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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshat VaYechi The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah Jacob said to Joseph
that he wanted him to perform a chesed v’emet—kindness andtruth—with him (47,27); he described the kindness as a
“true kindness” because in performing a deed of this nature to a departed there
can be no expectation of recompense to the performer. Many people raise the
point that Joseph had already received his reward for this kindness before he
actually performed it. Had not his
father promised that Ephrayim and Menashe, Joseph’s two sons, would each inherit
a slice of the land of Israel, just like Jacob’s own sons? So how can we speak about a chesed shel
emet—act of kindness—based on truth.
Not only that, Jacob gave special blessings to Joseph’s children
(something that is not recorded as having happened with his other grandsons);
he also allocated the city of Shechem as belonging to the tribal territory of
Joseph. In view of all this, how can
one speak about a chesed shel emet, a totally altruistic act of
kindness? The author quotes an anonymous source in the name of Rabbi Yitzchok of Orleans: When Jacob said: “And you performed kindness with me”, he had in mind that the act of kindness he requested from Joseph would be an act of true kindness if performed for other deceased people. The author finds it difficult to credit this explanation since if this was all that Jacob had in mind, he would not have had to elaborate that much. The author therefore follows a different approach, as we shall see. At the time Jacob made
his request that Joseph bury him in the land of Israel, he did not hold out any
promise of reward for Joseph when he requested his promise to bury him in the
land of Israel. Neither did Jacob use
the opportunity to apologize for burying Joseph’s mother in the middle of
nowhere instead of with his, Jacob’s ancestors. By his withholding any promises or apologies Jacob made sure that
Joseph should acquire the merit of performing an act of gmilut chesed,
kindness, that was totally altruistic. Once Joseph had promised
his father to bury him in the land of Israel, and had sworn an oath concerning
this, - on a different occasion, - as attested to by the words “It was after
these events,” in 48,1, Jacob did explain why he had buried Rachel where he
did, and that Joseph would inherit in the land of Israel as if he had been his
firstborn son, etc. All of this
occurred after Jacob had been taken ill. We must try and
understand why Jacob was so concerned about his burial that he made Joseph
swear an oath. Actually Jacob had two
reasons, both stemming from similar considerations. Firstly, Jacob wanted to acquire the merit in Heaven of having
performed such an act of pure altruism, as we will explain in more detail
later. This is why he turned to his
favorite son, the one who was the most like him. We have explained repeatedly that Joseph was the image of his
father in character, in historical significance, etc. We have a tradition that the son can confer merits on his father,
whereas the father cannot do the same thing in reverse (Sanhedrin 104) The second reason stems
from the fact that, as we have explained elsewhere, Jacob, Joseph and the
brothers are the mystical dimension of the binyan, sfirot in the
Celestial Regions. Jacob is a mystical
dimension of the emanation tiferet (beauty), the domain of the ineffable
four-lettered Name of G-d. The twelve
tribes represent the twelve ways that this name can be spelled. When the Torah wrote: “And these are the
descendants of Jacob Joseph”, the latter was equated with the former. We will come back to this later. The words: “And you
performed kindness with me,” mean that by your performing an act of true
kindness with me you will cause me to acquire the merit of a truly performed
act of kindness in the Celestial Regions.
By adding the words “with me”, Jacob intimated that between them they
could complete the structure of the sfirot (binyan) in its
fullest sense. Jacob conveyed to Joseph
that whereas he, Jacob, was the essence of that binyan (structure of the
sfirot), Joseph was its extension.
The existence of such an extension enables the root of this binyan
to be placed in a still higher region in the emanations than it had started out
from. It is in those regions that chesed
shel emet has its roots. We will
still explain all this. In my commentary on Parshat
Vayishlach, I have already explained at length the meaning of the statement
that “Jacob did not die,” and how Jacob’s “death” occurred when he received the
news abut Joseph’s disappearance, and how his soul was restored when he
received the news that Joseph was alive and well. He thus became his own reincarnation. That reincarnation was no longer subject to physical death. “Death” happened only to the part of the
Jacob-Israel personality known as Israel. This is the deeper meaning of 47,29:
“the death of the person called Israel drew near.” The spiritual part of
Jacob’s soul (nefesh) called Israel, was on a higher level than the
spiritual part of the nefesh called Jacob.
Jacob’s request to Joseph to perform a chesed shel emet emanated
from his Israel aspect. The words “with
me” emphasized that he was speaking in his capacity as Israel. |
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