Binyamin the Tzadik?

The Gemara raises an objection from what was taught in the following baraita: Four people died due to Adam’s sin with the serpent, in the wake of which death was decreed upon all of mankind, although they themselves were free of sin. And they are: Benjamin, son of Jacob; Amram, father of Moses; Yishai, father of David; and Kilab, son of David. And all of them were learned through tradition, except for Yishai, father of David, with regard to whom there is an explicit verse interpreted homiletically, as it is written: “And Absalom placed Amasa in charge of the army in place of Joab, and Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Israelite, who had taken to himself Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab” (II Samuel 17:25).

(69) Let me proceed to explain the nature of Benjamin's sanctity. Benjamin was on a loftier spiritual plane than his other brothers because he never bowed down to Esau who represented the סטרא דשמאלא, the left side of the diagram of emanations, the home of Samael. (At the time of the fateful encounter between Jacob and Esau he had not yet been born). ...

... And why was the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Temple) reposed on the portion of Benjamin? For all of the tribes took part in the selling of Joseph, but Benjamin was not with them. And also, all the tribes were born outside of Eretz Yisrael, and Benjamin was born in Eretz Yisrael.

And if a wicked man comes to judgment, the members of the court say to him: Why did you not engage in Torah? If he said: I was handsome and preoccupied with my evil inclination, as I had many temptations, they say to him: Were you any more handsome than Joseph, who did not neglect Torah despite his beauty? They said about Joseph the righteous: Each and every day, the wife of Potiphar seduced him with words. In addition, the clothes that she wore to entice him in the morning, she did not wear to entice him in the evening. The clothes that she wore to entice him in the evening, she did not wear to entice him in the morning of the next day.

(1) ויוסף היה במצרים lit., AND JOSEPH WAS IN EGYPT — But were not he and his sons included in the seventy? What, then, is this statement intended to tell us? Do we not know that he was in Egypt? But its purpose is to inform you of Joseph’s righteousness: this is the same Joseph who tended his father’s sheep; this is the same Joseph who was in Egypt and became king there, and yet he remained steadfast in his righteousness, and the change from a humble position to exalted rank in Egypt caused no deterioration in his character (cf. Sifrei האזינו; Exodus Rabbah 1:7).

Rabbi Yosei from Caesarea taught: What is the meaning of that which is written: “He is swift upon the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; he turns not by way of the vineyards” (Job 24:18)? This teaches that Noah the righteous would rebuke the people of his generation and say to them: Repent. And if you do not, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will bring a flood upon you and float your corpses on the water like wineskins filled with air that float on water, as it is stated: “He is swift upon the face of the waters.” Moreover, a curse is taken from them to all who enter the world, as people will curse others, saying: They shall be like the generation of the flood. As it is stated: “Their portion is cursed in the earth.”

(1) These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man … Noah walked with God (Gen. 6:9). W... Noah was a righteous man. Noah was called righteous because he fed the creatures of the Holy One, blessed be He. Two men were called righteous because they fed the creatures of the Holy One, blessed be He. They were Noah and Joseph. It is written concerning Joseph: Because they sell the righteous for silver (Amos 2:6), and of Joseph it is also said: And Joseph fed (Gen. 47:12).

(1) Go forth from the ark (Gen. 8:16). Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to Thy name; the righteous shall crown themselves because of me; for Thou wilt deal bountifully with me (Ps. 142:8). Bring my soul out of prison refers to Noah, who was imprisoned in the ark. R. Levi said: Neither Noah nor his sons were able to sleep during the entire twelve months (in the ark) because they were obliged to feed the animals, the beasts, and the birds. R. Akiba stated that they even brought into the ark tree branches for the elephants and glass beads for the ostriches. Some of the animals had to be fed at the second hour in the night and others at the third hour of the night.

§ It is taught in a baraita: The following was said about Binyamin the righteous, who was appointed supervisor over the charity fund. Once, a woman came before him during years of drought and said to him: My master, sustain me. He said to her: I swear by the Temple service that there is nothing left in the charity fund. She said to him: My master, if you do not sustain me, a woman and her seven sons will die. He arose and sustained her with his own funds. After some time, he fell deathly ill. The ministering angels said to the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, You said that anyone who preserves a single life in Israel is regarded as if he has preserved an entire world. Should then Binyamin the righteous, who saved a woman and her seven sons, die after these few years, still in his youth? They immediately tore up his sentence. A Sage taught: They added twenty-two years to his life.

However, how then do I establish the meaning of the verse: “And they sought after unjust gain,” indicating that they were sinners? It means that they did not conduct themselves in accordance with the actions of their father. As Samuel the righteous would travel to all places where the people of Israel were located and sit in judgment in their towns, as it is stated: “And he went from year to year in circuit from Beth-El, and Gilgal, and Mitzpa, and judged Israel in all those places” (I Samuel 7:16). And, however, they did not do so and travel from place to place. Rather, they sat in their own cities in order to enhance the fees collected by their attendants and scribes. Therefore, the verse ascribes to them liability as if they sinned by seeking ill-gotten gains and bribes.

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana introduced this passage with an introduction from here. The verse states with regard to God’s reward to the righteous: “He gives to a man that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy” (Ecclesiastes 2:26). The Gemara explains that this verse is referring to the righteous Mordecai. With regard to the next part of the verse: “But to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and heaping up,” this is referring to Haman. The conclusion of the verse states: “That he may give it to one who is good before God” (Ecclesiastes 2:26). This is Mordecai and Esther, as it is written: “And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman” (Esther 8:2).

(3) For Mordecai the Jew ranked next to King Ahasuerus and was highly regarded by the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brethren; he sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all his kindred.

... (Envy)

(2) Shimon the Righteous was from the remnants of the Great Assembly. He would say, "On three things the world stands: on the Torah, on the service and on acts of lovingkindness."

(1) Great one of his brethren, and glory of his people, Was Simon, son of Johanan (H), the priest;
In whose generation the house was repaired (?); And in whose days the temple was fortified.

(2) In whose generation a cistern was digged (H); A pit (or store) like the sea (?) in its abundance.

(3) In whose days a wall was built; A bulwark of refuge (?) in the temple of the King.

(4) Who took thought for his people against the spoiler; And fortified his city against the besieger.

(he Most High.

the tribe of Benjamin and descended into the sea first, as it is stated: “There is Benjamin, the youngest, ruling them [rodem]” (Psalms 68:28). Do not read it as: “Ruling them [rodem]”; rather, read it as: Descending [red] into the sea [yam]. And the princes of the tribe of Judah were stoning them [rogmim otam] for plunging in first and not in the proper order, as it is stated in the continuation of the verse: “The princes of Judah, their council [rigmatam]” (Psalms 68:28). Therefore, Benjamin the righteous was privileged to serve as host to the Divine Presence of the Almighty, as the Temple was built in the territory of Benjamin, as it is stated in Moses’ blessing for the tribe of Benjamin: “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; He covers him all the day, and He rests between his shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12).

Rav Yosef said to him in response: How can these cases be compared? There, in the Temple in Jerusalem, the portions of Benjamin and Judah were close to each other, and a division in which the Temple was located in the portion of one tribe while the Sanhedrin was located in the portion of another was possible. Here, with regard to Shiloh, are Shiloh and the portion of Benjamin close to each other? The Gemara replies: Here too they are close, as Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: A strip of land protruded from the portion of Judah and entered into the portion of Benjamin, and the altar in the Temple was built on that strip. And the tribe of Benjamin the righteous would agonize over it every day, desiring to take it into its portion, due to its unique sanctity.

Rabbi Elazar said: The term mizbe’aḥ, altar, is a rough acrostic representing its qualities. It moves [meziaḥ] sins and sustains [mezin], because as a result of the offerings sacrificed on the altar, sustenance is provided to all. It endears [meḥabev], and atones [mekhapper]. Mizbe’aḥ evokes the letters mem and zayin from the first two qualities, bet from meḥabev and the kaf from mekhapper. The Gemara asks: This quality, that the altar atones, is the same as that quality, that it moves sins. Why are they listed separately? The Gemara answers: The altar moves evil decrees, and atones for sins.

עוד יש לפרש, זאב יטרף, כי המזבח בחלקו של בנימין היה, והמזבח הוא זאב, ואם תאמר שבנימין הוא זאב, אינו כן, אלא המזבח שהיה בחלקו הוא זאב, משום שהיה אוכל בשר כל יום... עוד יש לפרש זאב יטרף, זאב יזון, ומי הוא (הזאב), אלו (המלאכים) בעלי השנאה העומדים למעלה לקטרג על ישראל, וכולם נהנין ומתתקנים מן הקרבנות ומתעוררים התעוררות של מעלה, (נמצא שבנימין שברשותו המזבח, הוא מזין למקטרגים הללו המכונים זאב, והוא כדי שלא יקטרגו על ישראל

(1) זאב יטרוף, it is the custom of wolves to attack either early in the morning or in the evening, both periods when there is not much light. We find support for this in Chabakuk 1,8. Binyamin’s rise to power also occurred at the dawn of Jewish monarchies in the person of King Sha-ul, and once more near the end of Jewish one man rule under Mordechai. Subsequently, there was never again a true Jewish political independence, and the religious leadership was in the hands of the אנשי כנסת הגדולה, a college of 120 elders.

...

...Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says: "Great is circumcision, for Moses the righteous wasn't given a moment [to allow his son to remain uncircumcised]....

(3) Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth.

R. Yossi says: G d forbid that tzaddikim should be lax in circumcision for even a short while, but Moses expounded: Shall he circumcise (his son) and journey (to Egypt) — that would involve a risk of life (for the child.) Shall he wait and circumcise — the L rd has said to him: "Go and take My people Israel out of Egypt." But (his lapse was that) he preoccupied himself with his lodging before circumcising, wherefore the L rd sought to kill him, viz.: "And he was on the way in the lodging, etc.