Vayechi 5774:             Once More With Feeling

By Rabbi Joshua (repeatedly knows as The Hoffer) Hoffman

            My dear friend, Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum, Hy”d, who was murdered several years ago in a terrorist bombing in Yerushalayim, was, among his many other talents, an expert at blowing the shofar, having been trained while still a teenager by Rav Aharon Soloveitchik, zt”l, with whom he shared a unique teacher-student relationship. He once recounted how Rav Aharon trained him, and said that just before he would blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, Rav Aharon would tell him “ein mezarzin elah es hazerizin,” meaning that we only encourage people who are already highly motivated, and would then proceed to again review with him the important aspects of blowing the shofar in accordance with the halacha. This story came to mind recently when I read Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt”l’s, explanation, in his Chidushei Halev, of Yaakov’s request from Yosef that he not bury him in Egypt, but, rather, in Eretz Yisroel. 

            Yaakov, the Torah tells us, asked Yosef to take an oath that he bury him in Eretz Yisroel.  What was the purpose for this oath? The Ramban says that it would assure that Pharaoh would, against his own wishes, allow Yosef to bury his father in his native country, and, also encourage Yosef to fulfill the request despite Pharaoh’s reluctance. Was there, then, asks Rav Henoch, any doubt in Yaakov’s mind that his beloved, devoted son, who had done so much to accommodate him in Egypt, would fulfill his final request?  Rather, he says, we learn from the imposition of this oath two important things. Firstly, that a person, no matter how motivated he is to do something, can always use additional encouragement.  Secondly, repeated encouragement can bring out hidden abilities in the person that he didn’t realize he held within himself. This second point, says Rav Henoch, is further brought out in a celebrated midrash that says that had Reuven, in saving Yosef, Aharon in greeting Moshe, and Boaz, in helping Rus, known that their actions would be recorded in Scripture, they would have performed them with added enthusiasm. Actually, there was nothing lacking in the perfection of the actions of these three righteous people, but the added motivation may have led them to act in a way that influenced others in joining them.  I remember Rav Simcha Scheinberg, Shlita, saying that when his father, Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, zt”l, would ask someone of means to make a large contribution to his financially strapped yeshiva, he would tell them that despite their own financial burdens, they had the ability to give more to the yeshiva than they thought they did. Rav Simcha added that his uncle, Rabbi Herman, used to read the Talmud blessing – “shetireh olamcha beyamecha,” meaning that you should see your world in your lifetime, a little differently, as shetireh alumecha bechayecha, meaning that you should actualize your hidden potential in your lifetime. This is what Yaakov sought to do by having Yosef take an oath with regard to the place of his burial.

            In this light, we can further understand Yaakov’s request from his sons, as recorded in the midrash, when he gathered them to bless them before he died, to proclaim their belief in the unity of God, as expressed in the Shema. Rabbi Menachem Genack, in his Bircas Yitzchok, says that this proclamation of the unity of God also expresses the need for Jewish unity as a people that all serve one God, and this unity was necessary in order for Yaakov’s individual blessings of each tribe to apply to all of the tribes as well, so that they be able to function collectively as one nation. Rabbi Genack says, that this is also why, as Rashi says in parshas Vayigash, when Yaakov and Yosef were first reunited in Egypt, Yaakov recited the Shema, expressing his hope that Yosef and his brothers were united now, as well. Based on Rav Henoch’s remarks, we may add what Rav Avraham Schorr says in his HaLekach VaHalibuv, to parshas Vayigash, that the belief in and dedication to the unity of God, as expressed in the Shema, is the foundation and condition of Jewish existence in exile, and that just as Yaakov wanted to fortify Yosef’s belief in that prototype by saying the Shema upon meeting him in Egypt, so, too, he wished to encourage the brothers in their belief before he died. Surely, Yaakov knew that they held this belief.  During the last seventeen years of his life, living in Egypt, he was, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt”l, points out, a devoted father and grandfather actively involved in training and teaching his family. Still, there is always room for further encouragement, and that is what Yaakov engaged in with the brothers just as he had with Yosef.