehuda bar Ilai, Shimon bar Yochai, Elazar ben Shammua, Yose bar Halafta, and Meir. These five rabbis were involved in a great war, too—the Bar Kochva Revolt—and were among the few survivors. The Talmud credits them with reviving Judaism after the devastation of the war (Yevamot 62b). Again, this would serve as a worthy tikkun for the five sons of Jacob and the failure with Joseph. The fact that the five rabbis were students of Akiva (Aramaic for “Yakov”) bar Yosef might further hint to a connection to Joseph in the Torah.

With the first five brothers, Joseph told them that they intended something negative, but it was all in Hashem’s hands and He orchestrated it all to bring about something positive. It was all meant to happen, to bring Israel to its next phase of development in Egypt, and to set the stage for the Exodus. The same was true the second time around during Chanukah, with the five sons of Matityahu saving Judaism and bringing it to its next stage of development, the rabbinic era. And the third time was with the students of Rabbi Akiva, who were once again able to preserve Judaism amidst intense Roman persecution and exile, and adapt Judaism to a reality without a Temple, while laying the foundations of the Mishnah and Talmud.

The Rothschilds & the Chanukah Lights

One might go even further and find another set of five Jewish brothers who make a massive impact not only on the course of the Jewish people but on the world at large: the five original Rothschild sons. Their father Mayer Rothschild was initially set to become a rabbi. In his youth, he apprenticed with a banker and eventually became one himself. He was a deeply religious man, and ensured his five sons were the same. None of them intermarried or converted out. (Eldest son Amschel was particularly known to be very religious, and was nicknamed “the pious Rothschild”. Grandson Lionel was the first Jew in British parliament, and was sworn in over a Tanakh, wearing a kippah.)

The Rothschilds invested huge sums in support of shuls, yeshivas, orphanages, and Jewish institutions, and later played a big role in the Zionist movement and establishing some of the first Jewish towns in Israel. (A famous Hasidic story attributes Rothschild wealth and success to a blessing from Rabbi Hershelle Tschortkower.) Grandson Edmond de Rothschild gave the funds to establish Rishon Lezion, Metulla, Ekron, Rosh Pina, and Zichron Yaakov (named after his father Jacob Rothschild). He purchased an additional 125,000 acres of land in Israel, and gave the equivalent of what is today $700 million for the early infrastructure that made Israel possible. He was beloved by Jews and Arabs alike, and was called haNadiv haYadua, “the Famous Benefactor”.

Edmond de Rothschild on an Israeli 500 Shekel Note (1982)

The name “Rothschild”, literally red shield, comes from the red banner the family had above their door in the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt. The family later designed a coat of arms that included a red shield, and an arm holding five arrows to represent the five brothers, based on Psalms 127:4, “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are sons born to a man in his youth.” Some conspiracy theorists have argued that the red shield is symbolic of the family secretly being Edomites, connected to the wicked Esau. However, one could make the opposite case: the Rothschilds probably did more than any other family at the time to shield the Jewish people from the oppression of Edom! They also invested heavily in Edom, paying for some of the first European rail networks and modern factories, as well as hospitals, universities and research labs, museums, charities, and large public works.

We find a great deal of similarity between the five Maccabee sons and the five Rothschild sons. In both cases, the sons were deeply religious, their children less so, and the descendants that followed leaving the faith entirely. The Hasmonean dynasty of the Maccabees soon became entirely Hellenistic, taking on Greek names (like Alexander Yannai and Yochanan Hyrcanus) and Greek titles (like strategos and basileus), and eventually even persecuting rabbis, causing sages like Shimon ben Shatach and Yehoshua ben Perachia to flee to Egypt. Among the Rothschilds, too, within a few generations there was widespread assimilation, intermarriage, conversions, and support for all kinds of things antithetical to Judaism. Some Rothschilds even became vocal anti-Zionists and refused to ever visit Israel.

‘Joseph Makes Himself Known to His Brethren’ by Gustav Doré

And it all ties back to Joseph in Egypt. In fact, some see Joseph as a spiritual precursor to the Rothschilds: a “Court Jew” who became incredibly wealthy and powerful, drawing the ire and resentment of the Egyptians. The result is ultimately more antisemitism and persecution of Jews, but that leads to an Exodus to the Promised Land. This is, of course, reminiscent of what we witnessed in the 20th Century. It all reminds us of Joseph’s own words: “Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me here; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you… God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So, it was not you who sent me here, but God…” (Genesis 45:4-8) We must remember that all is in Hashem’s hands. He orchestrates every detail of history. Moments that initially appear negative end up being revealed as positive in the long run. And this was Joseph’s superpower: having an ayin tova, a good eye, and seeing the positive within all things. That is why Jacob described him as being ben porat Yosef, ben porat alei ayin, good upon the eye (Genesis 49:22).

The Chanukah lights have the same message. They represent the ohr haganuz, the hidden light of Creation. We are not supposed to derive physical benefit from the Chanukah lights (hence the shamash) to remember to gaze beyond the physical light and into the spiritual. They remind us that things are not always as they appear to be. There is a hidden light beneath the revealed one. Sometimes we just need to look a little deeper to uncover it.

Happy Chanukah!

Understanding Edom #2: Trump & Herod

What might we expect from Donald Trump in his second presidency and does he have anything to do with Esau and Edom in Biblical prophecies? How did Edom become associated with the Roman Empire to begin with? What does King Herod have to do with it? And why does Isaiah call King Cyrus of Persia “the messiah”? Find out in this second part of the series where we also explore antisemitic conspiracy theories, the mysterious figure Obed-Edom the Gittite, and the secret behind the Western Wall.

For more information, see ‘How Esau Became Rome‘.
For the series of short essays on the Rothschilds, see here.

The World’s Most Legitimate State

In this week’s parasha, Chayei Sarah, we read about Abraham’s purchasing of Me’arat haMakhpelah, the “Cave of the Patriarchs”, for the burial of his wife Sarah (Genesis 23). Abraham approaches the Hittites who live in the area and asks Ephron for the land. Ephron agrees, and even offers to give it to Abraham for free. Yet, Abraham refuses the gift and makes sure to pay Ephron a huge amount, 400 silver shekels, far more than the land is even worth. Why did Abraham do this? One classic answer is so that no one would ever dispute ownership of the land. Abraham wanted to make it clear that he bought the land legally, fair and square; it would be for him and his descendants, and no one should claim otherwise.

There is a deeper reason for paying such an exorbitant amount, too. In his Pa’aneach Raza (on Genesis 23:16), Rabbi Yitzchak bar Yehuda haLevi (c. 1250-1290) points out that the Torah states a chomer of barley fields is worth 50 shekels (Leviticus 27:16). How much is a chomer? Based on what we know of ancient Biblical units of measure, Pa’aneach Raza shows that a chomer is equal to 75,000 square cubits. Thus, 400 silver shekels would have been enough to purchase 600,000 square cubits of land. That’s a significant number because there were 600,000 adult Israelite souls at the Sinai Revelation, and mystical texts always speak of 600,000 root souls for the Jewish people. In other words, Abraham purchased a square cubit of land for every one of his root spiritual descendants. All of Israel have a share in the Cave of the Patriarchs!

In purchasing that plot of land, Abraham set an important precedent. This same precedent would be used by Jews again starting in the 1800s to purchase back the Holy Land with the ultimate aim of re-establishing an independent Jewish state. (Amazingly, Abraham was born in the Hebrew year 1948 AM, and the State of Israel would be founded in 1948 CE! More on that connection here.) Zionists had no interest in conquering the land; they wanted to purchase it legally, fair and square, just as Abraham had done. There should be no dispute as to who owns the land. So this is what they did, purchasing one plot at a time.

Sir Moses Montefiore

Some of the earliest purchases were spearheaded by Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), an Italian-English Sephardic Jew who first visited the Holy Land in 1827. He travelled to the four Jewish holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Tzfat. In between these towns, he saw a barren, unused, undeveloped region, and envisioned a Jewish revival. In fact, this visit was so inspiring that he became a ba’al teshuva and henceforth a deeply religious man. Montefiore came back following the devastating 1836 earthquake that destroyed Tzfat and Tiberias, and provided massive sums of money to rebuild them. In 1840, he purchased the site of Rachel’s Tomb and rebuilt the ancient Jewish pilgrimage site. In 1860, he purchased land outside of Jerusalem to establish the Jewish settlement Mishkenot Sha’ananim (his windmill, built to provide cheap flour for all, still stands today), followed by the Ohel Moshe and Mazkeret Moshe neighbourhoods. He also paid for Israel’s first printing press and textile factory.

The Montefiore Quarter of Mishkenot Sha’ananim in 1948, and today. The founding of the town was financed by Sir Moses Montefiore and the estate of Judah Touro. The Montefiore Windmill is visible in the background.

Chaim Amzaleg

Montefiore’s work inspired other prominent Jews to do the same. In 1882, a wealthy Jew named Chaim Nissim Amzaleg (1828-1916), who was working for the British office in Jaffa, purchased 835 acres of land nearby. He gave the land to ten Jewish pioneers from Russia, who established the town of Rishon LeZion. Shortly after, Baron Edmon James de Rothschild sent experts to drill for groundwater and establish agriculture. He did the same for a nearby settlement of 6500 dunams which was then named Zikhron Ya’akov, in honour of the Baron’s father. This area was purchased from a Frenchman who had Christian Arab roots. Rothschild also helped to establish Metulla, Ekron, and Rosh Pina, and poured tens of millions into draining swamps, finding water, and developing the land, including laying some of the first electrical grids.

Rabbi Pines

Another pioneer was Rabbi Yechiel Michel Pines (1824-1913), who settled in Montefiore’s Mazkeret Moshe neighbourhood in 1878, also hailing originally from Russia. In 1884, Rabbi Pines purchased a plot of land from the French government and established Gedera. Three years later, a fellow Russian-born Jew named Yehoshua Hankin (1864-1945) arrived. He had made aliyah as a young man with his parents to Rishon LeZion back in 1882. After helping to get Gedera off its feet, Hankin arranged the purchase of another nearby plot in 1890, establishing the town of Rehovot. A year later, in 1891, he collected enough donations from abroad to purchase another plot, now Hadera (today’s Givat Olga neighbourhood in Hadera is named after Hankin’s wife, a famous pioneer in her own right).

Yehoshua and Olga Hankin in 1910

Hankin’s most famous work was undoubtedly arranging the Sursock Purchases between 1901 and 1925. Much of the Holy Land at the time was owned by the Sursocks, a wealthy Greek-Lebanese Christian family. They had previously purchased the land from the Ottomans in 1872 (for a paltry 20,000 pounds), acquiring about 400,000 dunams or 364 square kilometres. Over the years, Hankin was able to arrange multiple real estate deals with the Sursocks, acquiring most of the Haifa area and the fertile Jezreel Valley.

1944 map of the Sursock Purchases. Dark blue areas are owned by the Jewish National Fund and green areas are owned by private Jewish companies and individuals.

Arthur Ruppin

Hankin’s partner in securing these deals was Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943). He had made aliyah in 1908 to work for the Zionist Organization, and opened an office in Jaffa. Shortly after, in 1909, he arranged the purchase of a small, empty and barren plot of sand outside of Jaffa (with funds from a wealthy Dutch Jew named Jacobus Kann). This plot was divided among 66 Jewish families and became the city of Tel-Aviv. (For more on this critical event, see ‘1909: End of the Jewish Curse and Fulfillment of Prophecy’.) Ruppin helped establish the first kibbutz, Degania Alef, that same year. Together with Hankin, they purchased major chunks of land around the Sea of Galilee. It is interesting to note that Ruppin was originally a dovish personality and sought to help Arabs, too. He was a co-founder of Brit Shalom, an organization seeking to establish a binational state for Jews and Arabs. His philosophy changed after the brutal 1929 Hebron Massacre launched by Arab rioters, after which he abandoned all hope for collaboration.

Lottery to apportion the Tel-Aviv plot in 1909

Jewish National Fund

Hermann Schapira

Edmond de Rothschild would go on to purchase some 125,000 acres of land in Israel. Much of this land would be handed over to the Jewish National Fund, founded by Zvi Hermann Schapira (1840-1898). Schapira was originally a rabbi before deciding to pursue sciences and ultimately becoming a math professor at the University of Heidelburg. He proposed the idea of a unified Jewish National Fund to purchase and settle the Holy Land at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. Unfortunately, Schapira died the following year, but his vision was taken up by Yonah Johann Kremenezky (1850-1934), sometimes referred to as “Austria’s Edison” because he opened the first electric light bulb factory in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kremenezky was credited with “electrifying” much of Western Europe and laying the first electrical grids and street lighting systems in major European cities like Paris and Vienna. (He also invented what we today call “Christmas lights”!) Meanwhile, Kremenezky became the first chairman of the Jewish National Fund and came up with the idea of the famous JNF “blue box” to collect charity for Israel. The JNF would go on to acquire about 50% of Israel’s current landmass, develop over 250,000 acres, plant some 260 million trees, build nearly 200 dams and reservoirs, and establish over 1000 parks, while also running Israel’s first postal service. (The JNF still owns about 13% of Israel’s land today.)

Johann Yosipovich Kremenezky

In short, despite the “anti-Zionist” propaganda that many have unfortunately succumbed to, Israel is not a foreign colonialist power that forcibly conquered the land, but the product of the land’s own indigenous people returning and buying it back peacefully and legally. (Ironically, buying it back from colonial powers who had forcibly conquered it, including the Arabs which came from Arabia in the 7th century, and the Ottoman Turks who arrived in the 16th century). And although we didn’t need anyone’s “permission” to do this, the world powers of the 20th century initially approved and supported the process. The British Balfour Declaration of 1917 designated Mandate Palestine for a Jewish homeland, and the League of Nations (precursor to the UN) officially approved it at the 1920 San Remo Conference.

The truth is, today’s entire Middle East was carved out of the former Ottoman Empire with Western powers inventing totally new states that had never existed before. For example, Mandatory Iraq was established by the British in 1921, and became the independent Kingdom of Iraq in 1932. This was done with complete disregard for natural boundaries and ethnicities in the region, which is why Iraq continues to be embroiled in bloodshed to this day. (The forgotten Kurds have been fighting for a homeland of their own for decades, and have been called “the country erased from history”.)

Jordan was similarly conjured out of thin air in 1921 by the British seeking to appease the Hashemite Arabs (who came from what is now Saudi Arabia) and handing over to them 77% of Mandate Palestine for nothing. The idea was for the east side of Mandate Palestine to be the “Palestinian Arab” state, while the smaller western portion would be left to the Jews. Jordan is, quite literally, Palestine, and the majority of its citizens today are Palestinian Arabs. In 1948, Jordan’s King Abdullah openly declared that “Palestine and Jordan are one” before annexing the West Bank in 1950! Even long after losing the West Bank in 1967, King Hussein still affirmed in 1981: “The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.”

Flags of Palestine and Jordan. Walid Shoebat, Palestinian scholar and former PLO terrorist, has said: “Why is it that on June 4th, 1967, I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?”

Nobody questions the legitimacy of all the new states invented by the British and Western powers in the Middle East, yet bizzarely Israel is always under the magnifying glass: The Israel that already gave up 77% to a Palestinian Arab state conveniently renamed Jordan to hide its true origins; the Israel that legally purchased the vast majority of its land and invested countless millions in money, time, and effort to drain the swamps, plant forests, build infrastructure, and revive a dead region; the Israel that was voted for by a global majority both at San Remo in 1920 and at the UN in 1947. The plain and obvious truth is that not only is Israel not an illegal occupier, Israel is possibly the most legal and legitimate state in the world today.

If we can take any consolation in all of the anti-Israel madness, it is that it was prophesied long ago. We read in Ezekiel that at the End of Days, the Jewish people will return to their ancestral homeland following much persecution and resurrect a prosperous state. But the world will then turn against Israel and try to take it all away from the Jews: “In the distant future, you shall come against a country restored from the sword, gathered from among many peoples—upon the mountains of Israel, which have long lain desolate—[against a people] liberated from the nations, and all dwelling securely.” (Ezekiel 38:8) This is precisely what we have seen in the last century. And while it may seem totally upside-down, illogical, and baffling, God assures us that it’s all part of His plan “to manifest My greatness and My holiness, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations. And they shall know that I am God.” (38:23)