Vayechi – Bringing A Gun To A Knife Fight

Jimmy Malone (a/k/a Sean Connery) imparts the Chicago-style Golden Rule to Eliot Ness (a/k/a Kevin Costner).  Sitting in a church pew, Malone, a streetwise Irish cop, reveals to his somewhat naïve counterpart the secret of to how to bring down the most infamous gangster of the time:

Ness:	I want to get Capone! I don’t know how to do it.
Malone:	You wanna know how to get Capone? He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone.

Connery won an Oscar for that performance, and he gave us a quip for the ages.  Google tells us that this was an original turn of the phrase that has been copied many times since on screen.  Google is certainly right about the latter, but not the former.  Malone/Connery lifted this witticism from Yaakov Aveinu, without even giving the Patriarch credit where credit was due.

Yaakov, on his death bed, has just bestowed his blessings upon Efraim and Menashe, Yoseph’s two sons.  He now turns and addresses Yoseph directly:

And Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am going to die, and God will be with you, and He will return you to the land of your forefathers.	וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ אֶל־יוֹסֵ֔ף הִנֵּ֥ה אָֽנֹכִ֖י מֵ֑ת וְהָיָ֤ה אֱלֹקים֙ עִמָּכֶ֔ם וְהֵשִׁ֣יב אֶתְכֶ֔ם אֶל־אֶ֖רֶץ אֲבֹֽתֵיכֶֽם:
And now, I assign to you one portion more than to your brothers, which I wrested from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”	וַֽאֲנִ֞י נָתַ֧תִּי לְךָ֛ שְׁכֶ֥ם אַחַ֖ד עַל־אַחֶ֑יךָ אֲשֶׁ֤ר לָקַ֨חְתִּי֙ מִיַּ֣ד הָֽאֱמֹרִ֔י בְּחַרְבִּ֖י וּבְקַשְׁתִּֽי:

[Gen. 48:21-22.]

Today’s gun is roughly equivalent to yesterday’s bow.  Both are weapons that are used by a marksman from a safe distance.  Connery’s knife or Jacob’s sword, on the other hand, are wielded with brute force and dexterity; the sword is employed when close contact, hand-to-hand-combat is called for.  At its core, Malone was telling Ness (and us) that fair fighting applies only in spectator sports.  In the dark alleys of Prohibition-era Chicago, we do not get overly concerned about disproportionality.  Combat is sometimes up close and personal, and sometimes it is executed dispassionately from a distance.  Regardless, it is always fought to win.

This, of course, was not what Yaakov Aveinu meant when he used the substantially similar phrase.  Rabbi Septimus correctly pointed out to me that while Jimmy Malone uses the same words as Yaakov Aveinu, he meant it literally while Yaakov Aveinu was being poetic.  Indeed, Malone’s point was the opposite of the message that Yaakov was conveying.  Malone was speaking about the need to overpower your enemy whereas Yaakov was focused on expanding the pallet of prayer.

Chazal noticed that “sword” and “bow” often appear together, as in Psalm 44:

I do not trust in my bow; it is not my sword that gives me victory;	כִּ֤י לֹ֣א בְקַשְׁתִּ֣י אֶבְטָ֑ח וְ֝חַרְבִּ֗י לֹ֣א תוֹשִׁיעֵֽנִי׃
You give us victory over our foes; You thwart those who hate us.	כִּ֣י ה֭וֹשַׁעְתָּנוּ מִצָּרֵ֑ינוּ וּמְשַׂנְאֵ֥ינוּ הֱבִישֽׁוֹתָ׃

[Ps. 44:7-8]

The psalmist was using “bow” and “sword” as a double entendre.  Its plain meaning is similar to the words of Prophet Zecharia: “…Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit…”.  Sure, in battles against man-made armies we must pick up a sword and bow (or gun).  But the author also used instruments of war as a metaphor for the ingredients of spirituality.  When vocalized a little differently, בְקַשְׁתִּ֣י (my bow) becomes בַּקָשָׁתִ, my prayer.  Rashi suggests that וחַרְבִּ֗י (sword) is a metaphor for wisdom (חכמתו)^[1]; the Talmud prefers to consider the sword as a euphemism for supplication or petition^[2].

We must not delude ourselves into thinking that we prevail against our foes through skill or force alone.  First and foremost, we must surrender to God and rely on the power of prayer and the wisdom of faith.  King David, the psalmist-king, knew this all too well.

Professor Kimmelman once explained that the introductory morning prayers are called Pesukei D’zimera, Verses of “Zemer”.  It is a pun; zemer means both “melody”^[3] and “to prune”^[4].  The melody of prayer has the effect of pruning the weeds that cover our hearts and exposing the purity of our souls.  Either way, in rabbinic literature, “bow” and “sword” are spiritual tools, not merely military instruments.

The Targum was cognizant that Yaakov’s earlier statement that he “wrested from the Amorites…” was likely meant figuratively.  He therefore continues the allegory by translating “my sword and bow” as בצלותי ובבעותי.  These words appear in the full Kaddish.  There, the Chazen declares:

May there be acceptance of the prayers and supplications of the entire House of Yisrael before their Father in heaven.  AMEN

תִּתְקַבֵּל צְלוֹתְהוֹן וּבָעוּתְהוֹן דְּכָל (בֵּית) יִשְׂרָאֵל קֳדָם אֲבוּהוֹן דִּי בִשְׁמַיָּא וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן

What is the difference between supplication and prayer?  Perhaps we can get some insight by relating them to their corresponding military instruments: sword and bow

As explained by The Rav:

The distinction between the sword and bow is that the sword is used for close combat, while the arrow is used by the archer at a distance.  Correspondingly, tzlus’hon צְלוֹתְהוֹן are prayers for our immediate personal needs: wisdom, health and sustenance.  Ba’hus’hon בָעוּתְהוֹן are prayers that relate to Jewish destiny and ultimate redemption.

[Chumash Mesoras HaRav, Breishis, pg. 357.]

This, then, was Yaakov Avennu’s dying declaration to his son, Yoseph.  “It is easy to focus, my son, on the fact that you often fought alone.  However, never forget that you are also a part of a much larger extended family, bound by blood and faith.”

Rabbi Avi Miller suggests that the sword/bow connection with prayer is even greater when we consider that it was made by Yaakov Aveinu rather than his father or grandfather.  Yaakov Aveinu, was a “fighter” from the very beginning.  He started life struggling with injustice while in-utero, and it continued until his dying breadth.  According to Rabbi Miller:

Prayer is supplication, petition, and sometimes negotiation.  But can also be a battle of sorts with God.  It’s not downright war, God forbid, but it can be a struggle between the subject and the Monarch.

Avraham Aveinu negotiates with God, and Yitchak Avenieu meditates before God.  But it’s Yaakov Aveinu who wrestles with God!

It’s also Yaakov who tells his son, Yosef: “I wrestled with God alone in the middle of the night.  I prevailed but I was grievously wounded. Learn from this.  You, too, are accustomed to fighting your battles alone.  You’ve lost your faith in your brothers.  You are not convinced that they will have your back.  But trust me; you will not be wounded if you just band together, whether against your enemies, or even, believe it or not, with God.”

And that is why we prefer communal prayer!

Every society has grappled with the tension between the individual and the collective, between liberty and duty, freedom and responsibility.  Torah is no exception.  Hillel famously codified a principle that balanced the person and the people:

He [Rabbi Hillel] used to say: If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, then when?

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתַי

[Pirkei Avot 1:14

Hillel was teaching us that we must bring a gun to every knife fight.  He just meant it differently than the way Jimmy Malone did.  That is not surprising.  Neither is it shocking that Hillel’s dictum is as relevant today as it was two millennia ago, for we may now use guns instead of bows, but we are just as human as ever.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Some Questions on Gen. 48:22?:

• In what way was Yoseph given a double portion?
• At whose expense was Yoseph enriched, and why?
• What else could the text mean by וַֽאֲנִ֞י נָתַ֧תִּי לְךָ֛ שְׁכֶ֥ם?
• Who are the Amorites?

[1]. See, also, Shach:

ר״ל בחרבי היינו חכמה כמו שחרב מציל את בעלה כך החכמה מצילה את בעלה כענין שנאמר (קהלת ז׳:י״א) החכמה תחיה את בעליה ובקשתי הוא לשון בקשה ותפלה

[2]. T.B. Bava Batra 123a.

[3]. Ps. 81:3, 98:5.

[4]. Ex. 25:3-4; Isaiah 5:6.