Musar su Geremia 30:10

THIS quality is commendable when a man directs it in faith in the Lord, and places his reliance and his confidence in Him. Thus it is said (Prov. xxii. 19), "That thy trust may be in the Lord." This is a praiseworthy disposition: its possessor is worthy of very good fortune and abundant mercy from God, as it is written (Ps. xxxii. 10), "He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." He who is in this state deserves to be blest, as it is said (Jer. xvii. 7), "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is." This quality is usually found in the upright, those who fear God and who are referred to in the command, which declares (Ps. cxv. 11), "Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord." The excellence of this quality and its merit before God, exalted be He, (is seen in the fact that) He promised it to Jacob during his sleep, as it is said (Isa. xliv. 2), "Fear not, O Jacob, my servant," and as it is said of the righteous man who trusts in the Lord and who confides in Him (Ps. cxii. 7), "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

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 צורה 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 צדיקים 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 152b. 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 inquired who it was that had expressed this complaint. When he was told by Rabbai 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: ורקב עצמות קנאה, "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 5b 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.