One of the virtues of strategy games is that they force the players to try to understand what might happen next. Moves are not isolated – decent players must think several moves ahead. And those moves are not merely positional; a chess player, like any writer, has a distinctive style, an approach to the game that will influence their manner of play.
In life, the ability to think many moves ahead is what often separates leaders from followers. In the heat of the moment, we all can (and do) say some pretty stupid things. One of the reasons why giving into anger is such a flaw is because, no matter how justified an action might be in the moment, the long-term consequences can ruin a relationship, a career, or even lives.
You would think this is obvious. But it isn’t. Think of all the people you know who have developed and cultivated and preserved grudges that were mere moments in the making – but which have led to a lifetime of consequences and fallout. In my own extended family, there are people who refuse to have anything to do with each other because of events that occurred a hundred years ago!
There is a cautionary tale in the Torah of a character, Reuven, who would have been a terrible chess player. Reuven’s inability to ever get things right even with the best intentions make him a tragic figure. And it all comes down to not being able to think more than one move ahead, to understand what reactions he will cause in others.
| Verse | Analysis |
| Once, at the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben came upon some mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” | Good intentions nevertheless lead to sparking a conflict. |
| While Israel stayed in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine; | What did he expect as a result? A pat on the back? |
| But when Reuben heard it, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben went on, “Shed no blood! Cast him into that pit out in the wilderness, but do not touch him yourselves”—intending to save him from them and restore him to his father. | Good intentions – and Reuven even achieved a partial result. This is the closest Reuven got to achieving a noble result |
| When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes. Returning to his brothers, he said, “The boy is gone! Now, what am I to do?” | This gives us insight into why Reuven is not effective at doing good: he makes it about himself. Not Joseph, not Jacob, and not G-d.
Think of the contrast with Joseph’s later dream interpretations: Joseph succeeds, because he gets inside Pharoah’s head. |
| Then Reuben spoke up and said to them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do no wrong to the boy’? But you paid no heed. Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” | “I told you so” provides momentary self-gratification. But nobody likes to hear it. Indeed, what did Reuven hope to gain by saying it? |
| Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring [Benjamin] back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” | How would more killing make Jacob happy?! Reuven simply does not think his offer through. |
Which may all go some way toward explaining Jacob’s description of Reuven: “Reuben, you are my first-born, my might and first fruit of my vigor (“On”).” The phrase “first fruit of my vigor,” seeing as how the word On is used elsewhere in the Torah, could be read as “my first disappointment/sorrow.”
But Reuven misses the subtle hint. His family instead retains the word On and proudly makes it a name! Alas, the disappointment is intergenerational, because, the Torah tells us, Reuven’s descendant, On, tragically joined the Korach Rebellion:
Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben —
Following in Reuven’s tradition of getting it all wrong, even with the best of intentions. In order to succeed, to make good decisions, we have to always try to think many moves ahead. In life as in chess.
P.S. Following the Korach Rebellion, the prophet Bilaam observes: No harm (on) is in sight within Jacob. Which, given that the person named On may have been swallowed by the earth, might be a straightforward observation!