Only he who welcomes his brethren into his four cubits [of space] is authorized to take the Lord's Name and recite the Shema!

Rabbi Shimon Biton

And Jacob beheld Joseph's sons, and said: 'Who are these?'

And Joseph said unto his father: 'They are my sons, whom God hath given me here.' And he said: 'Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.'

A moment before our father Jacob leaves this world, his sons and his beloved son Joseph, Joseph brings him the two sons born to him in the land of Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they may benefit from the privilege of being blessed by their revered grandfather. At this point, however, something that Joseph was apparently not prepared for takes place. His father Jacob, upon noticing the two sons, asks Joseph – "Who are these"?

Rashi explains – "And Joseph beheld Joseph's sons – He wanted to bless him but the Shechina left him, since Jeroboam and Ahab were to be Ephraim's descendents and Jehu and his sons Manasseh's descendants. And [he] said: 'Who are these' – where are these – who are not worthy of a blessing – from". Jacob, with his prophetic sight, sees that the many more generations are destined to follow the sons of Ephraim and Manasseh include future kings who will sin and lead others into sin, and as a result the spirit of the Shechina left him; not only could he not bless them but he even seemingly mocks Joseph by saying "Who are these". Is it possible that these are the fruit of your loins and thus also the fruit of my loins!

What can be done in such a terrible situation, in which one sees that an idolater will be born to one's son, Heaven forbid?

Joseph the Righteous tells us; Joseph, who had just recently experienced the implications of brothers rejecting a family member, who experienced brotherly hatred that led to his being sold into slavery and to his near death, who experienced a terrible separation from his family that nearly led to assimilation and the loss the loss of his identity as a Jew. Joseph says to his father in a plea – Father, "they are my sons", I cannot abandon them, sons that the Almighty decided to grant me in his ultimate goodness, He who predicts generations to come certainly knew what your prophetic vision discloses yet nevertheless decided to grant them to me. And therefore, Father, I ask of you to please not reject them; bless them and influence their future with the abundance of your blessing. And Jacob, who heard and understood his beloved son's heartfelt cry, replied "Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them".

One can, from a physical or spiritual distance, say "who are these", they do not resemble me, they don't think as I do. However, once one lets in the other into his "four cubits" of personal space the distancing walls collapse and as a result he will not only not reject the other but will even grant him the privilege of a faithful blessing.

The Mishna, in Brachot 9b asks: "From which time does one recite the morning Shema", and the Gemara offers three answers to this question:"from when one can distinguish between blue and white...Rabbi Meir teaches, from when one can distinguish between a wolf and dog...and others say from when he can see his brethren at a distance of four cubits and recognize him, said Rabbi Huna: The halacha [law] is according to the others"!

What is the Mishna seeking to tell us and what does Rabbi Huna want to tell us with his emphatic statement?

It seems to me that what is being suggested to us by Rabbi Huna's ruling in the Mishna and Gemara (where Halacha is decreed according to "others" as opposed to the usual principle, according to which Halacha should be have been established either according to the elder Sage or according to Rabbi Akiva in the Gemara) is that only he who welcomes his brethren into his four cubits is authorized to take the Lord's Name and recite the Shema. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is a great Torah principle.

As Rabbi Ashlag of blessed memory says in his article, The Giving of the Torah, "The principal axis in the Torah is 'Love thy neighbor as thyself', and the other 612 commandments are interpretation and preparation. Even the commandments between Man and G-d are, as a rule, preparations for this commandment, it being the ultimate goal of the entire Torah and of the commandments, as our Sages of blessed memory said – Torah was given only in order to connect the People of Israel, it being the purification of the body, until love of the other is acquired as a second nature, meaning that the one commandment of "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is the ultimate goal in Torah, which is immediately followed by Divine devotion."

Rabbi Shimon Biton is a section head and director of training programs for school rabbis in the Morasha - Kol Israel Haverim program.