בנימין בן יעקב

Benjamin is the son born in pain who remained wholehearted, the only tribe born in the Land of Israel. His mother Rachel died at his birth and called him 'Ben Oni,' son of my sorrow, but his father Jacob called him 'Binyamin,' son of the right hand, the son of strength and blessing. Between sorrow and hope the name was born.

Benjamin was the youngest and beloved, whom Jacob feared to send down to Egypt after he had already lost Joseph. The Sages count him among the few who never sinned at all, 'and died only through the counsel of the serpent,' and in his portion, by tradition, stood the Temple, 'and He dwells between his shoulders' (Deuteronomy 33:12). The wholehearted son merited that the Divine Presence rest in his portion.

From Benjamin came Saul the first king, and Mordechai and Esther who saved Israel in Persia. The small, youngest tribe raised up saviors at critical moments, as if the strength of 'the son of the right hand' with which his father blessed him was revealed generations later.

What do we learn from him? That out of the sorrow of birth, 'son of my sorrow,' a blessing can grow, 'son of the right hand,' and that wholeheartedness is not weakness but a merit. Benjamin teaches that the smallest and most wholehearted tribe can raise up saviors, and that precisely in the portion of the son who remained pure the Divine Presence rested, 'and He dwells between his shoulders.'