Parshas Vayechi 5782: Don't think too much!!!

Parshas Vayechi 5782: Don’t think too much!!!

Torah Psych101

Dr. Jonathan M. Lasson

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A friend of mine was dating people for quite some time. He would analyze every date to the point where he would find many things that could potentially go wrong if he were to continue dating. I, myself had just gotten engaged and I gave him the following advice. Don’t think too much! I tell this over because we find a similar idea in this week’s Parsha as I will soon explain.

Among the fascinating parts of פרשת ויחי is when Yaakov wishes to reveal the final redemption as the Passuk says (1)

ויקרא יעקב אל בניו ויאמר האספו ואגידה לכם את אשר יקרא אתכם באחרית הימים

And Yaakov called to his sons and said, “Gather together and I will tell you what will happen to you in the end of days.”

I am sure many of us are curious to know when the coming of Moshiach will be. I don’t expect Hashem to reveal to someone like myself this prophecy but it seems like a reasonable wish for someone of the caliber of Yaakov.

Just when he was about to make this great revelation. Hashem says, “Not so fast”, and Rashi quotes the Gemara in פסחים (2) which tells us that the שכינה left him (Yaakov), and he started talking about other things. The Rodomsker Rebbe asks why did the שכינה leave him entirely? Why didn’t Hashem just prevent him from telling this one prophecy of when the final redemption will come?

Rav Twerski Ztl suggests that really the שכינה did not leave him entirely but because Yaakov saw the terrible things that would happen to the Jewish people further down the line, he became depressed. The Gemara (3) tells us that the main quality a person must have in order for the שכינה to be with him is SIMCHA. So he simply could not conjure up the שכינה when he was in this state of despair. What this teaches us is that even when we are likely to despair, we need to realize that feelings of despair and depression come with a price. We lose divine inspiration.

As this Parsha happens to be my Bar Mitzvah Parsha, I was always wondering about the fact that this is the only Parsha which is a continuation of the previous Parsha. There is no usual 9 letter break between פרשיות.

I saw an amazing idea from Rav Yechezkel Weinfeld a Rosh Kolel at Lev Avrohom in Yerushalayim.

He points out an interesting idea. We see that there are two פרשית which talk about death in ספר בראשית yet they have life in their titles. חיי שרה and ויחי. When a person is no longer alive we are better able to evaluate their lives. But while that person is still alive we cannot give a proper evaluation. For this reason, we commemorate a Yartzheit and place less significance on the birthday.

In stating the reason this Parsha is a סתומה (closed Parsha) Rashi points out the reason. The בני ישראל closed their eyes to the oppression the Jews would suffer in the future. Yaakov lives another 17 years in מצרים after the great reveal from last week’s Parsha. Yaakov was foretelling what would happen in the days leading to the final redemption without giving us the exact date. He tells us that we will become so narcissistic that we will ignore the plight of our fellow Jews with our eyes and hearts closed off to the reality of true suffering. This was the opposite of Moshe who saw the burdens of the Jewish people. He opened his eyes and heart to their suffering. There is no break between the פרשיות because too much thinking leads us to think about despair as we contemplate worst case scenarios. When there is no time to stop and think and we focus on propelling straight ahead by continuing to do the רצון ה', we put ourselves in a better position to accept things, whether good or challenging with open eyes and hearts.

One final point that Rav Weinfeld (5) points out that is amazing in its implications is more Kabbalistic in nature. רבי יהודה הנשיא spent his final 17 years in the city of צפורי. רבי יהודה הנשיא correlates his 17 years in צפורי with Yaakov’s 17 years spent in מצרים (4). What is the connection? This connection blew my mind. רבי יהודה הנשיא, the great author of the משניות chose this פסוק for himself because he was the נשיא who filled in the blanks similar to what Yaakov attempted to do during his 17 years. נשיא is an acronym for נשמה של יעקב אבינו

רבי יהודה הנשיא was telling us this idea that we need to keep learning without pause just as there is no pause between פרשת ויגש and ויחי. If we spend time thinking, we can come to a point of despair, which the רבי יהודה הנשיא wanted to prevent.

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(1) Bereishis 49:1

(2) Pesachim 56a

(3) Shabbos 30b

(4) Medrash Rabbah Parshas Tzav

(5) Rav Weinfeld on Parshas Vayechi, 5780