פרשת ויחי
In this week’s Parsha Yaakov Avinu’s extraordinary life is coming to an end and the Jews’ long and bitter exile in Egypt is about to begin. As Yaakov realizes that his demise is approaching, he calls together all of his children and wishes to bless them before it is too late. Rashi, quoting the Gemorah in Pesachim, explains that in fact, Yaakov wanted to reveal to the boys the difficulties that the Jews would be encountering and the date of their eventual redemption, but that Hashem prevented him from doing so and Yaakov was forced to change the subject. I wish to explain why exactly Yaakov felt that it was so important to reveal the time that the Jews would be redeemed, and why Hashem felt it necessary to withhold that information from the Jewish people.
Perhaps we could begin with the Gemorrah in Pesachim (56). The Gemorah says that when Yaakov realized that his end was near, he gathered his sons together in his room and was about to reveal the time that Moshiach would come and that the Jewish people would experience the final redemption, however, at that moment, God’s divine presence left Yaakov and he was unable to carry out his intentions. Yaakov became worried and asked his sons if perhaps one from amongst them was unworthy just as his grandfather had one son who was unworthy – Ishmael, and his father had one son who was unworthy – Eisav. His sons responded to his concern by declaring, “Shema Yisroel… – Just as in your heart there is only one God, so to in our hearts there is only one God and we are completely dedicated to Him.” Yaakov responded to their impassioned response by saying, “Baruch Shem…”.
The Rambam also seems to quote the above mentioned Gemorah, but changes a few details. The Rambam writes that Yaakov gathered his sons together before his death in order to instruct them on the oneness of Hashem and reminded them how his Grandfather Avraham had gone in the ways of Hashem, and his father Yitzchak had gone in the ways of Hashem. He then asked them if there was one amongst them who had strayed from that path. They responded, “Shema Yisrael…”. How can we explain the discrepancy between the Gemorah’s rendition of these events and the Rambam’s in that according to the Gemorrah, Yaakov’s goal was to reveal the date of the redemption and according to the Rambam, his goal was to strengthen them in their service of God and their recognition of his oneness?
I found that Rav Shach deals with this issue. He begins by asserting that the Rambam is certainly not arguing on the Gemorah in Pesachim, but rather is attempting to explain it. The Rambam had a difficulty with the Gemorrah. What did Yaakov hope to accomplish by revealing the time of Moshiach. Was this just a piece of interesting information. Rather the Rambam is explaining that Yaakov’s goal in attempting to reveal when our redemption would come was in order to help strengthen the Jewish peoples’ Mitzvah observance. He reasoned that in knowing that the redemption was on its way, the Jewish people were more likely to pull themselves together and perform as many good deeds as they could before that day would come. But as he was trying to reveal this inspiring piece of information, he found himself being prevented from carrying out his desire. At this point he became concerned that perhaps the reason he was being prevented was because there were those in the Jewish people who were wicked and this information would have the opposite effect on them. Instead of being inspired, they would merely use this information to procrastinate the performance of any good deeds, reasoning that nothing they do would make a difference anyway and wait until the last moment to be good. So he tested them and when he realized that they passed the test by responding with the “Shema”, he understood that in fact the Jewish people were a holy nation, and that it was simply not correct to reveal to them the ultimate time for the redemption because of the minority of sinners amongst the Jewish people who would misuse that information and Yaakov was calmed.
However, we find that Rav Shach was unwilling to consider that Yaakov was going to reveal something just on the grounds that it would be a fascinating and monumental piece of information. R’ Shach is asserting that just as Yaakov’s only goal could have been to strengthen his sons and encourage them to improve their Mitzvah performance, so to every Jew, no matter where he is from, has a responsibility to constantly strengthen himself in his belief in God and his Mitzvah observance with all of his actions and words.
The Mishnah in Avos, (Chapter 2) calls out to us, “The day is short and the workload is great, but the reward is immeasurable, and the master of the house is demanding”. This Mishnah is telling us that we are required to take advantage of each and every moment of our lives and not waist even one instant because the “day is short”, meaning our lives are fleeting and fragile. This requirement to “seize the day” not only because of the work which is involved in keeping and studying the Torah is colossal as is evident to anyone who even glances at the sheer material which needs to be covered, but also because of the nature of the “Master of the house”. He is constantly demanding more from us and will punish us if we do not perform up to par. The Rabenu Yona points out something scary in this Mishnah. He says that normally, if a worker does better work, he is rewarded accordingly, whereas if he underachieves, he will not receive as much pay. However Hashem treats us differently. If we perform well, the reward is great, but if we fail, not only do we not receive our payment, but the retribution is quick and painful as the Gemorah says, “He who interrupts his Torah study with idle chatter, will be fed red hot coals in the next world”.
The Mesillas Yesharim in the chapter on “Alacrity” explains that this trait is so lofty that even the angels themselves use it as their defining feature. We are obviously men and not angels and therefore find this quality of constant forward movement very challenging. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the nature of man is extremely cumbersome and he has a constant downward pull toward the earth. And secondly, it is very time consuming and the average person would rather spend a portion of his time pursuing his own goals with his time, and not only Hashem’s goals. Since angels have neither of these two problems, we can easily see why alacrity is their defining characteristic in contrast to humans. However we as men have a responsibility to overcome these two obstacles and become angel-like in our desire to serve Hashem with non-stop energy. One practical way the Mesilas Yesharim offers to accomplish this is to consistently perform outward actions of enthusiasm and speed to fight our downward pull and this will in turn affect our inner feeling of laziness. In any event, what is clear is that if Hashem expects us to conquer this negative behavior, then it is clear that we have the ability to do so and to raise ourselves to the level of the angels in our eagerness and passion in which we perform His will.
May Hashem bless us to reach the point where our gusto to serve Him never ceases!