I have no quote to start this essay, because there is no specific ברכה given to the tribe of Shimon to analyze.
As the month of Tishrei crescendos, we find ourselves traversing an escalating trajectory of spiritual unity. We begin with the external, physical binding of the Four (4) Species on Sukkos, symbolizing the ingathering of disparate archetypes within the nation. We then move into the spatial unity of the Sukkah itself. The Gemara[i] derives from the verse[ii] כל האזרח בישראל ישבו בסכות – All the homeborn in Israel shall dwell in booths that כל ישראל ראויים לישב בסוכה אחת – all of the Jewish people are fit to dwell in a single Sukkah. This overarching unity is the Halaĉic basis that allows one to fulfill their obligation in a borrowed Sukkah (and conceptually explains the parameters regarding a stolen Sukkah[iii]). Finally, we arrive at the transcendent climax of Shemini Atzeres and Simĉas Torah. On this day, the usual boundaries that segment our communities dissolve entirely. The intellectual hierarchies between the חסידים ואנשי מעשה – the pious and men of action[1] and the simple Jew vanish as everyone dances equally with a wrapped, sealed Sefer Torah. It is a day when the Torah is no longer a text divided into individual portions of understanding, but a singular, indivisible essence.
Yet, precisely at this zenith of indivisible oneness, the public reading of וזאת הברכה confronts us with a massive, glaring division: the explicit absence of the tribe of Shimon. As Moshe Rabbeinu goes tribe by tribe, outlining their distinct destinies and spiritual inheritances, Shimon is conspicuously skipped.
The standard explanation for this omission is found in Rashi’s commentary, quoting Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan on the curses enumerated on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal[iv] לא היה בלבו לברכו – Moshe did not have it in his heart to bless them, and therefore, he did not assign a twelfth (12th) specific curse, keeping the number to eleven (11) to match the eleven (11) tribes he intended to bless. The conventional assumption is that Moshe was still harboring resentment over the tragedy at Ba’al Peor, where the primary instigators and sinners hailed from the tribe of Shimon, famously led by their prince, Zimri.
However, upon rigorous textual, historical, and psychological analysis, this superficial reading completely collapses. There is simply no way to defend the idea that Moshe was holding a petty grudge, for a multitude of compelling reasons:
- The Character of Moshe: Such an attitude contradicts the very core of Moshe’s character. This is the ultimate Faithful Shepherd, the man who, following the sin of the Golden Calf, offered to erase his own spiritual existence to save a rebellious nation, demanding of G‑d[v] מְחֵנִי נָא מִסִּפְרְךָ אֲשֶׁר כָּתָבְתָּ – Erase me now from Your book that You have written. And for whom did he volunteer to have his name erased? For a couple thousand of idolaters, largely from the Erev Rav. How could the man of ultimate self-sacrifice suddenly become vindictive?
- The Prohibition of Bearing a Grudge: Holding a grudge is a direct violation of a negative Torah commandment[vi] לֹא תִקֹּם וְלֹא תִטֹּר – You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge. To suggest Moshe violated this on his last day is unthinkable.
- The Guiltless Generation: The actual perpetrators of Ba’al Peor had already been surgically removed. The plague wiped out the guilty, and as Rashi notes on the verse[vii] והוקע אותם … נגד השמש – Hang them before the G‑d facing the sun“, the Clouds of Glory withdrew from the specific sinners, exposing them to the harsh sunlight so the courts could enact precise justice נגד השמש – שהענן נקרע מעליו והשמש זורחת עליו. The tribe of Shimon standing before Moshe on his final day was entirely innocent. How could Moshe refuse to bless an entire tribe that had not sinned?
- Shimon’s Presence at the Blessings: Shimon was meant for blessing. The Torah explicitly records[viii] that Shimon was assigned to Mount Gerizim to bless the people. Furthermore, the Yerushalmi[ix] quotes Rabbi Shimon verifying that the entire tribe ascended the mountain for this exact purpose,
- The Embedded Blessing: Moshe did, in fact, subtly embed Shimon’s blessing into the blessing of Yehuda. When Moshe declares[x],שְׁמַע ה’ קוֹל יְהוּדָה – Hear, O G‑d, the voice of Yehuda, Rashi immediately notes that the word Shema (שמע) is a direct allusion to Shimon (שמעון). Shimon ended up inheriting their portion of land within the boundaries of Yehuda[xi], and Moshe blessed Yehuda that when they would fight on behalf of Shimon, they would be victorious.
- The General Blessing: They were undoubtedly included in Moshe’s overarching blessing to the entire nation at the Parsha’s conclusion[xii], just as Yaakov blessed all the tribes collectively after their individual blessings[xiii].
This onslaught of questions forces us to confront a profound structural and theological mystery. If Moshe was not angry, what does לא היה בלבו actually mean? And why does Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan introduce this concept of the “missing blessing” specifically during the curses—and bizarrely, on the ninth curse, rather than waiting for the eleventh (or the twelfth)?[2]
The Anatomy of Shimon
To understand Moshe’s dilemma, we must first analyze the spiritual anatomy of Shimon.
Looking back at Yaakov Avinu’s final prophecies, we see a tribe characterized by unmitigated גבורה. This raw severity was first demonstrated in Shimon and Levi’s absolute destruction of the city of Sh’ĉem, and later when Shimon exercised his anger against Yosef by advising he be killed (for which Shimon was the only brother incarcerated by Yosef while he pretended to be a stranger).
As Rabbi Moshe Cordovero explains in Pardes Rimonim[xiv], the divine purpose of the Sefira of גבורה – strength is צמצום – to monitor, contract, and channel the infinite flow of חסד – loving-kindness so that it is properly administered for the benefit of the recipient and does not overflow to unworthy or wicked recipients. However, when strictness is divorced from its regulatory purpose and utilized for one’s own desires, it can curdle into toxic fundamentalism.
Yaakov prophetically foresaw what would happen when this severity was applied to the letter of the law while completely ignoring its spirit. At Ba’al Peor, the tribe of Shimon engaged in a deliberate perversion of the Torah’s intent. As the Gemara[xv] relates, Zimri challenged Moshe with fundamentalist legalism: “בת יתרו מי התירה לך” — “Who permitted the daughter of Yisro to you?” They argued technicalities – that relations with Midianite women weren’t explicitly forbidden in the same manner as Cana’anite women – to justify their physical desires. They attempted to set Judaism on a foundation (סוד) of rigid, self-serving technicalities. Thus, Yaakov prayed, “בְּסֹדָם אַל תָּבֹא נַפְשִׁי” — “Into their counsel [their סוד], let my soul not enter.”
Yaakov’s remedy was a highly specific spiritual containment strategy: “אֲחַלְּקֵם בְּיַעֲקֹב וַאֲפִיצֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל” — “I will divide them in Yaakov, and I will scatter them in Israel.” As Rashi notes: “אין לך עניים סופרים ומלמדי תינוקות אלא משמעון” — “There are no poor scribes or teachers of children[3] except from Shimon.” By relegating the tribe of Shimon to these roles, Yaakov forced their innate, volatile גבורה into a state of humbling dependency. Their fundamentalism was channeled to serve the physical letters of the text by transcribing it exactly as written, stripped of their ability to twist it, while relying entirely on the goodwill and financial support of the broader community.
History proved Yaakov’s diagnosis was permanent. When Shimon finally acquired their own independent territory by migrating to Mount Seir, their default setting of absolute severity instantly reignited. As recorded in Divrei Hayamim[xvi], the moment they gained territorial autonomy, they enacted a total genocide against the Amalekite[4] remnant (“ויכו את שארית הפלטה לעמלק”).
Moshe Rabbeinu understood this dynamic perfectly. If Shimon’s spiritual survival depended entirely on their structural dissolution into the broader collective, then granting them a distinct, standalone tribal blessing would be actively dangerous. A distinct blessing establishes boundaries, validates independence, and reinforces ego. To protect them from their own fatal flaws, Moshe tucked Shimon’s blessing inside Yehuda’s. Yehuda represents מלכות. Shimon’s raw גבורה desperately required the harness of Yehuda’s מלכות to remain a holy, productive force[5].
But this still leaves us with the highly unusual phrase used by Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan: “לא היה בלבו” — he [Moshe] did not have it in his heart.
Examining the Heart of the Matter
In Kabbalistic thought, the heart (לב) is not merely the seat of emotion, but the seat of the Sefira of בינה – Understanding. As Eliyahu HaNavi declares [xvii]: “בינה ליבא ובה הלב מבין” [the Sefira of בינה is the heart, and with it[6] the heart understands.” בינה represents cognitive empathy – the ability to deconstruct an idea [חכמה], understand an opposing viewpoint, and grasp the nuances of another’s mindset.
Moshe, however, is the paragon of אמת – Truth, whose prophecy stems from the Sefira of נצח. As the Gemara[xviii] explicitly states: “חמשים שערי בינה נבראו בעולם וכולם ניתנו למשה חסר אחת” — “Fifty (50) gates of בינה were created in the world, and all were given to Moshe, minus one.” The 50th and final Gate of בינה was structurally closed to Moshe.[7]
Furthermore, as the Alter Rebbe explains in the Tanya[xix], a Tzaddik גמור – one who has completely eradicated or transformed his evil inclination – is entirely alien to the mindset of the deliberate, rationalizing sinner. Moshe could unconditionally love all the people – including the sinners, and he could offer his life to save them, but fundamentally he could not understand them. The final gate of בינה [8] was inaccessible to him. He literally did not possess the לב (the requisite בינה) to comprehend the twisted, fundamentalist logic Shimon used to justify their sins. Because he couldn’t cognitively grasp their internal spiritual framework, he couldn’t formulate a specific blessing tailored to their unique abilities.
ומדוע לא יראתם לדבר בעבדי במשה
Knowing this, Rashi’s placement of this commentary becomes deliberate act. The ninth curse recited on Mount Gerizim is “אָרוּר מַכֶּה רֵעֵהוּ בַּסָּתֶר” — Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret. Rashi defines this specifically as the sin of לשון הרע speaking evilly of another (“על לשון הרע הוא אומר”).
When the Jewish people would hear the blessings of וזאת הברכה and realize an entire tribe was skipped, the immediate, cynical reaction of the masses could be to whisper: “Look at our leader. On his deathbed, he is still settling scores.” To strike Moshe’s reputation in secret – to accuse the ultimate Faithful Shepherd of petty vindictiveness – would be a catastrophic sin. Rashi preempts this precisely at the curse of לשון הרע. He is subtly warning the reader: מדוע לא יראתם לדבר בעבדי במשה Do not dare speak slander about Moshe’s motives. It was not anger. It was לא היה בלבו – a structural, Kabbalistic inability of the ultimate intellect of Truth to process the rationalizations of Shimon, combined with the protective necessity of keeping Shimon dependent.
This resolves the final anomaly regarding the curses. Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan suggests there were only 11 specific curses (matching the 11 tribes to be blessed), even though the text explicitly lists 12 curses. The 12th curse[xx], however, is not specific. It is the overarching, general covenant: “אָרוּר אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָקִים אֶת דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת” – Cursed is he who does not uphold the words of this Torah to perform them.
The symmetry here is absolute. There are 11 specific curses, mirroring the 11 specific tribal blessings. The 12th curse is the general covenant that binds everything together. On the side of blessing, that 12th, overarching reality is embodied by Shimon.
The Blessing of Shimon
Shimon does not receive a specific, bounded blessing because Shimon represents the totality of the Torah’s [Written] transmission. Deriving their energy from that elusive 50th Gate of בינה,[9] they encapsulate all of Judaism, not just a specific localized mission. As the scribes and teachers scattered throughout Israel, they are the very mechanism by which “the words of this Torah” are upheld.
Their “homelessness” is not meant to be a state of impoverished dependency; rather, it is the spiritual reality of the Sukkah. Leaving our permanent, fortified homes to sit beneath the סכך is a deliberate rejection of foundational limitations in favor of absolute Emunah. Just as the 50th Gate of בינה serves as the bridge connecting the infinite חכמה above to the processing center of בינה and the Sefiros below, the Sukkah serves as the connection point between G‑d’s infinite presence and our finite, limited world.
For Shimon, this is their permanent existential state. By being untethered from a specific territorial border, they become the connective tissue for the entire Jewish people, carrying the infinite letters of the Torah into the finite reality of the nation.
Moshe captures this in his final, overarching blessing to the nation[xxi]: “אַשְׁרֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל” — “Fortunate are you, O Israel.” As Rashi concludes: “למה אני פורט לכם, כלל הדבר הכל שלכם” — Why should I be specific for you? The general rule is: everything is yours.
When the borders of the 11 tribes dissolve into the collective אשריך ישראל, Shimon does not end up with nothing; they inherit everything.
And this is the lesson of Simĉas Torah. When we roll the Torah back to the beginning, we do not dance in our specific tribal identities. The partitions drop, the intellectual borders dissolve, and the physical walls of our homes are left behind. We celebrate exclusively as אשריך ישראל. Shimon’s blessing was never missing; it was simply too vast to be contained within a single border.
[1] Who are the only ones who would dance in the Base Hamikdash during Simchas Base Hashoayva.
[2] Yes, there actually were twelve (12) curses.
[3] This is not an excuse for Jewish schools to pay their teachers a reduced wage. Deliberately shorting an employee is a violation of אל תונו (see SMG negative Mitzva 170). Instead, this is a reflection of the broader fate of the lives of Shimon’s tribe – even for something as precious as teachers, and as expensive as writing a Sefer Torah, for which large sums of money should be paid – the members of the tribe of Shimon did not have the ability to amass wealth as a result of divine providence.
[4] The question as to why the broader Jewish nation didn’t enact that genocide during the four (400) plus years after conquering the land of Israel – or for that matter why the Jewish nation did not complete the destruction of the Cana’anite nations – as they were commanded to do – is a topic for another discussion. See SMG negative Mitzva 49
[5] Even when Shimon was channeling this to the negative, by seeking Yosef’s destruction, he himself didn’t act unilaterally. Rather, he advised his brother’s that Yosef should be killed – seeking approval from the ruling collective / majority.
[6] The initial statement reads ‘בינה is the heart’ but immediately thereafter, he states, ‘and with it the heart understands’. Which implies it is not the heart, but something used by the heart. This is beyond the scope of this essay.
[7] נצח is technically part of קו הימין, even though the ability to overcome obstacles also draws from גבורה. However, the 50th Gate of בינה is quintessential קו שמאל – and thus is inaccessible from נצח.
[8] The 50th Gate of בינה is what allows בינה and חכמה – technically two opposites – to intimately connect and become one function. The ability to connect opposites fundamentally comes from a level that is higher than that which it connects. Therefore, the fiftieth (50th) Gate comes from a level which supersedes revealed intellect – it is related to realization of עתיק, as per the famous axiom התגלות עתיק בבינה. The ability for a person to legitimately choose to sin is not related to intellect. For pure intellect would never choose to sin. Similarly, the existence of the possibility of sin relates to a fundamental desire of G-d to allow for people to sin and for them to nevertheless choose good. Such an allowance is anathema to נצח which exists to overcome such obstacles.
[9] This concept is a bit beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice it to ask – if גבורה is there to restrict חסד, what is being transmitted when total גבורה is in operation. In other words, how can punishments be visited by means of גבורה – the result of גבורות קשות should simply cause evil to wink out of existence as it no longer has any השפעה from חסד. However, גבורה doesn’t only receive and interact with חסד, it is also the direct recipient of a connection to בינה – specifically, that from בינה which is not transmitted through חסד. Jews also are not completely subject to the laws of the world created by חסד – they have a direction connection with and are sourced from that which precedes the world. Jews, like בינה, reveal עתיק יומין within the world.
[i] Gem. Suka 27b
[ii] Vayikra 23:42
[iii] See Shulĉan Aruĉ Oreĉ Ĉaim 637:3 and Rambam הלכות סוכה 5:25. The Shulĉan Aruĉ explicitly rules that one fulfills their obligation in a borrowed Sukkah. Furthermore, if someone forcefully evicts their friend from their Sukkah and dwells in it, they fulfill their obligation.
The Rema adds that one should not intentionally do this…
[iv] Devarim 27:24
[v] Shemos 32:32
[vi] Vayikra 19:18
[vii] Bamidbar 25:4
[viii] Devarim 27:12
[ix] Yer. Sota 7:4
[x] Devarim 33:7
[xi] Yehoshua 19:1
[xii] Devarim 33:29
[xiii] Beraishis 48:28
[xiv] שער מהות והנהגה
[xv] Gem. Sanhedrin 82a
[xvi] I 4:42-43
[xvii] Tikunei Zohar 17a
[xviii] Gem. Rosh Hashanah 21b
[xix] Tanya Chp 10
[xx] Devarim 27:26
[xxi] Devarim 33:29