Issachar And Zebulun Series

Issachar and Zebulun

Among Jacob's sons from Leah, Issachar was the fifth and Zebulun the sixth (Genesis 30:18-20). 18Then Leah said, "God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband." So she named him Issachar. 19Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun. (Gen. 30:18-20).

One might expect all Scriptural passages referring to the twelve tribes to follow their chronological birth order. However, in four notable exceptions, Zebulun precedes Issachar:

a) The Testament of Jacob reads: "Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore; he shall be a haven for ships, and his flank shall rest on Sidon. Issachar is a strong-boned ass, crouching among the sheepfolds. When he saw how good was security and how pleasant was the country, he bent his shoulder to the burden and became a toiling serf (49:13-15)."

b) The Blessing of Moses reads: "Rejoice, O Zebulun, on your journeys; and Issachar, in your tents (Deuteronomy 33:18)."In the list of tribal chieftains assigned to apportion the Land of Canaan together with Eleazar and Joshua, Elizaphan ben Parnach of Zebulun is mentioned before Paltiel ben Azzan of Issachar – "In the lottery for the seven tribes yet to receive 25 "because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. 26 Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers." (Numbers 34:25-26).

c) In their allotment of land, the third lot fell to Zebulun and the fourth to Issachar (See - Joshua 19:10-17).

Israelite period: Zebulun was an aggressive tribe on the ascendancy, but Issachar was comparatively weak. Scholars suggest that documented examples of Zebulun's preference over Issachar reflect the historical reality of the father suggest that documented examples of settlement. In the Song of Deborah, Zebulun is the only tribe mentioned twice. Poetically describing the tribe's martial ferocity, Deborah says, "Zebulun is a people that mocked at death (Judges 5:18)." By contrast, Issachar is not mentioned in the inventory of conquests recorded in Judges' first Chapter, a strong indication that the tribe played only a marginal role in the Israelites' dispossession of the Canaanites.

Read plainly, the Testament of Jacob speaks disparagingly of Issachar. Despite possessing physical strength, the people of Issachar crouched among the sheepfolds rather than fight for national independence. They chose political tranquility, preferring the tranquility it afforded them to reap the bounty of their fertile plateau in the Lower Galilee, even though it meant shouldering the burdens of taxation and tribute paid to non-Israelite regional powerbrokers. Issachar was named for Leah's act of obtaining Jacob's marital company for the evening by giving mandrakes to Rachel. In keeping with the origin of that tribal name, the Issacharites hired themselves out to their heathen neighbors. Regarding the phrase in (Genesis 49:15), "When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor." Nahum Sarna observed: "Until the final overthrow of the Canaanite city-states in the time of Deborah, Issachar had been content to perform corvee labor (a day's unpaid labor owed by a vassal to his feudal lord.) for the local overlords in return for a quiet existence."

The sages read Genesis 49:13-15 very differently. They glorified Issachar while explaining away Zebulun's calm superiority in a way that does not denigrate Issachar.

The masters of the Aggadah (ancient Jewish lore forming especially the nonlegal part of the Talmud) developed the idea that the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun were partners. Zebulun toiled in this-worldly affairs, profiting from maritime trade on the Mediterranean Sea. Issachar excelled in other-worldliness, toiling in the tents of Torah study. Zebulun provided Issachar with earthly sustenance, thereby increasing Torah study among the people of Israel. Scriptural support for the notion that Zebulun was active in mercantile affairs, specifically in seafaring ventures, is found in the Testament of Jacob (Genesis 49:13) and the Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33:19). The latter states: "They invite their kin to the Mountain, where they offer sacrifices of success. For they draw the riches of the sea and the hidden hoards of the sand."

However, the notion that Issachar was a tribe of Talmud scholars is not explicitly found anywhere in Scripture. The sages found an obscure verse -- in a passage listing the contributions of the various tribes to David's army – that, with the help of a homiletic flourish, served as the Scriptural hook for the re-imagining of Issachar as a tribe of Talmidei Chachamim. "Of the Issacharites, men who knew how to interpret the signs of the times, to determine how Israel should act: their chiefs were two hundred, and all their kinsmen followed them (I Chronicles 12:33)." The verse can be interpreted politically in that the Issacharites cannily advised David on the timing of his moves based on their assessment of Israelite public sentiment. Alternatively, interpreting "the signs of the times" can be understood as implicating astrology or astronomy, in that the Issacharites knew when it was auspicious for David's forces to advance.