Issachar, fifth son of Jacob and Leah, called his sons together and said: "Hearken, my children, to Issachar your father. Give ear to the words of him who is beloved of the Lord."
His birth was strange. Reuben had found mandrakes in the field, and Rachel wanted them desperately because the Lord had not yet given her children. Leah demanded them back, saying, "You have taken my husband; will you take these also?" A bargain was struck: Rachel would have the mandrakes, and Leah would have Jacob that night (Genesis 30:14-18). Issachar was born from that exchange. His very name meant "hire."
But if his conception was a transaction, his life was anything but complicated. Issachar discovered the secret that most human beings never learn: simplicity.
"When I grew up," he told his children, "I walked in uprightness of heart. I became a farmer for my father and my brethren, bringing in fruits from the field according to their season. My father blessed me, for he saw that I walked in rectitude before him. I was not a busybody. I was not envious or malicious. I never slandered anyone, never censured any man's life, walking in singleness of eye."
He married at thirty-five, not from desire but because the labor of farming had worn away his strength and sleep overcame him before pleasure could. He offered first-fruits through the priest to the Lord, then to his father. The Lord increased His benefits tenfold. Jacob knew that God aided Issachar's singleness of heart. On all the poor and oppressed, Issachar bestowed the good things of the earth.
Then came the teaching that burned at the center of his testament:
"The single-minded man covets not gold. He overreaches not his neighbor. He longs not after luxuries. He delights not in fine apparel. He does not desire a long life, but only waits for the will of God. The spirits of deceit have no power against him, for he looks not on the beauty of women to pollute his mind. There is no envy in his thoughts. No worry with insatiable desire. He walks in singleness of soul and beholds all things in uprightness of heart."
This was Issachar's weapon against Beliar: not mystical knowledge, not warrior strength, not priestly authority. Just honest work and a clean conscience.
"Keep the law of God and get singleness," he commanded. "Walk in guilelessness. Love the Lord and your neighbor. Have compassion on the poor and weak. Bow down your back to farming, and toil in all manner of labor, offering gifts to the Lord with thanksgiving." He reminded them that Levi received the priesthood and Judah the kingdom, and they must obey both.
He warned that in the last times, his sons' descendants would forsake singleness and cleave to insatiable desire. They would leave guilelessness for malice, abandon the commandments, and follow Beliar. They would be dispersed among the nations and serve their enemies. But if they sin, they may quickly return to the Lord, for He is merciful and will deliver them back into their land.
"I am a hundred and twenty-six years old," Issachar said, "and am not conscious of committing any sin. Except my wife, I have not known any woman. I never committed adultery by the uplifting of my eyes. I drank no wine. I coveted nothing that was my neighbor's. Guile arose not in my heart. A lie passed not through my lips. If any man was in distress, I joined my sighs with his and shared my bread with the poor."
Having said these things, he commanded his sons to carry him to Hebron and bury him in the cave with his fathers. He stretched out his feet and died at a good old age, with every limb sound and strength unabated, and slept the eternal sleep.