The Torah portion of Vayechi, the final section of the book of Bereishis, concludes with the demise of Yosef: "Yosef said to his brothers: 'I am dying. G-d shall surely remember you and bring you out of this land....' Yosef died ... and was placed in a casket in Egypt."
[1]
How does the concluding passage, speaking as it does of Yosef's death, comply with the principal[2] that "one is to conclude on a good and positive note"?
There is also a custom of connecting the end of each book of the Torah with its beginning. This is because "the end is embedded in the beginning."[3] What possible connection is there between the story of Creation (the beginning of Bereishis), and Yosef's demise (the conclusion of Bereishis)?
In his commentary on the opening verse of Bereishis, Rashi says that the Torah begins with the tale of Creation in order to "relate to His nation the might of His actions, to give them the inheritance of the Nations."[4] This answers the complaint of the Nations: "If they should say, 'You are thieves, for you have conquered the land of the Seven Nations,' they say to them: 'The entire world is G-d's; He created it and gave it to whom He favored. Willingly He gave it to them, and willingly He took it from them and gave it to us.' "
Rashi thus means to teach that even the Nations are aware that G-d "chose us from among all the Nations and gave us His Torah."[5] It is specifically because of this that they claim: "You are thieves, for you have conquered the land of the Seven Nations."
According to the gentiles' understanding, the Jewish people should not be bound to physicality in general or to a specific land in particular, for our entire essence is divine service, which is incumbent upon us at all times and in all places. The Jews' nationhood, claim the gentiles, consists of being chosen by G-d to live a spiritual lifestyle.
Therefore conquering Eretz Yisrael in order to dwell there is considered thievery by the Nations; such conduct is fit for other nations, whose identity involves a group of people settling a particular portion of land. The Jews, they say, do not fit into this category, since we were elevated by G-d above all nations, languages and lands.
The Jewish response to this is: "He relates to His nation the might of His actions, to give them the inheritance of the Nations." That is to say that giving Eretz Yisrael to the Jews is entirely dissimilar to having land occupied by other nations - Eretz Yisrael is part and parcel of our spiritual service, for we reveal "G-d's might" there.
This is because the ultimate purpose of our spiritual service is to create a dwelling place for G-d in this nethermost world,[6] so that His sanctity will be found within material reality. Indeed, this is why so many mitzvos are involved with the physical, for through the performance of Torah and mitzvos, holiness permeates the physical world as well.[7]
The same is true of the Jewish people as a whole. It is specifically because of our particular merit that we were granted a physical land, Eretz Yisrael, upon which are dependent many of the Torah's mitzvos. This kind of spiritual service applies not only when the Jewish people are in their land, but is in some ways even more germane when we find ourselves in exile - at which time it causes us to overcome the darkness of exile and transform it into the light of holiness.
It is this theme that concludes the Book of Bereishis: Yosef tells his brethren that exile will have no lasting dominion over them, for eventually G-d will redeem them. The only reason they are in Egypt is to achieve an even greater degree of elevation. More specifically, Yosef's being buried - and thus remaining with the Jewish people - in Egypt gave us the fortitude to overcome exile and achieve redemption.
Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXX, pp. 249-255.
Notes:
- (Back to text) Bereishis 3:24ff.
- (Back to text) See Tosafos, end of Tractate Niddah (after Berachos 31a).
- (Back to text) Sefer Yetzirah 1:7.
- (Back to text) Tehillim 111:6.
- (Back to text) Text of the blessing of the Torah.
- (Back to text) Tanchuma, Naso 16; Tanya, beginning of ch. 36.
- (Back to text) See Tanya, beginning of ch. 37, et al.
In the Torah portion of Vayechi, we read
[1] that Yaakov said to his sons: "Come together and I will tell you what will happen at the end of days." Our Sages comment:
[2] "Yaakov desired to reveal to his sons the 'end of time,' [i.e., the time of Moshiach's arrival,] but the Shechinah [the Divine Presence] departed from him."
Why do our Sages use the expression "but the Shechinah departed from him"? Their intent is to explain why Yaakov did not reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival, going on to speak of other things instead. This being so, they should have used the term "but the knowledge departed from him,"[3] or some similar expression. Particularly so, since Yaakov then went on to relate many prophecies - a sure sign that the Shechinah had not at all left him!
Yaakov desired to reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival to his children because as Yaakov viewed them, they were - after their "coming together" - spiritually ready to receive this news. He therefore said to them, "come together," i.e., make your final spiritual preparation by uniting with one another, at which time I will reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival.
However, that aspect of the Shechinah which could have caused this knowledge to descend to the spiritual level of his children suddenly left him. For the term Shechinah also means a level of holiness that descends, clothes itself and is revealed within a lower level.[4]
In other words, the Shechinah continued to reside within Yaakov himself, and he was therefore still able to prophesy. Even the time of Moshiach's arrival was never concealed from him. All that was kept from him was the ability to reveal his knowledge to his children.
But this raises another question. Since the Shechinah only departed because of the inability of his children to receive the information, why do our Sages say "the Shechinah departed from him"? They should have said: "but his children were not worthy of receiving the information"[5] or some such expression.
In truth, the very fact that Yaakov's children were as yet unworthy of receiving this information also caused a descent in Yaakov's own level - thus the expression "the Shechinah departed from him." This is similar to G-d's telling Moshe after the sin of the Golden Calf "Go and descend (from your greatness) - Have I given you greatness for any purpose other than for the sake of Israel?"[6]
Nevertheless, since Yaakov's wish to reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival is recorded in the eternal Torah, his desire had an everlasting effect; were this not so, the Torah would not have told us of it. Moreover, since no desire of a tzaddik goes unfulfilled, it is understandable that Yaakov's wish had a salutary effect.
What effect? This, too, can be gleaned from an incident in the life of Moshe.
Prior to his demise, Moshe begged G-d[7] for permission to enter the land and see it. His desire stemmed from a wish to inculcate the Jewish people with the ability to actually see G-dliness in an internal manner. Although his request was not granted, it nonetheless enabled the Jews to behold G-dliness at least in an encompassing manner.[8]
So too with regard to Yaakov's desire to reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival: His longing enabled his children and his children's children to have revealed to them "the end of days" at least in an encompassing manner, thus allowing them to devote themselves to G-d entirely free from the servitude of Nations and the evil inclination.
There is a vital lesson here. There are those who wonder how it is possible that our spiritually bereft generation will merit the revelation of the coming Redemption, a revelation not merited by previous, much loftier generations.
We are therefore informed that Yaakov's desire to reveal the time of Moshiach's arrival empowered us at all times to instantaneously bring about the complete and true Redemption through our righteous Moshiach.
Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. X, pp. 167-171.
Notes:
- (Back to text) Bereishis 49:1-2.
- (Back to text) Pesachim 56a.
- (Back to text) As in Bereishis Rabbah, beginning of ch. 98.
- (Back to text) See Tanya, ch. 41.
- (Back to text) See Sanhedrin 11a.
- (Back to text) Shmos 32:7 and commentary of Rashi, Berachos 32a.
- (Back to text) Beginning of the Torah portion Vaes'chanan.
- (Back to text) See Likkutei Torah, beginning of Vaes'chanan; Or HaTorah, ibid.
Vayigash