The Shevatim Streets

I went to Baka today with a mission: to take pictures of all the Shevatim street signs. While carefully planning out my mission the night before (it was actually past midnight, so it was more like the early morning of) I was shocked and appalled to discover that there was no street for Shevet Binyamin. But I made the best of it, as you shall see. (There was also no street for Dina. Apparently, just being Ya'akov's daughter didn't rate a street sign. Sigh.)

These are in the order listen in the beginning of Bamidbar, not the order I took the pictures in.

The biological but not spiritual, territorial, or royal firstborn, due mainly to this.



The Shevet that disappears mysteriously by the time Moshe blesses the Shevatim in V'Zot HaBracha.


My Shevet!!! And the spiritual first born. And the Shevet with the most development and growth throughout the entire Torah (not that I'm biased :)


The royal firstborn. Along with Yosef, ties for the son that undergoes the most personal growth and development in Bereshit, especially here.

Don't pronounce the second "sin" lest you be implying that Ya'akov was a prostitute... Yissachar's birth is a great story. Zevulun's is somewhat less exciting. I get the impression that they hung out a lot as kids and stuck together as Leah's youngest. These two also have to go together because of the whole learning Torah/working dealie that they had. I really admire that kind of partnership - as long as both partners are in it by choice, as is the case here. Forcing someone into that kind of thing is just gonna make them mad. Someone should tell the Knesset that.


There was no Yosef street in Baka, so I am assuming that Menashe and Efrayim streets were deliberate replacements. Efrayim is the spiritual firstborn of Yosef, Menashe the biological. And of course, we bless our sons by their names. And their father, Yosef, was the territorial firstborn, as you can see from here.


I couldn't find a Binyamin street in Baka, so I walked to Rechavia... and this was the closest I could get. This guy actually did some pretty cool stuff for the Jewish people, so it's good enough for me.

Shimshon came from this Shevet, which was also the flag bearing leader of the North side of Israelite camp.

My 3rd brother! That's always the first thing I think of when I think of this Shevet. The second thing is olive trees.


English speaking Jewish youngsters love this Shevet because it sounds like God... Ha ha ha... well it was hilarious in elementary school. Big military shevet and also chose not to live in Israel, strangely...

The kids also love this Shevet because Naftali, the son, was supposed to be a really fast runner. Kids love that.

Anyway so that's it. That was my epic adventure of the day. I hope you now appreciate the natural Jewish character of Israel just a little bit more.

After all, how often do you walk down a street called Naftali?