HaRav Shlomo Aviner heads Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim in Jerusalem's Old City
Our mother Rachel died on the eleventh of Cheshvan, which was the day when Binyaman was born. The death of Rachel is not a simple or routine matter but a complicated issue which remained with our father Yaakov all the days of his life. On the day of his death, Yaakov asked Yosef: “Please do not bury me in Egypt, for I will lie with my fathers… and I will be buried in their gravesite” (Bereshit 47:29-30).
Yaakov knew that his request would arouse astonishment in Yosef: Yaakov buried Rachel by the road and did not carry her to the Cave of Machpelah, or even to Bet Lechem. Rashi says: “And I buried her there. I did not even bring her to Bet Lechem to enter the land; and I knew that your heart would be set against me. But let it not be said that the rains prevented me from carrying her or burying her” (Rashi on ibid. 48:7). Yaakov did not want excuses or justifications for his act. This was not the reason for his leaving her there.
Yaakov knew that Yosef, the righteous one, was one of the great proponents of ethical conduct, as evidenced when he reacted to his brothers by saying: “And while you conspired to harm me, G-d thought to benefit me” (Bereshit 50:20). This is what The Holy One Blessed Be He desires; everything has a Divine rationale: Look, now I have the power to save everyone. Yosef never told his father how he was brought to Egypt. Our Sages say that Yosef avoided being alone with his father so that he would not question him and thus be forced to recount what his brothers did to him (Pesikta Rabbati 3, Be-Yom Ha-Shemini). Yosef was among those who guarded what they said; and he would have had no pleasure of revenge in telling Yaakov about his brothers’ conduct.
Our father Yaakov, who recognized this quality in his son, said to him: “No doubt you believe that on account of the rains that fell in the month of Cheshvan, I buried her by the road. It was not at all for that reason, but for a Divine reason. By His instruction I buried her there” (Rashi on Bereshit 48:7).
Why specifically by the roadisde ? So that when Nevuzradan would come to exile the Nation of Israel, and there would go out a great wailing of thousands of Jews including women, children and infants; and they would be broken, downcast and suffering from the oppression of the enemy, Rachel would arise from her grave to cry and plead for mercy on their behalf; as it is said: “A loud voice will be heard, Rachel crying for her children” (Yirmiyahu 31:14). And The Holy One Blessed Be He will answer: “There is reward for your labors.…and your children will return to their own borders” (ibid. 31:15-16).
The place of her burial is not by chance. Rachel is the motivating strength within the Nation of Israel. By her merit, the Nation of Israel remains strong even in the most horrendous circumstances. And so her children return to their home: And your children will return to their own borders (ibid. 30: 16). This return is not a natural process. Any other people, after undergoing sufferings and destruction, physical murder and spiritual incineration, certainly would have succumbed and vanished from the face of the earth.
But the Nation of Israel has a special power called the strength of Rachel, which keeps it alive.
We are not all the children of Rachel: Only Yosef and Binyamin are. We are mainly of the tribe of Yehudah, yet we all say Rachel our mother. Sarah and Rivkah are certainly our mothers; and Rachel, in spite of the strictly biological fact that perhaps she is not the mother of every tribe, she is our mother from the standpoint of spiritual strength. The issue of the actual geographic location of her burial by the roadside relates to Rachel helping her children to strengthen their resolve along the road to reach their ultimate goal.
Not everything in life is simple. We are not always at home, the place where we are protected from the material and spiritual standpoint. Sometimes, we are on the road, and the roads are filled with danger. (Jerusalm Talmud, Berachot 4:4; Rosh on Berachot 9:3). If the Nation of Israel is on the road, the whole world is also on the road. Before going out on the road, everything is pleasant and good; and even the goal is wonderful, but it is essentially very difficult.
How can we avoid falling; how can we survive in order to return home? For that, one needs special Divine strength which equips the Nation of Israel, and that is the strength of Rachel. The entire personal history of Rachel, her life and death, are by the roadside
Although the Nation of Israel weeps as it goes forward, yet at the end of it all, your children will return to their borders. Today we are fortunate to witness the realization of the children returning to their borders. Little by little, Rachel’s tears will be dried on her cheeks. Her efforts are being rewarded after a long interval of two thousand years.
But even now, when we are in our own Land, there is more of the road to travel: We are still on the main road. This is a perpetual state of existence. We will continue however to move forward armed with the Divine power of Rachel our mother hidden within us.