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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshat VaYishlach The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah If we follow Rashi – who understands the words Alon Bachot “oak of weeping” in 35,8, immediately before the report of G-d changing Jacob’s name [to Yisroel] and blessing him, as a veiled hint that Rebeccah had died – it seems strange that Jacob would experience a Divine vision at a time when he was in mourning for his mother. We have a tradition that one does not experience prophetic visions except when in a state of joy (Midrash Hagadol Vayigash 45,27). There is an excellent reason that Jacob should have experienced this revelation t the moment he mourned the death of his mother. I first have to explain something about the exalted meaning of the name Yisroel, and also something about the name Yaakov. On 32,29, Bereshit Rabbah “Your name shall no longer be Jacob but Israel,” comments as follows: “This does not mean that the name Jacob was eliminated (as in the case of the name Abram), but it means that the name Jacob would henceforth be only subordinate to the name Israel.” Rabbi Zecharyah in the name of Rabbi Chama adds that the name Jacob would continue to exist in any event, but the name Israel would lend it an additional dimension. Both these opinions are compatible with one another. Let me first relate an explanation I have heard about the well known statement attributed to Rabbi Yochanan, in Taanit 5 that “our patriarch Jacob did not die.” The explanation I heard understands this statement not as something homiletical, but as the pshat (actual meaning of the words). This in spite of the Torah having testified that Jacob’s body was embalmed (Genesis 50,2-3). How do we reconcile the statement with the report in the Torah? Jacob had two names, Jacob and Israel. A person having more than one name implies that he commands additional spiritual powers. When Jacob mourned the loss of Joseph, part of his spiritual powers, i.e. the part associated with the name Jacob, departed from him because of the anguish he experienced. As a result all the spiritual powers that he remained with were the ones associated with the name Yisroel. He experienced the loss of the spiritual powers associated with the name Jacob when the brothers took Benjamin to Egypt, an action which Jacob described with the words: “You have bereaved me already; Joseph is gone, Shimon is gone, and you would take Benjamin!” (43, 26). At that moment Jacob’s soul departed. If you will examine the text in the Torah, you will find that the name Jacob is not mentioned any more until he received the message that Joseph was alive. At that time the Torah writes: “The spirit of their father Jacob was revived” (45,27). In view of what we have just said, how can we account for the Torah’s reference to the name Jacob in 45,25 where the brothers are reported as returning to their father Jacob? We may assume that when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and they all experienced joy, the soul of Jacob began to revive. We see already then that Jacob experienced a form of resurrection, and therefore was not slated to die once more. The Jacob part of the Israel-Jacob personality remained alive forever. The body that was embalmed in Egypt and buried belonged to the “Israel” part of that combined personality. This is why the Torah reports in 47,29: “The time of Israel’s death approached.” Jacob, however, remained alive thanks to the life-force nefesh that hovered within his earthly shell. Nachmanides alludes to this in his commentary at the end of Parshat Va-yechi. The Tziyoni elaborates on the theme further. Here is part of his commentary: When our sages are on record that our patriarch Jacob did not die, they understood that his form, body, was clothed in a manner similar to original Adam before his sin. Jacob spends his time roving around in this world trying to be helpful to his people. The meaning of this whole aggadic statement is that the souls of the other righteous people are bundled up in a domain of eternal life without donning any kind of “garment” which would make them perceivable in our world, except on rare occasions, some of which are mentioned in the Talmud. When the spirits of such departed tzadikim (righteous people) make their occasional appearance in this world, having donned some kind of “clothing” to make them visible, this is in order that they may perform certain tasks assigned to them. One such example is reported in Shabbat 152. Some people were digging in the soil belonging to Rabbi Nachman. In the course of their digging they disturbed the grave of Rabbi Achai bar Yoshiah who expressed his anger vociferously. The diggers reported this to Rabbi Nachman. Rabbi Nachman went to the spot and enquired who it was that had expressed this complaint. When he was told who it was that had expressed this complaint. When he was told by Rabbi Achai that it was he himself, Rabbi Nachman quoted a statement by Rabbi Mori that the righteous return to dust in their graves, so how was it that Rabbi Achai was able to protest from the grave? Rabbi Achai answered: “who is this Mori whom I have never heard of? Rabbi Nachman then quoted a verse from Kohelet 12,7 stating that just as the body returns to dust, the spirit of the righteous returns to G-d. Rabbi Achai countered that whoever had taught Rabbi Nachman Kohelet had evidently failed to teach him Proverbs 14,30: “only those who have jealousy in their hearts are subject to their flesh rotting away.” The Talmud reports other strange phenomena of this kind upon which we will not elaborate. Jacob was able to don “garments” at will just as the prophet Elijah of whom hundreds of appearances in our world have been reported. Whenever the Jewish people are in dire straits Jacob “dons” garments and prays for them. This is what Rabbi Yochanan had in mind when he said in Taanit 5 that he bases himself on scripture (Jeremiah 30,10) “and you My servant Jacob, do not fear Israel; I will deliver you from afar, and your descendants from their land of captivity, and Jacob shall again have calm, etc.” In this verse Jacob and his descendants are clearly both referred to as being alive. This is the key to the meaning of 32,29:
“Your name will not be said to be Jacob any longer but Israel.” We must remember that at birth Jacob was
named Jacob because his hand gripped the heel of Esau. Esau interpreted this as referring to ikvah,
deception. He exclaimed in Genesis
27,36: “Is he not rightly called Jacob
since he has deceived me already twice?”
there is a conceptual relation between what happened at the birth of
these twins, what happened when Jacob bought the birthright, and again at the time
he secured the blessing. At birth,
Jacob did not want Esau to leave the womb first, for he, Jacob, considered
himself the firstborn. He claimed that
distinction because Isaac’s first drop of semen resulted in fertilization of
the ovum that would produce him (cf. Rashi on 25,26). Jacob was thus within his rights then when he tried to retrieve
what he had been deprived of by resorting to ikvah v’arama, devious ways
and trickery. It was Esau who used
deviousness already at birth, by forcing his way out of his mother’s womb
first. What he experienced later at the
hands of Jacob was no more than midah kneged midah, tit for tat. Jacob took a leaf out of Esau’s book and
“donned” Esau’s kind of garments. After Jacob died and was resurrected his name “Jacob” assumed a different meaning. Jacob, i.e. “heel,” or result, consequence, is an allusion to the eventual permanent world which follows on the heels of the transient world in which the Esau’s and their kind feel at home. This is hinted at by Rashi in his comment on “He called his name Jacob,” in Genesis 25,26. Rashi states there that the subject in the verse: “He called his name,” is G-d himself. At that point (33,20), G-d’s own name applied to Jacob, seeing that after Jacob’s “resurrection,” what remained of him would be permanent, enduring. We can now understand these verses on two levels. 1) Part of Jacob would die first, and only the Israel part of Jacob would survive. This condition would exist until the news that Joseph was still alive. This is why G-d hinted to Jacob at the time when he mourned the death of his mother that he would experience a punishment for not observing the commandment of honoring father and mother during the twenty-two years he had remained at Laban’s. As a matter of fact, Joseph’s separation from his father, during which time his father continued mourning for him, lasted twenty-two years (as explained by Rashi on Genesis 37,34, where he refers to Jacob’s statement to Laban in 31,41: Zeh li esrim shanah b’veitecha, “these twenty years I have spent in your house, etc.”). Jacob explained to Laban that in the end he would be punished for not having left Laban’s house much sooner. According to Rashi the words zeh li, mean that “this is my sin.” |
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Ascent of Safed
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