When Yaakov was on his deathbed, he said to Reuben his first born son:”Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence.”(Bereshit 49:4)
Yaakov was referring to Reuben’s misdeed of moving Yaakov’s bed, after Rachel’s death, from Rachel’s handmaids tent to his mother Leah’s tent.
Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz commented that the Torah very rarely gives metaphors as this one. This metaphor is showing us the living reality of the trait of impulsivity. Just as water flows freely and quickly and can flood a place if left with no vessel, so is the behavior of the person who has no filter and acts impulsively without carefully weighing the outcome of his actions. If we don’t stop, think,observe before we proceed then we will make many harmful mistakes in our lives and we will cause much damage.
Because of Reuben’s impulsivity in his action he lost the right to the Dinasty of the Kingship of Israel and instead it was given to Yehuda, for a King can’t be impulsive, he needs to have the trait of composure and patience.
Yaakov was not telling Reuben that he was a bad person, what he was telling him was that he had a flaw in his character which needed to be corrected, and sadly because of this defect he couldn’t fulfill the mission that was entrusted to him.
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