Reuven ראובן
Jacob's firstborn, who lost the birthright
Leah named him so, "for the Lord has seen my affliction." He was the firstborn and by right should have had the double portion, the priesthood and the kingship. He received none of them: after Rachel's death he interfered in his father's household, and the Torah says it in a single line, breaking off in the middle. Jacob's blessing begins in majesty—"you are my firstborn, my strength and the first of my might"—and breaks off: "unstable as water, you shall not excel." The birthright, says the book of Chronicles, passed to the sons of Joseph.
But in two places he stands above his brothers. When they resolved to kill Yosef it was Reuven who proposed the pit—"that he might deliver him out of their hands and restore him to his father"; returning and not finding him, he tore his clothes. And when Jacob would not let Binyamin go, Reuven offered his own two sons as surety.
The sages read his life as a story of repentance: "Reuven was the first to open the way of return." His tribe took its portion in Transjordan; from it came Datan and Aviram, who rose up with Korach.
On the timeline
Places
Sources
Tanakh
- Genesis 29:32 — his birth and the meaning of the name
- Genesis 37:21–22, 29–30 — he saves Yosef from death and tears his clothes
- Genesis 42:37 — his two sons offered as surety for Binyamin
- Genesis 49:3–4 — the blessing that breaks off
- 1 Chronicles 5:1 — the birthright passed to the sons of Joseph
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereshit Rabbah 84:19 — «the first to open the way of return»
- Shabbat 55b — «whoever says Reuven sinned is mistaken»
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.