Jacob is surrounded by his 12 sons and is about to die. He attempts to reveal to them the exact time of the final redemption and is unable to, because the Divine Spirit leaves him. He assumes it’s their fault, and at least one of them must be attached to unholiness, but they assure him that they are as pure on the inside as he perceived them to be from the outside.
Reb Nosson says (Gezeila 5) at that point Jacob realized his mistake and that one cannot rush matters before their appointed time. It’s then that he began criticizing his oldest three sons, exactly about this matter. Reuben made a mistake, after the death of Rachel, by getting involved in his father’s private affairs. This was also a rushed decision of zealotry that ended up costing Reuben the kingdom and priesthood. Simeon and Levi also acted with haste after the rape of Dina, by raiding the city of Shechem and killing all the males. Jacob admonished his sons to exercise patience; not using aggression and dominance to expedite matters.
I’d like to add a twist here. Jacob makes a futile attempt to reveal the future and when it doesn’t work, he assumes it’s not his fault, but other peoples fault. Reb Nosson says Jacob was wrong. It was Jacob’s mistake trying to rush these matters. Then he criticizes his sons for rushing things. (Reb Nosson doesn’t say the following, but if you allow my puny mind a minute, I’d say that) because Jacob was just presently guilty of rushing things prematurely, that’s exactly what he saw in his sons. The Baal Shem Tov says that we only see faults in others that we ourselves have. Maybe if Jacob didn’t make the error himself, his eternal words to his oldest three sons would have been different?
And what about Judah? Why wasn’t he criticized? Because Judah’s descendant was King David, and, at least in one instance, David exercised the greatest patience imaginable. David longed to build the Temple, but Hashem told him that it wouldn’t be proper for a warrior with blood on his hands to build it. It would only be built by his son Solomon.
This is a powerful everyday lesson. When we’re small-minded, we spread negativity everywhere we look. And it’s because of our own messed-up lenses. But when we feel good, we only see good. Next time we wanna give somebody a piece of our mind, let’s not rush. Let’s stop and notice that we’re probably only sensitive to their imperfections, because we have those same flaws ourselves.
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