In the Hebrew, Issachar is called a "strong donkey bowing under its burden" (Genesis 49:14). The image sounds pastoral — a beast of fields and heavy loads. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reframes the entire picture. "He saw the rest of the world to come that it is good, and the portion of the land of Israel that it is pleasant; therefore bowed he his shoulders to labour in the law" (Genesis 49:15).
The burden is not sacks of grain. It is Torah. The Targum reads Issachar's bent back as the posture of the scholar hunched over a scroll, the student who has chosen study over comfort because he has glimpsed the olam haba, the world to come.
And the verse closes with a stunning detail: "and unto him shall come his brethren bearing presents." The other tribes would pay tribute to Issachar — not as subjects to a king, but as beneficiaries to their teacher. In later rabbinic tradition (Bereshit Rabbah 72:5, Talmud Megillah 6a), Issachar became the archetype of the scholar-tribe, the one from whom understanding of times and Torah flowed out to Israel. Jacob saw it at the deathbed. Bent under the yoke of law, Issachar was the richest brother in the room.