To Really Live - Vayechi 5786

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Our forefather Yaakov had a very difficult life.  Beginning as a young man he had to contend with his brother Esav.  He had to step away from his path of absolute truth to follow his mother’s prophetic guidance and mislead his father into believing he was his brother.  When he succeeded in receiving the blessings and securing the future of the Jewish people and the world, he was threatened with death by Esav.  He had to leave the land he grew up in and his family and wander out to Charan, a place of corruption and danger, and contend with his crooked uncle.  Once again he had to deal with deception and intrigue as his uncle Lavan cheated him again and again.


On his way back to Canaan, his uncle chased him and wanted to wipe out the whole family, and Hashem saved him.  Then he hears that Esav is coming to war with 400 men.  After Hashem helps him past that danger and he finally settles back with his father in Canaan, his beloved Yosef is taken away, and as far as he knows is dead.  22 horrific years of suffering pass, and he finds out that Yosef is actually alive and ruling Egypt.  


Now comes another major challenge.  He once again needs to leave the Holy Land, the place where Hashem’s presence is revealed, and go to the most corrupt place in the world, Egypt, which is referred to in the Torah as “the nakedness of the world.”  On one hand this was not as frightening physically as his previous exile.  He was after all going to be the father of the ruler, and Yosef had promised to take care of the needs of the entire family.  Nevertheless in a way this was the biggest challenge of all.


Previously when Yaakov had to leave the physical and spiritual comfort of his home, he was alone and in full control of how he dealt with the spiritual challenges.  As he told Esav when he returned from Charan, “I dwelled with Lavan and I kept all 613 Mitzvot.”  Now, however, he was heading to this spiritual abyss of Egypt with a family of 70, and the chance of total assimilation of his offspring and the end of the “Israel experiment” (G-d forbid) was real.  How did he deal with this threat?


We learned in last week’s Parsha that he sent his son Yehuda “to teach in front of him.”  Rashi explains that Yehuda set up a Torah study hall from which Torah law would be taught and spread throughout the land.  Yaakov recognized that what keeps the Jewish people alive and thriving in all circumstances, is tenacious adherence to the Torah and its laws.  In fact, that is what happened.  Although the Jews ended up bitterly enslaved in Egypt, they kept their identity, their names, their language and their distinct clothing, and never lost hope in their eventual redemption.


This explains an interesting story that happened to the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, known by the name of his book “Tzemach Tzedek,”  when he was a child.  The story relates to the first word of our Parsha, Vayechi, which means “he lived.”  By the way, the numerical value of the letters of the word Vayechi, vav 6, yud 10, chet 8, and yud 10, add up to 34.  Until age 17, Yaakov lived peacefully, studying Torah with his father and grandfather.  The last 17 years of his life were the years in Egypt.  Meaning that he “really lived” for 34 years.  This is how the story is told in Hayom Yom, a diary of daily spiritual teachings compiled by the Rebbe:


“When the Tzemach Tzedek was a boy and learned the passage, "Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years," his teacher translated according to the Baal Haturim commentary: "Our father Yaakov lived his seventeen best years in Egypt." When he returned home from school he asked his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe: How can it be that our father Yaakov, the elect of the Patriarchs, should have as the best years of his life the seventeen that he lived in Egypt, the land of corruption?


The Alter Rebbe answered: It is written, "And Yehuda he sent before him to Yosef to give instructions for Goshen." The Midrash states, (and Rashi quotes this), R. Nechemya said - to establish a house of study so Torah would be there and the tribes would study Torah. "To give instructions for Goshen" means (in a deeper sense), when one learns Torah he comes closer to The Al-mighty, may He be blessed, so even in Egypt it was true to say vay'chi - he lived.


It is the Torah that has sustained us throughout history, and it is the Torah that will continue to sustain us and help bring Mashiach.  


Let’s study it!

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