In Memory of our beloved David Schwartz, who fell in battle sanctifying God’s name, on 27 Tevet, 5784 (8 January 2024).
“Le’David Barchi Nafshi” is a compilation of essays written on the weekly Torah reading by David Schwartz, of blessed memory. First published on the occasion of his marriage to Meital, David’s unique Torah thoughts that delve into the depths of the Torah are shared now to elevate his memory and sanctify his soul.
The parsha of Vayechi, “And he lived” concludes the book of Bereishit and is also the final chapter in the life of our forefather Jacob. Jacob’s death is the point of passage between the stories of our forefathers and the generations who would follow them and continue their legacy. The descent to Egypt of Jacob also initiates the divine prophecy at the Brit Bein Habetarim (15:13), in which God told Abraham, “your offspring shall be strangers in a land not their own.”
The parsha begins by stating: “Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years.” (47:28) The precise attention shown to the sum of his years in Egypt makes us wonder, as we could have determined the span of Jacob’s stay in Egypt without this detail. In the preceding passage in Vayigash, Jacob had arrived in Egypt and informed Pharaoh: “The years of my time [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my ancestors during their lifetimes.” (47:9)
Now, just a few verses afterward, the sum of the numbers for the life of Jacob is repeated, even though the math is not complicated. The commentators were perplexed by this repetition, and we will look at some of their approaches in dealing with this important question.
The Ramban, in his introduction to Shemot, writes that the events that occurred to our forefathers in Bereishit, the book of creation, are essentially “a framework of creation for their descendants as well.” The events in the lives of the patriarchs “fashioned matters for the future, indicating and foretelling all that was destined to take place.” The Ramban believes that a new reality in the world was created through their actions. The stories of the patriarchs are not just signals for us on how to act, as we might have interpreted it; in fact, the actions that they performed constitute a pathway in the world for future generations to walk upon.
A wonderful example of this critical idea is presented in the Talmud, Baba Batra 100a. The sage Rabbi Eliezer explains that when God tells Abraham (13:17), “Arise, walk through the land, its length and its breadth; for I will give it to you,” this means that Abraham’s process of walking through the land creates actual possession of the land as his steps established acquisition. Abraham’s passage through the land ensures the success of Joshua’s conquest of the land centuries later.
Our tradition identifies four prominent times of exile: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Rome. In the Midrash, Mekhilta of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, it is stated that the exile in Egypt was the most difficult of all.
The question is asked: “And from where is it known that the servitude of Israel in Egypt was more difficult than any other servitude?” The answer is from the verse (Ex. 3:7): “I see, I have seen the suffering of my people …” The midrash explains that the repetition “I see, I have seen” informs us that we saw two evils. “After the evil Egyptians drowned the Israelite children, then they would embed them into the bricks of their buildings.” Therefore, the servitude of Israel in Egypt was more painful than any other servitude. And this was known before God, as it says, “for I knew their pains.”
Rabbi Hayyim Tyrer of Czernowitz (died in Jerusalem in 1813), known after his work, Be’er Mayyim Hayyim, writes that the reason for the descent of our ancestors to Egypt was only to soften the intensity of the harshness of the expected exile. The interpretation of the Be’er Mayyim Hayyim is similar to that which was put forward earlier by the Ramban, that the actions of our forefathers forge a pathway for the people of Israel in the future.
The descent of our patriarchs and matriarchs to Egypt alleviated the suffering of servitude at a later date. When Sarah went down to Egypt with Abraham and she subsequently refuses Pharaoh, our mystical tradition tells us that her actions “she subdued a little of the klipah” i.e. the power of the dark husks in mystical thought that block the light of God in the world. In other words, Sarah’s actions also lessened the harshness of the Egyptian exile by removing mystical husks of darkness.
Our forefather Isaac was the one patriarch who never stepped foot outside of the boundaries of the land of Israel. My grandfather Avi has explained the story of Isaac by noting that our forefather Abraham held back his son from leaving Israel for the purpose of searching for a shidduch in order to prevent or delay the decree of the Brit bein Habetarim. Whatever the case, the issue of remaining in Israel remained his top priority. The Sefat Emet similarly explains how the actions of our forefathers guide us: “Our forefathers are the head and mind of Israel, and the body follows after the head.”
In the light of all this, we can determine that the emphasis on Jacob's prolonged stay in Egypt at the beginning of the parsha was intended to teach us a lesson about the great significance of Jacob’s time there. Our forefather Jacob provided us, the people of Israel, with the strength to face that most difficult exile in Egypt. By enduring through that, the people succeeded in guarding the special legacy that our forefathers established with their actions.
Additionally, this also shows the greatness of Jacob, because he did not go down to Egypt for personal motives alone, but did so primarily out of concern for his descendants who were to face that difficult exile. It should be noted that this understanding depends on the interpretation of the Ramban, which holds that Jacob knew about the decree of the Brit Bein HaBetarim (15:1) from the time of Abraham. The Ramban (46:1) explains:
“When Jacob was about to go down to Egypt he saw that the exile was beginning for him and his children, and he feared it. Therefore, he offered many sacrifices to the Fear of his father Isaac in order that Divine judgment should not be aimed against him.” The path and actions of our forefather are what provided us with the strength to go into the harsh servitude in Egypt. On account of their merits and the merit of their actions, we have the strength to stand against those who seek to harm us in our own day.
“If the Holy One Blessed Be He had not taken our fathers out of the darkness in Egypt, we and our children and grandchildren would still be slaves to Pharaoh.” (Haggadah of Pesach)
Translation by Akiva Herzfeld