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Harav Hagaon Elimelech Reznick Shlita

Keep Hope Alive!

Parashas Vayechi

Harav Hagaon Elimelech Reznik shlita

Rashi opens this parashah with the question: למה פרשה זו סתומה. Generally, between parashiyos, there is a space in the Torah, but there is no space between Parashas Vayigash and Parashas Vayechi. Rashi’s second answer is that Yaakov wanted to reveal to his children when the galus would end and Mashiach would arrive, but he was unable to: שבקש לגלות את הקץ לבניו ונסתם ממנו. This is based on the Gemara’s statement (Pesachim 56): אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש ביקש יעקב לגלות לבניו את קץ הימין ונסתלקה ממנו שכינה. Yaakov then became concerned, the Gemara says, that perhaps this was due to a flaw in his children:

אמר: שמא חס ושלום יש במטתי פסול, כאברהם שיצא ממנו ישמעאל, ואבי יצחק שיצא ממנו עשו.

אמרו לו בניו: שמע ישראל ה’ אלהינו ה’ אחד.

אמרו: כשם שאין בלבך אלא אחד, כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד.

באותה שעה פתח יעקב אבינו ואמר: ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד.

I would like to pose two questions regarding this Gemara. One, why did Yaakov want to reveal the keitz? And two, if there was no flaw in his children, why did the Shechinah depart from him and not allow him to reveal it?

The Tzelach explains that the phrase קץ הימין can be understood as the keitz of the right, as opposed to the קץ השמאל. The right always symbolizes chessed, while the left symbolizes din. There are two ways that we can get through the galus and reach the time of Mashiach: with middas harachamim or with middas hadin. Middas hadin is the harsher route, with gezeiros and yissurim afflicting the klal and the individual. Middas harachamim is the easier route, but takes much longer.

With middas hadin, the galus is much shorter, and brings Mashiach faster, because at the root of middas hadin is really rachamim. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu exercises din, the kapparah and tikkun happen immediately. It’s much harder, but where there’s pain there’s gain: We grow from that, and it brings the geulah much faster.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to create the world with middas hadin, but He saw that the world would not last that way, so He had to add middas harachamim.

Since Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kulo rachamim, why did He want to create the world with middas hadin? Because true rachamim is when there’s din. Din brings us to tikkun, to higher madreigos, and to greater schar. But since the world could not survive that way, Hashem added rachamim.

Yaakov Avinu’s Concern

Yaakov Avinu was afraid that Klal Yisrael would not withstand the harsh galus, with its gezeiros, persecution, shmad, and horrific yissurim. He feared that they would not remain faithful and connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and believe in Him throughout the galus, so he wanted to ensure that the galus would involve less din and more rachamim – that we would be redeemed at the keitz hayamin, not the keitz hasmol. It would take longer that way, but at least we’d make it to the finish line.

The Sfas Emes, in last week’s parashah, gives an intriguing explanation of the passuk: וְלֹא יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק לְכֹל הַנִּצָּבִים עָלָיו — Yosef couldn’t hold himself back, so he cried, and revealed himself to his brothers. This implies, says the Sfas Emes, that if Yosef could have held back, he would not have revealed himself, but would have continued to torture his brothers and make them suffer. Why? Because the tzaar that the shevatim were experiencing caused them to regret the aveirah of selling Yosef, and the pain they were enduring was a kapparah. Had the process taken its full course, they would have achieved a kapparah for mechiras Yosef, and therefore Yosef wanted to prolong it as much as possible. But when he saw his brother’s pain and regret, he couldn’t hold himself back, so he revealed himself.

That revelation stopped the punishment to the brothers, and in that sense it was a display of tremendous rachamim on Yosef’s part. But it cost us dearly, says the Sfas Emes. Because they did not gain their full kapparah, that led to the whole process of the churban, including the Asarah Harugei Malchus. And that’s why, right after Yosef revealed himself and embraced Binyamin for the first time in so many years, they both cried over the churbanos — of both Batei Mikdash as well as Mishkan Shilo. Why did they have to cry about that right then? They just met, and the first thing they’re reacting to is the churbanos that would happen centuries later?

The Sfas Emes explains that this was because Yosef’s inability to hold back, and subsequent revelation, actually caused those churbanos. Yosef’s reunion with his brothers was, therefore, bittersweet: On one hand, they had reconnected, but on the other hand this revelation was going to exact a harsh toll later on. That’s what they were crying about.

Knowing Makes it Easier

Every klap, every single tzarah, and every bit of yissurim that a person experiences brings his personal geulah and the geulah sheleimah. Yaakov Avinu feared, however, that Klal Yisrael would not be able to withstand it. I would like to suggest that he wanted to reveal another point, not only to ensure that there would be less din and more rachamim. The Targum Yonasan explains the words הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם to mean that Yaakov wanted to reveal the schar of tzaddikim le’asid lavo, and the punishment for resha’im. This includes explaining the conundrum of tzaddik v’ra lo and rasha v’tov lo. Yaakov wanted that even in the midst of middas hadin, where there are onshim and gezeiros, his children should be able to recognize the to’eles, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and to understand how each potch that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives a person actually brings him a step closer. If a person knows this, it’s a game-changer, and makes everything so much easier.

The following tale illustrates this idea. A collector for a major institution once went to a certain town, and knocked on the door of a certain gvir who was known to be extremely stingy and mean. The gvir gave him a dollar, and when the collector asked for more, the gvir started screaming at him, cursing him, and humiliating him. This went on for twenty minutes. Most people would not have been able to cope with this abuse for so long, but the collector just stood there and bore it. Then, after twenty minutes, the gvir stuck his hand into his pocket, removed a checkbook, and wrote him a check for twenty-five thousand dollars. The collector’s friends were incredulous. “We never dared to even knock on his door,” they said. “How did you manage to stand there for twenty minutes?”

“I’ll tell you,” he replied. “My zeideh was a collector in this town, and he left me a list with some tips. He told me that at this-and-this house, they’ll give you this amount of money, and you can push them a little bit, maybe you’ll get a drop more. When you go to this gvir, he said, he’ll curse you and humiliate you for twenty minutes straight, but after that he’ll give you twenty-five thousand dollars. So I knew the whole time, when I was standing here, that this is going to get me twenty-five thousand dollars.”

Hashem Knows We Can

If a person would know what schar he’s going to get in Olam Haba and what tikkunim he’s going to achieve because of all the yissurim, they wouldn’t be as difficult to endure. Everything would be clear and open on the table. Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal the process of the galus and show how each tzarah brings Mashiach faster and accomplishes a tikkun. This was Yaakov’s plan, because he was afraid that Klal Yisrael would not be able to withstand the galus.

Why, then, did the Shechinah depart from him?

Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu said no —Klal Yisrael can withstand it. They will go through the terrible galus and remain connected to Hashem and the Torah, believing in Him and learning Torah in all situations, with their emunah intact. “Yaakov,” Hashem was saying, “you thought they’re not going to be able to withstand the tzaros so you have to add more middas harachamim, but you’re wrong! I know My children. You thought you have to pull back the curtain and reveal how everything works so they should see the light that’s coming, which will make the suffering easier — but they don’t need that!”

It might seem that when the Shechinah departed from Yaakov, that was a punishment for him — but I would like to suggest that on the contrary, Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s not allowing him to reveal the keitz was a chessed shebechessed, because that will cause the geulah to come quicker. The Eibishter was conveying to Yaakov that his children would withstand the galus, and therefore he should not reveal anything to them and thereby water down the middas hadin. Because going through the galus and yissurim without knowing what it is accomplishing is the tikkun, and that brings the yeshuah much faster.

Regarding the passuk: לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּיתִי ה’, the Midrash says that everything is b’zechus hakivui — in the merit of hope and trust in Hashem. Kivui is what brings Mashiach, and what causes yissurim to go away. You should look this Midrash up on Shabbos.

We say in Shemoneh Esrei: אֶת צֶמַח דָּוִד עַבְדְּךָ מְהֵרָה תַצְמִיחַ וְקַרְנוּ תָרוּם בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ כִּי לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּינוּ כָּל הַיּוֹם. Ki means because. Why should Hakadosh Baruch Hu bring the yeshuah quickly? Because we’re waiting for it and hoping for it. When a person doesn’t know when the end will arrive and what the reward will be for the yissurim, that’s a whole different madreigah of bitachon and hope. We should all be zocheh to yeshuos and nechamos, all in the zechus of hope: לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּיתִי ה’.

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