Living the Life

Parshas Vayechi

Posted on January 10, 2025 (5785) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah| Level: Beginner

And Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years, and Yaakov’s days, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years. (Breishis 47:28)

 

The Midrashic tells us that these were very productive and golden years for Yaakov, those last 17 years in Egypt. Therefore it says, “And Yaakov lived…” He saw his family grow to incredible numbers and he was playing an instrumental role as a grandfather, a teacher, and a guide preparing his children and grandchildren for a long and challenging history and more immediately, for a bitter exile. What exactly the curriculum was, may remain a mystery but for sure his years of ceaseless learning, his life’s experiences, and his personal wisdom was being sewn into the hearts and minds of all future generations. We see that he was working right up to the very end of his life, till the very last breath, instructing and blessing his children. We can remain wondering, “What could he have possibly been imparting?”

 

Here is a story I heard recently that might be helpful to possibly understand what YAAKOV was so busy doing the last 17 years of his life.

 

Two buses of boys, seventh and eighth grade classes in Israel arrived after a long trip at a waterpark. It became apparent immediately to the Rebbes in charge that the waterpark was not reserved for male clientele only as they had planned.

 

Now, both the seventh and eighth grade Rebbes had the difficult task to break the news to the boys on each bus. When the eighth grade Rebbe told his class, there was a giant collective groan and as can be expected, everyone started to fount with expressions of disappointment and complaint. “No fair!” There wasn’t much for the Rebbe to say to quiet the crowd.

 

One boy asked the Rebbe if he could take the microphone for a moment and he announced to all the other students that we should be happy. We are doing the will of Hashem. There is nothing greater than that! Rather, we should be celebrating. He started singing and incredibly so did they!

 

When the 7th grade Rebbe called the 8th grade Rebbe to find out how the boys took the bad news, he told him that it actually went well. The 7th grade Rebbe said, “Don’t tell me. One boy took the microphone and told everyone they are doing the Ratzon HASHEM and they should be happy and everyone started singing ASHREINU!” “Exactly!” answered the Rebbe. “How did you know?” The 7th grade Rebbe told him the same thing happened on his bus too. Astonishingly they were two brothers.

 

When they got back to school, both Rebbes called up the mother of these two boys to share the unbelievable news and to ask her an important question. “What’s in the water at your house? How did you teach them or train them to do this? “The mother answered that she had no idea and she thought for a while then she remembered that a few years earlier, she took her children for a trip that didn’t work out and they were disappointed. So, they came back to a local ice cream shop in Jerusalem and when the ice cream was being served to them, she discovered that it’s not their standard of HEKSHER.

 

Again, they were disappointed, and when they came home with downcast faces, their father asked them what happened. When they explained how disappointed they were, he got all excited, and told his children that instead of being sad, they should be happy. The father told them to get dressed up in Shabbos clothing, and to set the table for a major celebration. The father went out and bought a giant meal. He spared no expense. They sat and they sang together as a family. “ASHREINU…”

 

What an impact a father can have on children. With quick thinking and the right attitude, he created nothing less than a revolution. Those boys on the bus won’t forget so soon. There is nothing more profitable or pleasurable than doing what HASHEM wants. I don’t know what Yaakov was teaching way back then, but he did a good job, because here we are many thousands of years later, still teaching and living the life!

 

Stolen Crafts

Parshas Vayechi

Posted on January 6, 2025 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

How terrible the disappointment must have been for Simon and Levi! How crushing! They had come to their father’s bedside together with all their brothers with the expectation that they would receive the old patriarch’s blessing, but all they received was a sharp reprimand.

 

As we read in this week’s Torah portion, Jacob, sensing the end of his life drawing near, summons his sons to his side and blessed them. But this is far more than a father’s deathbed blessing to his children. Jacob, the third and final of the Patriarchs, has completed the work of laying the foundation for the Jewish nation, and now, his twelve sons, patriarchs of the individual tribes, are poised to build the rich, multi- hued edifice that would stand forever upon that solid foundation. To help them achieve this transcendent goal, Jacob’s blessings define the characters of each of the tribes, their strengths, their obligations, their contributions to the overall tapestry of Jewish peoplehood. His holy words empower them to fulfill their particular roles in the greater scheme of Jewish destiny.

 

At this critical juncture, when Judah is assigned the crown of royalty, Isachar the role of scholar, Zebulun the role of philanthropist and so on, what does Jacob say to Simon and Levi? He reminds them of the outburst of bloody rage in which they destroyed the city of Shechem.

 

“Their weaponry is a stolen craft,” he declares, behavior unfit for the exalted family of Jacob, a page stolen from the book of Esau.

 

And that is it!

 

Where is their blessing? Are they to be deprived for all eternity of the patriarchal fortification which the other tribes received? How could Jacob leave them standing their without a kind word, a compassionate gesture of conciliation?

 

This is how the scene appears to us at first glance. The commentators, however, have an entirely different perspective on it. Jacob did not exclude Simon and Levi from his blessings, they explain. On the contrary, Jacob gave them a very great and critical blessing, a blessing that would facilitate their participation in the formation of the Jewish people.

 

During the Shechem incident, Simon and Levi had displayed a dark and violent side to their natures. They had shown themselves capable of underhanded conniving and a disregard for human life. With such decidedly un-Jewish traits, how could Simon and Levi take part in building a nation whose very existence is predicated on spirituality, kindness, truth and the nobler traits of the human character, a nation to which violence and deceit are abhorrent? Simon and Levi, fully aware of how they had dishonored the Jewish ideal through their own shortcomings, were heartbroken at the prospect of losing for all the eternity the opportunity to take part in the building of the Jewish nation.

 

But Jacob was a loving father, and in his blessing to his two headstrong sons, he gave them profound reassurance. Your self-image is wrong, he told them. Do not think of yourselves as violent, deceitful people. Violence and deceit are an aberration to you, a craft stolen from Esau.

 

Do not despair. You have it in your power to purge yourselves of this contamination and resume your honored place among the other tribes of Israel. It is an undoubtedly a difficult thing to do, but I give you my blessing that your efforts should be blessed with success.

 

Two boys were expelled from school for pulling a nasty prank on one of their teachers. As time went by, one of them became a notorious criminal, while the other became a great sage.

 

Years later, the principal had occasion to meet the sage. “Tell me,” he said. “You both started from the same point. How come you are a sage, and your friend is a criminal?”

 

“It’s very simple,” the sage replied. “When we were expelled, my friend’s father ranted and raved at him and punished him severely. But my father was wiser. He said to me, ‘You are such a fine, good boy. What got into you to do such a cruel thing? It’s so out of character!’ You know what? I realized he was right, and I never did such a thing again.”

 

In our own lives, we are often overcome with remorse and mortification over some terrible misdeed we committed, whether in the conduct of our relationship with Hashem or with friends and family. Remorse can be a very positive reaction, but not if it drags us down into despair and self- loathing. Let us take heart in Jacob’s reassurance that as descendants of the holy patriarchs we are essentially good and decent people, that any misdeeds of which we may be guilty are the product of stolen crafts, alien influences we can and will eradicate from our hearts.

 

Text Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

Rabbi Reich is on the faculty of the Ohr Somayach Tanebaum Education Center.

 

Aging Gracefully

Parshas Vayechi

Posted on December 14, 2021 (5782) By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch | Series: Kol HaKollel | Level: Beginner

“And it came to pass after these matters that [the messenger] said to Yosef (Joseph), ‘Behold, your father is ill.’…(Beraishis/Genesis 48:1) This is the first time in the history of the world that someone became sick.

 

Yalkut Shimoni (1)(Chayai Sarah 105) narrates that Avraham requested from G-d the phenomenon of visible aging, for he feared that when father and son entered a room people would not know whom to give honor first, so G-d granted him his wish, with him as the first recipient.

 

Yitzchak (Isaac) requested suffering before death, for he feared the result of the process of Divine judgment if one never had the warning to do teshuva (regret one’s misdeeds and resolve to return to G-d’s path), so G-d granted him his wish, with him as the first recipient.

 

Yaakov (Jacob) requested illness, for he feared the consequences of not having a few days to resolve outstanding issues between one’s children. G-d granted him his wish, with him as the first recipient.

 

Michtav Me’Eliyahu (2) explains that each of our saintly forefathers made requests consistent with his most pronounced character trait. Avraham, known for his acts of chesed (loving kindness), appreciated the need for giving genuine honor to his fellow human. G-d concurred to the great impediment this indistinguishability placed on one’s Divine service through chesed. 

 

Yitzchak’s focus was on justice, and he recognized the great tragedy in the afterlife that awaited one who did not do teshuva. Therefore, he beseeched a mechanism in this life that would awaken the consciousness to this inevitability so that the requisite correction could be made.

 

Yaakov’s pursuit was perfection and completion, seeking resolution between opposing forces. Prior to death, a simple declaration of one’s will was insufficient; efforts needed to be made to ensure that the children accepted the determination. He understood that there would continue to be jealousy unless everyone genuinely felt his interests had been served, that there could be no peace (shalom) between parties without feeling a sense of wholeness (shleimus). This could not be accomplished with the suddenness that accompanied natural death at that time. G-d’s accommodation was extended illness.

 

Rabbi Akiva taught us (Tractate Berachos 60b) that one should regularly remind himself that all that G-d does is for the good. There are tragedies that challenge our faith in this maxim, such as the difficulties that comes with aging. But our Sages remind us often that trials are given to us as growth opportunities (see Kol HaKollel Parshas Lech Lecha 5764), and G-d, in his infinite kindness and love for us, granted our forefathers’ requests for the growth opportunities of aging. Our challenge is to maximize our utilization of them.

 

Have a Good Shabbos!