Musar su Genesi 47:63

ועשית עמדי חסד ואמת . The main ingredient of חסד, kindness, is that it be performed without expectation of a reward. Only when performed thus is one called generous; otherwise one is simply a trader. There is no greater virtue than that of חסד. This is why a person must train himself to practice this virtue until it becomes second nature to him. Not only should he perform acts of kindness for the dead, but even more so for the living. By doing so he will emulate the virtues practiced by G–d Himself who constantly performs acts of kindness without any thought of compensation. Concerning this David has said in Psalms 63,4: "For truly Your kindness is better than life itself; my lips declare Your praise." David meant that whereas when human beings practice acts of altruistic loving-kindness, this is almost always with the dead. You, G–d, perform deeds of loving-kindness for the living, by the very fact that You grant us our life. What could we possibly do in the way of compensating You!? All we can do is to pay You lip-service, extol Your virtues in song and prayer. Rashi referred to this in his commentary on 49,21, where he interprets the אמרי שפר as an allusion to the song of victory sung by Deborah after Israel defeated Sisera under her leadership. G–d performs the miracles and all we can do in return is to acknowledge them with our lips.

The positive commandment mentioned in our portion is that of גמילות חסד, the performing of a deed of loving kindness, and specifically that of performing a service for a person after he has died. Such deeds are called the true גמילות חסד. Jacob described the act of burying his remains in ארץ ישראל as such an act of loving kindness. Attending to the burial of a departed, or performing rites of mourning as described near the end of our פרשה are all part of this מצוה. All of this comes under the heading of the positive commandment: והלכת בדרכיו, "You shall walk in His ways, which the סמ"ג enumerates in his list of the 248 positive commandments. I have copied the exact words of the סמ"ג on this subject at the beginning of פרשת וירא.

ויכלכל יוסף ... לחם לפי הטף . Rashi (47,12) says that Joseph provided based on need. He did not provide luxuries. We must not seek luxuries in our lives. Jacob too said to the brothers: לכו שברו רעבון בתיכם, מעט אוכל "Go back, buy us a little food." We should eat only to still our hunger and not to fill our bellies (43,2).

Another principle to be derived from the passage from the Zohar is the importance of clinging to scholars and accompanying them along the way to listen to their words of Torah, for the Shechinah dwells among the upright while they are alive and even after their deaths. Thus we see that in earlier generations people were very concerned about the site in which they would be buried. Yaakov Avinu, for example, instructed, “And I will lie with my father and you shall bury me in their burial place” (Bereishis 47:30). The reason for this is that the souls of the dead hover over their graves and are taught each night esoteric insights from the Heavenly yeshiva. Seifer Chassidim (705) relates an incident involving a certain tzaddik who was buried among the wicked. Every night he would appear to his friends and relations, crying out to them in a tearful voice and begging to be moved from there. He explained that because he was buried among the wicked the Heavenly yeshiva refused to reveal to him any secrets of the Torah. As a result his soul was becoming increasingly desiccated until no moisture remained. He gave his relatives no rest until at last they were forced to exhume him from his grave and bury him elsewhere.

The deeper meaning of the word is that it is an instrument ready and willing to be fashioned by G–d. Acceptance of Divine input from the Celestial Regions results in a spiritual awakening in our regions. Our sages who stated that the sacrificial service is something needed in the Celestial Regions meant that the concept of Israel in the Celestial Regions depends on this input from us through our sacrifices for the furtherance of its own perfection. This is the meaning of Psalms 20,3: ישלח עזרך מקדש "May He send you help from the Sanctuary." It is a reference to sanctity in the "higher" regions helping to establish sanctity in our "lower" regions. The meaning of the word מקודש is also that "for the sake of the sanctity which will emanate from our regions G–d sends His help from above." Jacob merited this level of sanctity because he, as the first of the patriarchs, succeeded to sire children all of whom were loyal to G–d and His teachings. As a result he qualified for the name corresponding to all that the name ישראל in the Celestial Regions in connection with מעשה בראשית stands for. This is the mystical dimension of Genesis 47,31: וישתחו ישראל על ראש המטה, "Israel bowed at the head of the bed." This is also the mystical dimension of Midrash Tanchuma Kedoshim 1 אתם מתקדשים בי ואני מתקדש בכם, "You will become sanctified through Me, and I will become sanctified through you." Whichever way you look at this, it all expresses צדקה, "righteousness," as it shows G–d's desire to help those who wish to sanctify themselves.

When Abraham made Eliezer swear that he would not take Isaac back to Charan, he made him swear by the organ on which circumcision had been performed, an organ that therefore had become dear to him, the symbol of the covenant with G–d (Genesis 24,3). Granted that there were good reasons then for the method employed by Abraham, why did Jacob request that Joseph, his son, perform the oath in the same manner by placing his hand on his father's organ (47,29)? Why did Joseph not mention the symbol of the oath that he made the brothers swear by when he in turn requested that the brothers swear they would take his remains with them when the time came for the redemption from Egypt (50,25)?

This also explains what Joseph meant when he said: אנכי אעשה כדברך, "I shall do as you have said" (47,30). It should have sufficed for Joseph to say merely אעשה כדברך, without the addition of the word אנכי. With the word אנכי, Joseph alluded to the fact that he in turn would act just like his father and make those responsible swear to take his own remains with them to ארץ ישראל. This also explains Jacob saying: השבעה לי, and Joseph's response being described as: וישבע לו. Jacob said: "Swear to me that you will do for me the very same thing you want to do for yourself."

I have also told you that these "sparks," i.e. result of these emissions, first surfaced during the generation of the Deluge and the generation of the Tower of Babel. Those generations were similarly remiss. Joseph first circumcised the Egyptians and then transferred them in order to morally refine them. He wanted to repair the damage inflicted on the world through the wasteful seminal emissions by all those generations. He tried to lead those people back to sanctity and the holy covenant by his action. This is the real meaning of Genesis 47,21: ואת העם העביר אותו לערים מקצה גבול מצרים ועד קצהו, "He transferred the people from the cities from one end of Egypt to the other." Joseph had first circumcised the people whom he transferred. The transfer was to refine them morally. In the course of time the mixed multitude that joined the Jewish people at the time of the Exodus were people descended from those whom Joseph had circumcised. This is the mystical dimension of Exodus 1,9: ויאמר אל עמו הנה עם בני ישראל, He said to his people: "Here are the people of the children of Israel, etc." Pharaoh later on referred to the people who became the ערב רב, the fellow travellers.

What we learn from all this is how careful we must be when we reside in a land that enjoys G–d's daily personal supervision. We must conduct ourselves submissively vis a vis G–d. King David expressed this sentiment when he said גר אנכי בארץ , "I am merely a stranger in the land (of Israel)" (Psalms 119,19) David considered himself as at most possessing the status of a stranger in that land. When G–d told Abraham in Genesis 15,13: "Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs,” we must ask why He added the words "in a land that is not theirs?" Is it not clear that one can only be a stranger in a land that one does not own? Rashi addresses this problem and says that this expression includes the times when Abraham's descendants would also at times be strangers in countries other than the land of Egypt, during the 400 years which start with the birth of Isaac. Other commentators see in this expression an allusion to the fact that Israel would reside in Goshen, i.e. not Egypt proper, the expression לא להם, referring to the Egyptians who did not "own" Goshen, seeing it had been given to Sarah by Pharaoh. Alternately, it could refer to the resettlement policy of the Egyptians which Joseph had initiated in Genesis 47,21, where Rashi explains that as a result none of the Egyptians themselves had a real claim to the land they were settled on It is clear in our context, that Abraham's descendants, i.e. Israel, were meant to become strangers and subsequently slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. At a later stage in their history they would become strangers in their own country. This is why G–d emphasized that during these first four hundred years or part thereof they would be strangers in someone else's country. Afterwards they would be strangers just as David described himself as a stranger in ארץ ישראל.

When the Torah reports Israel as bowing down at the head of the bed, 47,31) ראש המטה), this is a reference to Jacob and his "bed" (children) jointly having completed the בנין, and having thereby acquired a claim to a domain higher than that of בנין itself. If the ultimate that Jacob attained is symbolized by the word Mittah, the ultimate that Moses attained is symbolized by a word composed of the same letters, i.e. Matteh, only the vowels being different. He is described as holding the מטה אלוקים בידו, the staff of G–d in his hand, an allusion to a higher היכל השם. The word is composed of the letters מט,+ the letter "heh". 49 of the 50 gates of בינה were revealed to Moses; the letter ה is an allusion to the first letter ה in the Ineffable Name, a letter representing בינה.

Our forefather Avraham, on the other hand, merited both old age as well as beneficial days. Thus the plain meaning of the Midrash is that Avraham enjoyed a desirable lot even in this world. In fact, the Sages tell us in Baba Basra (16b) that there were three people to whom the Holy One Blessed is He gave a taste of the World to Come while they were yet in this world. They were: Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. As it is written, “With everything” (Bereishis 24:1), “From everything” (ibid. 27:33), “Everything” (ibid. 33:11). However, I have heard a deeper explanation of the Midrash in the name of my illustrious mentor, Rabbi Yudel, ztz”l, president of the court and dean of the yeshiva of the holy community of Kauli. It is based upon a passage in the Zohar (Parashas Vayechi 221b) commenting on the verse, “And the days approached for Yisrael to die” (Bereishis 47:29). The Zohar asks: “On how many days does a person die (i.e. why is “days” in the plural)? Does the soul not exit in a single moment?” Explains the Zohar: When a person passes from this world all his days come for a reckoning before the Holy One Blessed is He. Not one is omitted. If a person behaved righteously and feared Hashem continually, if he clung to Him lovingly every day and was whole in his commitment to Torah, fear of Heaven, mitzvos and good deeds, then all his days will be crowned and garbed with splendor and majesty.

The verse which tells us that Jacob bowed at the head of the bed, is an allusion to the phylacteries of the head; Jacob's extension, Joseph and his brothers, are the allusion to the phylacteries of the hand. When Jacob crossed his hands (48,14) while blessing Joseph's sons, he took a cue from the manner in which we don the phylacteries.

The entire subject matter under discussion revolves around the spiritual levels of ארץ ישראל and the three levels of היכל השם we have discussed at the outset. This is why, when Jacob noticed that his death was approaching, he called for his son Joseph to instruct him to bury him in ארץ ישראל. When he said: ושכבתי עם אבותי, "I wish to lie with my fathers" (47,30), he intended to answer a question that arises from a statement of our sages in Ketuvot 111, that dying and being buried in ארץ ישראל is not to be compared to merely being buried in ארץ ישראל after one has died outside the Holy Land. The Talmud there describes the scholar Ulla as regularly travelling between Babylonia and the land of Israel though he was resident in the land of Israel. He died while in Babylonia, and Rabbi Eleazar grieved over Ulla's misfortune of having died on unclean soil. When informed that his bier was being transferred to the land of Israel, Rabbi Eleazar stated that this did not make up for Ulla having died in a foreign country. In view of this, Joseph might have questioned the value of transporting the remains of his father to the land of Canaan.

Jacob was the root of all these "crowns." His "crown," that of the "good name," surpasses all the others in value, it is an essential ingredient in making all the other "crowns" truly meaningful. When Jacob was already sick and his son Joseph visited him, Jacob bowed down to his son because he wore the most important "crown" of all, the crown of Torah. (cf. Genesis 47,31 according to Rashi, who stresses Joseph's righteousness under trying circumstances) [Rashi on 48,2, does not specifically refer to a crown of spiritual significance; the impression Rashi gives is that anyone wearing a temporal crown deserves respect. Ed.] Levi wears the crown of the Priesthood, Yehudah that of Royalty. The specific "power" associated with the "crown" of Priesthood is tied to the confines of the Holy Temple. We find that only kings of the Davidic dynasty were allowed to be seated within the confines of the Temple (Yuma 25a). This is due to David being considered a מרכבה carrier of G–d's שכינה. The Temple on earth is, after all, a מרכבה, for its counterpart in Heaven. We have scriptural proof for this in Habakuk 2, 20: וה' בהיכל קדשו, הס מפניו כל הארץ "And G–d resides in His holy Abode; be silent before Him all on the earth!" The sanctuary is the attribute of Royalty as expressed in the name א-ד-נ-י, whose numerical value -65- equals that of the word היכל. It is also the numerical value of the word הס; the sanctuary is perceived as the foundation of the equivalent of earth in the Celestial Regions.

The land of Egypt is to earth what the מקום ערוה, seat of the reproductive organs, is to man. This is why Ezekiel 23, 20 describes Egyptians as ejaculating seminal discharge that resembles that of horses, and generally describing them as debauched. [The theme is that it is the nature of the earth itself which contributes to the debauchery of its inhabitants. Ed.] Jacob's descendants were exiled to Egypt because in that country it was easiest to transfer their share of the serpent's pollution to their surroundings. Once they had disposed of those pollutants they could emerge purified. Joseph was especially suited to start such a process because he had demonstrated by his previous behavior how to maintain the Holy Covenant with G–d entered into by Abraham when he circumcised himself. The evil influence of the serpent's pollution remained only in the descendants of Esau. The reason the Torah presents us with such a long list of Esau's descendants at the end of פרשת וישלח, is to inform us that they were all ממזרים, bastards. Rashi already comments in this manner on Genesis 36, 2. Esau went to the land of Se-ir because he did not want to undergo the exile experience in either Egypt or the land of Canaan (where he would not have been sovereign, seeing that Israel owned that land). Had he been prepared to undergo that experience, he, too, could have rid himself of the negative influence of the original serpent.

Rabbi Zecharyah on the other hand, refers to the period after the name Jacob had been revived because Jacob was revived. After that development, the name Jacob, representing also a life of infinite duration, became more important than the name Israel. A careful look at the wording in that Midrash reveals that whereas the first sage described the name Israel as the principal name and Jacob as merely "auxiliary," Rabbi Zecharyah did not speak of something "auxiliary." He defined the name Israel as "additional." This choice of adjective is appropriate, seeing it alludes to the additional dimension of spiritual content the letters 231=ראל added to the letters א-ל, as described. When the Torah spoke about the "days when Israel would die approaching," this was phrased so as to alert us to the fact that only Israel, but not Jacob was to die. When the Torah -through the mouth of Bileam- speaks about both Jacob and Israel in Numbers 23,23, this is because both names are used in their spiritual, eternal dimension.