You are allowed to like what you like
Summary: The tribe of Zevulun gets a portion of tribal land that provides abundant income and good fruit. But they still would prefer a different portion. Is it acceptable to like something aside from what you are given?
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It seems that many people in Biblical history have, or are assumed to have, multiple names. Not just Avram who becomes Avraham and Jacob who becomes Yisrael (and also maybe Yeshurun). But Moshe is also called Avigdor and Tuva, and his father-in-law is called Yitro, Yeter, Re’u’el, and Chovav, among other names. This trend also extends to the Megillah - Mordecai might also be Malachi, and Esther is also called Hadassah. These are just a few examples of cases in which people have an essential name - as it were, a name given at birth by a parent - and a name that is either assumed or perhaps earned. In many cases the the new name describes an important event or characteristic.
This is not only true of people, but of places. A famous example would be the land of Israel, which was once called Canaan. But there are others, cities and regions that bear two (or more) names, sometimes describing different facets or historical events of that place.
The Talmud in Megillah features a somewhat-lengthy list of places with two names. Rabbi Yohanan reports a tradition that “Chemet is Taveria… Reket is Tzippori… Kineret is Ginosar…” and each one has a geographical name as well as a sort-of nickname it earned because of something about that place. For example, Taveria is called Chemet, which means ‘warm’, because of the hot springs that are to be found there.
There are also alternative traditions. For example, Rabbi Yohanan had reported that Reket is Tzippori. But another tradition reports that, actually, Kitron is Tzippori. (Though they might also agree, and it could be that Tzippori has three names and not two.)
This last report - that Kitron is Tzippori - is more than just a story of divergent traditions and alternative names. It also brings a very important question - are you allowed to want you want? - into focus. Check this out.
The Talmud asks: could Kitron really be Tzippori? How could that be? Isn’t Kitron in the tribal land of Zevulun? And we know this because it is written that Zevulun failed to repossess the land from the inhabitants of Kitron. OK. That establishes that Kitron is in Zevulun’s land. So what?
Well, we know about Zevulun that he complained about his tribal portion, which we know because the verse in Judges (5:18) says something that can be interpreted as “Zevulun were contemptuous of their lives” (check out Rashi there). Why would the tribe of Zevulun be contemptuous of their lives? What was so bad that they might want to die? Read the second half of the verse: “Naftali is in the high fields.” Meaning, the fact that Zevulun’s half-brother Naftali’s tribal portion was in the high fields made Zevulun want to die.
What’s so bad about that? The Talmud explains further by imagining a conversation between the tribe of Zevulun and the Holy One. “Master of the World! You gave my brothers fields and vineyards, and you gave me mountains and hills. You gave my brothers land. You gave me an ocean (seeing as Zevulun’s land is along the west coast of Israel, on the shores of the Mediterranean. I personally would be pretty psyched if my tribal land was in Zichron Ya’akov, FWIW.)” God says back to Zevulun, “Everyone will need you because of the chilazon.” (The chilazon is a kind of snail or squid whose blood is needed in order to make the dye called techelet, which is used for the priestly robes and also to dye one of the strands of the tallit, a ritual prayer garment) as is written (in Moshe’s blessing to the tribe of Zevulun, found in Deuteronomy 33), ‘They shall call the people to the mountain.. for they shall be nourished by the abundance of the seas, and of the hidden treasures of the sand.’ And Rav Yoseph explained each of these words “abundance of seas, hidden treasures, sand” as chilazon, a type of sardine, and sand for making glass, respectively. So, Zevulun, you’re gonna be fine.”
But Zevulun is not satisfied. He retorts, “How do I know I will make money off this? It’s hard to make sure people don’t simply go to the beach and take your chilazon and your sardines.” And God invokes another part of Moshe’s blessing to Zevulun: ‘There, they will make offerings of justice.’ Meaning, this is how you will know: Anyone who takes your stuff without paying will see that their business will not benefit them at all.”
So, remember, all of this is meant to show that Kitron cannot be Tzippori, because Kitron is in Zevulun’s land, and Zevulun complained about his land, and clearly Kitron is full of loot, so how could it possibly be that Zevulun could complain? How could you complain about Tzippori? Tzippori is definitely preferable to pretty much any other place, isn’t it? It’s pretty much a money factory.
So the Gemarra anticipates an argument you might make about why Kitron/Tzippori is not preferable. “What, maybe you think Tzippori didn’t have milk any honey? That’s can’t be true, because a (former pirate turned) rabbi named Resh Lakish claimed that the milk and honey of Tzippori had been shown to him, and it was 16 mil by 16 mil (a mil being about a kilometer, making this almost 100 square miles. It is not AT ALL clear what it means to measure there milk and honey of a location in square miles, BTW). And that’s a lot. But maybe you think it’s not a lot compared to the rest of the land of Israel? It is a lot compared to the rest of the land of Israel, because another rabbi (about whom there are stories that he was going about on a boat and encountered a fish that was so big that the oil of its eye could provide sufficient heating oil for 60 cities) named Rabbah bar bar Channah said he had a vision of the milk and honey of the entire land of Israel and it was (as expressed in entirely different units requiring many levels of math but ultimately equals) like the distance from Bei Kovei to the fortress of Tulbakni, a total of twenty-two parasangs [parsa] in length and six parasangs in width. (A parasang is four mil, so that would make the entire M+H content of the land of Israel 88 mil X 24 mil which is 2112 square km, or 815 square miles. If you divine 815 square miles by 12 tribes you get about 68 square miles per tribe. And it Tzippori, which is only one city in the territory of Zevulun had 100 miles, then Zevulun was set up pretty well. Why would he complain, then?
Because he preferred fields and vineyards. And that is that. Yes, he was wealthy. He wanted fields and vineyards. He complained.
So, are we supposed to accept what we have? Are we supposed to look out on the fabulously lucrative beaches of the Mediterranean and appreciate the incredible income that will be generated, or are we allowed to hold on to an imagine of what the good life looks like? Is someone who does complain an ingrate, or are they simply acknowledging and honoring what they actually want?