Whoever reads this morning’s Sidra carefully will notice that while Jacob, on his death-bed, charges each of his sons individually and analyses their individual characteristics, he also speaks to the entire family and sets forth an analysis of the complex personality of all the Jewish people. What applies to any one tribe in particular also applies, in greater or lesser measure, to the entire people of Israel. If we can speak of the character of the Jew as such, in the same way that social psychologists speak about the social character of different groups, then we notice that the Jewish character is ambivalent – that is, it is often contradictory and is composed of conflicting tendencies. Like Reuben, we are often temperamental and impulsive. Like Simeon and Levi, we are often given to precipitous action and a bit shady. Like Joseph we are often loveable and gracious and like Zebulun we are frequently wrapped up in commerce. Like Judah we have the characteristics of royalty and majesty, and like Naftali we are often subservient and satisfied with secondary roles. It is a complex and complicated personality.3. We mention this as a prologue to an understanding of the words of Jacob to his son Issachar. What he said to him, therefore, is applicable not only to his descendants but to all Jews – to all of us. What Jacob saw in his character we must take as part of our own potential and, in this case, try to live up to it. 4. Jacob compares Issachar to a large-boned ass – patient and stolid but powerful and mighty. Vayar menuchah ki tov v’es ha’aretz ki na’eimah va’yeit shichmo lisbol vayehi le’mass oveid – He saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant – and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.  5. Our Rabbis, keeping in mind that Moses on his death-bed also charged the tribes and singled out Issachar for its study of Torah, interpreted the entire charge of Jacob to Issachar as applying to the same thing – Torah study. He saw that menuchah, rest and tranquility and peace-of-mind that come from Torah – that they were good – and that the land of Torah, the universe of Torah knowledge was – pleasant, that there is beauty and esthetics and attractiveness and sweetness in Torah. And therefore – he bowed his shoulder to bear, he “put his shoulder to the wheel,” he went about working hard in order to understand what Torah taught in order to find the rest and the pleasantness. 6. This, then, is what Jacob saw in Issachar and consequently in all of Israel, this is what he taught: that in order to find menuchah – peace and rest and hope and consolation, and in order to derive from Judaism ne’imuss, beauty and pleasantness, one must put his shoulder to the wheel and study that Torah. Without the study of Torah you cannot hope to find rest and peace and hope, or beauty and pleasantness. It may be hard, it may be time-consuming, it may require bowing the shoulder to bear the burden – but its rewards are of inestimable value: peace and pleasantness. 7. The tragedy of our present-day Judaism is not essentially non-observance. That is bad, very bad – but it is not the root. The root-cause of the emptiness in so many Jewish lives is simply am-haaratzus – ignorance, abysmal ignorance, unlimited and unconstrained ignorance. The tragedy is that the one mitzvah – Talmud Torah – which our great teachers taught is the single greatest mitzvah of all is today the most neglected, it is thought of as only the specialty of careerists in Judaism, the Rabbis – and that frequently not too! Torah was always conceived of as being the possession of all Israel – and today it is regarded as only part of the professional training of one small group! We are in pretty bad straits when one young man recently told me that he couldn’t read the Kaddish but his brother could – “he’s a real scholar, Rabbi.” It is a sad commentary on our situation when the man who can recite the haftorah is regarded with envy and thought of as three-quarters of a Rabbi, a veritable Talmid Chacham! No wonder our synagogues so often are empty of any Jewish spirit! No wonder so many of them have become cheap imitations of Protestant churches! 8. But let alone this matter of ignorance of Torah as such. I want to stress something else – that you will not find the genuine menuchah and the authentic nei’mus that Judaism has to offer unless you begin to study – each to his own ability. 9. This congregation knows that I am not a Peace-of-Mind preacher, and have undisguised contempt and pity for those who post Peace-of-Mind as the ultimate goal of Religion and thereby make of G-d the Father and King a sort of “shik-yingel,” a helper-on-the-side. But that must never be construed to mean that Judaism does not know of Peace-of-Mind. It certainly does, and it plays a very important part in it. Who can deny that who has read the 23rd Psalm, about G-d the Shepherd “leading me beside the still waters”? Who can deny that who has read through our sacred Siddur? Who can deny that who has understood the laws of mourning and the opportunity for the expression of grief and the consolation they offer? 10. But that is precisely the point we are making. You cannot really derive that peace and tranquility from Judaism if you are completely ignorant of Torah. 10A. Here is a woman, who comes to my home speaking of terrible troubles and illness. I give her the Siddur, and underline those parts that would give her the feeling of companionship of G-d in this hour of her trouble… but she does not read or understand the Hebrew, and so much of the beauty of our sacred literature is in the rhythm of the sacred tongue! But that is not all, for even in translation, Torah offers hope and peace and consolation and assuages grief and loneliness. But then you are caught again! How can a person who has never before recited that same 23rd Psalm appreciate and feel it if she is now for the first time faced with the simile of shepherd and sheep and cannot make heads or tails of it! Or how meaningful can the English of the r’fa’einu be to someone who has not experienced that prayer before, and who does not know its depth and breadth! 10B. There is a patient in the hospital who was just told his case is hopeless and time is short. How can he tell that in G-d’s eyes he is still dear and precious, and that even another moment of life is filled with terrific meaning, if he never gave thought to whether life has meaning and has no real understanding of what we mean by word “G-d”? How can one give hope in ten minutes when it requires a lifetime? 10C. A person is plagued with pain, which breaks through anesthesia like a rock through a window. “Rabbi,” he asks, “how can I bear it – why do I suffer, what have I ever done?” The rabbi tries to talk to him about self-righteousness, about the Jewish attitude to these things, about Job and his suffering and his answers – but how can this provide solace, when the patient never heard of Job and is not healthy enough to learn at this late date! 10D. Most pertinent at all times of grief are the laws of shivah. Here is the time when people look to Judaism for hope and faith and consolation, for the menuchah ki tov. Well, how do you go about telling them that Judaism accepts death as part of life, when the sham of an interment service is so conducted that they do not even know that a relative has been buried – good enough for Queen Elizabeth to participate in burial of King George – yes shovelling dirt – without green mats and lowering device. How can one talk to them about an after-life when their understanding is primitive because they never bothered to read Jewish book, or listen to a lecture on it? How can one tell them that Judaism gives them a chance to express their grief instead of damming it up when they wear a black ribbon – a pagan-like invention of N.Y. undertakers – instead of the kriah, a sanctified expression of grief and outlet of emotion for 4,000 years? How can one console them with the wish of Hamakom yenachem eschem b’toch shear aveilei Tziyon v’Yerushalayim, when they are not aware that Jews ever did mourn for Jerusalem, that we have a history? How can one tell them that Judaism does not want prolonged grief and has great respect for a dead person and therefore requires immediate burial? They look at you as if you are insane for denying them a 3-day wake with visiting hours and a formal suit or gown on the deceased as if they are organizing a party or send-off to college… No, unless people study Torah, they can get no genuine peace of mind and hope and consolation and answer to their problems. 11. And what holds true for menuchah, peace, holds true for nei’muss, pleasantness. Those young people who crave pretty things and therefore decorate Christmas trees for gentile friends will find that a sukkah must be decorated … noy sukkah – a law! Those who read this morning’s portion read of Jacob calling his children around his death-bed and while talking about future he began to suddenly reminisce beginning suddenly to reminisce – and v'ani b’voi mipadan meissah alay Rachel be’eretz knaan baderech – such people will have no need to turn to cheap novels and magazines for beautiful romance and the story of great loves and the depth of pathos and beauty. Those who want awe and want to be moved to the bottom of their souls do not have to visit church for mass – but they must learn what it is to pray like a Jew, what is avodah she’be’leiv…. 12. Hillel Zeitlen, martyr in Warsaw Ghetto, in a pamphlet on Hassidism wrote that Hassidim never believed in Torah Min Hashamayim… but in fact that Torah IS Shamayim… that Torah has peace of a sky  and the purity of a pure-blue heaven, that it has all that the human soul thirsts for – that Torah, when studied and worked at, when the shoulder is bowed to bear it, is Peace and pleasantness and all the rest. 13. To this end we prepared an Adult Education program – to the end that you put your shoulder to the wheel so that you can derive the menuchah and the nei’muss of Torah. 

This is predicated on principle that all must learn; that it is responsibility of the Synagogue to provide for such learning; and it is the responsibility of you to study and become conversant in Torah. Even one student makes the whole project worthwhile. 

I appeal to you to respond in greater numbers and with greater enthusiasm and dedication – and may it be for a brachah, for an eternal blessing.