The Ashkenazi Revolution

39dispute that the family of our forefather Jacob was not involved in. Jacobhad a dispute with his son Reuben concerning sexual misconduct. Inaddition, he had a dispute with his sons Simeon and Levi concerning theirresponse to the rape of Dinah. The family was also in turmoil over thenatural disputes that occurred between the children of the two wives,Rachel and Leah, and between the children of the two concubines, Bilhahand Zilpah. To all these were added the decisive dispute between Joseph,the son of the beloved wife Rachel, and the other sons. The first twomatriarchs, Sarah and Rebecca, were the ones who managed the strugglesfor preference, and who sought to evict the secondary sons. But the firsttwo forefathers, Abraham and Isaac, were passive in this regard. This wasnot the case with the last of the forefathers, our Patriarch Jacob. In hisblessings to his sons, he fixes the special value of each of them andemphasizes the qualities that set each one apart. In his blessing of hisgrandchildren, Menashe and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, he givespreference to the younger of them, Ephraim, by blessing him beforeMenashe, thus adding further to the disputes already there. All this chainof events, concerning the Patriarchs and their children, including theamazing adventures of Joseph, bring us to the blessing of our father Jacobin the second to the last chapter of Genesis. This chain of events has oneunderstanding and one meaning: To ensure that the People of Israel wouldnot, under any circumstances, be one people. That it would not simply be apeople, but a “congregation of peoples”, among whom would be a cruelstruggle for preference, and from which would sprout a chain of newpeoples. For only this development can ensure the survival of the seed ofAbraham, Isaac and Jacob until the end of days and the end of generations.The unity of the People of Israel, of which they speak so much in the Stateof Israel, is only an illusion and a fantasy. For unity and eternity areopposites. Unity implies one fate, which is death, that is to say, the closingoff of eternity. The striving for eternity necessitates an attitude of “who isfor life and who is for death?” It requires the shedding and the retiring ofweak tribes, or of those with bad luck, and the continuity of strong andvibrant ones. Jewish history is a parade of peoples, beginning with thesemi-mythological era described in Genesis until the end of generations.