ספר בראשית

Another explanation of this blessing and the hyperbole ‎employed by Yaakov looks at the entire blessing as a single ‎message; ‎יששכר חמר גרם רבץ בין המשפתים וירא מנוחה כי טוב ואת הארץ ‏כי נעמה ויט שכמו לסבול ויהי למס עובד‎, ”Yissachar is a bony donkey ‎crouching between sheepfolds, He saw that repose is good ‎and that his land is pleasant, so he bent his shoulders to bear ‎and became a toiling servant.When a person contemplates what is involved in serving ‎‎Hashem, he is in a kind of mental turmoil as long as he has ‎not formulated his thoughts into words. Once he has formulated ‎his thoughts into words, he finds some “rest,” his mental turmoil ‎subsides. The word ‎יששכר‎ in our verse alludes to the mental ‎turmoil prior to the thoughts becoming organized into words, ‎whereas the words ‎רבץ בין המפתים‎, refer to the rest attained once ‎these thoughts have been formulated to be contained within ‎recognizable boundaries, words being the boundaries within ‎which one’s thoughts are now contained, i.e. ‎משפתים‎,”sheep-fold.” ‎This latter word is similar to ‎שפתים‎, “lips,” alluding to the spoken ‎word so that what follows is a mind that is at rest, i.e. ‎וירא מנוחה כי ‏טוב‎, “he saw that ‘rest’ is a good feeling.”‎‎