Yissachar’s Vision: the Donkey Who Longs for Yerushalayim

As Yaakov Avinu blesses his sons, he identifies the unique spiritual traits that characterize their divine missions in this world. He compares his son Yissachar to a powerful donkey carrying a heavy load. Famously, Chazal interpret this as a metaphor to the yolk of Torah study; Yissachar’s descendants would achieve prominence and proficiency in the hallowed halls of the Beit Medrash. Many members of the Sanhedrin, the highest Torah authority, would be members of Shevet Yissachar. 

But Yissachar did not just have his eye on the Beit Medrash. Yaakov Avinu makes a cryptic reference to Yissachar seeing something else: וירא מנחה כי טוב – and he saw rest, that it was good (Bereishit 49:15). This effusive reference to rest is quite strange. After all, Yissachar was just praised for being a strong-boned donkey capable of carrying the most precious of loads without resting. What does Yissachar see in “menucha” that is so good?

The Targum Yerushalmi (ibid) explains that Yissachar enthusiasm was not for the concept of rest, but rather to the place that is called “rest”. In Devarim (12:9), the Torah refers to the eventual resting place of the Shechinah in the Beit HaMikdash as menucha:

כִּ֥י לֹא־בָאתֶ֖ם עַד־עָ֑תָּה אֶל־הַמְּנוּחָה֙ וְאֶל־הַֽנַּחֲלָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־יְקֹוָ֥ק אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ-for you have not yet come to the resting place and inheritance that Hashem your God has given you.

As Yissachar is told of his glorious future of Torah study, he longingly looks towards Yerushalayim. The future seat of the Sanhedrin – graced with his many descendants – will be inside the Beit HaMikdash itself. Yissachar knows that Torah mastery, in which Torah permeates the mind, heart, and life of those who study it, can only be achieved within the sacred walls of Yerushalayim. 

Rebbe Yehudah ben Teima is quoted at the conclusion to the fifth perek of Avot, famously calling upon the Jewish people to be bold, swift, and powerful in fulfilling Hashem’s will like the beasts of the animal kingdom. But his quotation ends with something unprecedented in all Mishnayot – a tefillah:

יהי רצון מלפניך ה’ אלוקינו שתבנה עירך במהרה בימינו ותן חלקנו בתורתך – it should be Your will, Hashem our God, that you should build your city speedily in our days, and give us our portion in Your Torah. 

This is a wonderful prayer, found in some shape or form throughout our modern-day liturgy and discourse. But it is strange for a Tanna to be davening in the middle of his teachings – and even more strange for Rebbe Yehudah HaNasi to have included it. 

The answer is found in the strange nature of the prayer itself. At first glance, there seems to be two separate prayers contained in one. Rebbe Yehudah ben Teima is praying for the restoration of Yerushalayim, and also for success in our Torah study. Indeed, some commentators view this as two distinct requests. However, in truth, the prayer is one and united. And this prayer itself is a profound teaching about the deep 

interconnectedness of Torah study and Yerushalayim. Without the restoration of Yerushalayim, the Jewish people cannot truly access the greatest depths of Torah. Our portion of Torah, the deepest expression of Divine wisdom that is interconnected with the deepest part of our Divine souls, cannot be accessed without the restoration of Yerushalayim. 

This is why Yissachar immediately looks to the place of Menucha, the destined location of the Mikdash. This is why the Sanhedrin must convene on the Har HaBayit itself. The truth of Torah can only be fully revealed in this sacred environment. 

יהי רצון מלפניך ה’ אלוקינו שתבנה עירך במהרה בימינו ותן חלקנו בתורתך – may our portion in Torah be revealed, speedily in our days.

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