Musar untuk Kejadian 45:27

In my commentary on פרשת וישלח 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 about 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 re incarnation. That re-incarnation 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: ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, "the death of the person called Israel drew near." The spiritual part of Jacob's soul (נפש) called Israel, was on a higher level than the spiritual part of the נפש called Jacob. Jacob's request to Joseph to perform a חסד של אמת emanated from his “ישראל” aspect. The word עמדי emphasized that he was speaking in his capacity as ישראל.

Another awesome thing which befell Judah: Our sags of blessed memory have said (Sotah 7b): "All those years that Israel was in the desert, the bones of Judah were 'rolling around' in his casket, until Moses arose and implored mercy for him. He said… (Devarim 33:7): 'Hear, O L-rd, the voice of Judah' — at which his limbs reunited. But he was not yet brought to the Heavenly synod, at which Moses said (Ibid.): 'and to his people shall You bring him.' But he could not engage in halachic converse with the sages there, at which Moses said (Ibid.): 'Let his hands do battle for him', etc." All this befell him because he had said (Bereshith 43:9): "If I do not bring him [Benjamin] to you and present him to you [alive], I shall have sinned against you all the days." __ But he did bring him! But, "the curse of a sage is fulfilled even if the condition [(in this instance, bringing him back)] is fulfilled" (Makkoth 11b). And we have already said that whatever issues from a man's mouth is by Divine providence, so that the L-rd's will was being enacted here. It seems to me that the explanation is as follows: It is known that they [the brothers] placed a ban on anyone who would reveal this [(the sale of Joseph)] to our father Jacob, and they included the Shechinah in this ban, wherefore the Holy Spirit [of prophecy] was removed from our father Jacob (until the end [of the episode], where it is written (Ibid. 45:27): "And the spirit of Jacob their father revived," which Onkelos translates: "And the Holy Spirit [again] reposed upon him.") And because of this ban it was decreed upon him [Judah] that holiness depart from him entirely, (as any man who is excommunicated), wherefore Judah was constrained to accept excommunication upon himself, as it is written: "And I shall have sinned against my father all of the days."

We explained that those letters signified death, i.e. the spilling of man's blood. The removal of the letter א caused the substitution of the letter ע. This meant that עור ובשר, skin and flesh, replaced the entity previously called אדם, and death in the form of blood entered the world. Expressed differently, Adam's כתונת was removed. When Jacob provided Joseph with a כתונת, this symbolized the reversal of that negative development. When the brothers dipped that כתונת, coat, in blood, they symbolically nullified Jacob's intention. As a result of this, the Holy Spirit departed from Jacob; he remained in mourning, and until he received the news that Joseph was alive the Presence of the שכינה did not return to him. Only then does the Torah state: ותחי רוח יעקב אביהם, "Jacob's (holy) spirit revived" (45,27). Onkelos translates those words as: "The prophetic spirit again came to rest on their father Jacob." It is reasonable to assume that the Holy Spirit departed from Joseph at the time it departed from Jacob. No doubt Joseph experienced emotional distress, if only because he felt the distress his father must have experienced by not knowing his favorite son's whereabouts. Besides, how could Joseph, who was the spiritual extension of Jacob, not be sensitive to his father's anguish? Jacob's descent to Egypt must also be seen from this angle, i.e. two parts becoming re-united. [It was politically impossible for Joseph to return to the land of Canaan while alive, since we know that he could not even be buried in Canaan after he died. Ed.]