ספר בראשית

Genesis 49,2. “gather around sons of Yaakov, and ‎listen to Yisrael your father.” In order to understand why ‎Yaakov appears to repeat himself, we must first turn to the ‎‎Zohar III 196. With reference to Isaiah 50,10 ‎מי בכם ירא ה' ‏שומע בקול עבדו אשר הלך בחשכים ואין נגה לו יבטח בשם הה' וישען באלוקיו?‏‎, ‎‎“Who amongst you that obeys the voice of His servant that walks ‎in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of ‎‎Hashem and rely upon Elokim.” What is the meaning ‎of the words: “that obeys the voice of His servant” in this verse? ‎It has been explained that this is the tzaddik who offers ‎prayers every day. He is therefore so familiar in those regions that ‎if he fails to come to the synagogue for a single day, enquiries are ‎made in heaven concerning why he has not appeared. Still, this ‎does not explain the meaning of the words: “that obeys the voice ‎of His servant?” Whose voice is that? If you were to say that “His ‎servant” refers to a prophet or some other person, what is the ‎relation between some other person and the prayer? G’d is ‎perceived as listening, i.e. responding positively, to those who are ‎truly His servants. When the Israelites are in a state of grace, ‎זכאין‎, when they all gather together they can hear heavenly voices ‎proclaiming that these are the sons of precious Yaakov and that ‎therefore they deserve a hearing. When Yaakov appears to be ‎repeating himself, this is not quite so; in effect he is encouraging ‎his sons to not only be the sons of Yaakov, but to listen to him in ‎his capacity of Yisrael, i.e. to rise to a higher spiritual level than ‎that they had been on up until this moment. If they would be ‎able to do this, they would indeed hear from his lips prophetic ‎words concerning their future, words that would reveal to them ‎some secrets about the prelude to the ultimate redemption of the ‎Jewish people.