ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים שבע עשרה שנה ויהי ימי יעקב שני חייו שבע שנים וארבעים ומאת שנה. ויהי ימי יעקב שני חייו שבע שנים וארבעים ומאת שנה.
The Meshech Chochma has a very, very beautiful comment on the pasuk that the Torah describes Yaakov Avinu as living in Eretz Mitzrayim. Yaakov Avinu very, very deliberately didn't live in Mitzrayim; he lived in Eretz Goshen. So why does the Torah, why does the obituary list him as having lived in Eretz Mitzrayim? So the Meshech Chochma writes as follows: עניין שהאדם יש אחד שחי לעצמו. Sometimes the responsibility a person has, the sphere of influence a person has in life is for himself. And then he adds in brackets, gam zeh tov. ויש שחי לבני ביתו. Sometimes you have a person, he lives for his family. Again, for his family in the sense of affecting, influencing. Ve'yesh shechai le'iro, ויש שחי לכל העולם. ועל זה נאמר וצדיק יסוד עולם. ויעקב אבינו לא בעירו לבד היה חי ולא בארץ גושן לבד רק בכל ארץ מצרים. והיינו שפסק מבצורת מצרים שבירך לפרעה שיעלה היאור בשבילו.
So there are individuals whose impact goes beyond themselves, whose impact goes beyond their family. In this particular instance, what the Meshech Chochma is describing, the way that influence, the way that impact comes about is because of the koach that Yaakov Avinu had in terms of imparting a bracha. Sometimes that impact can be felt. I think the story is of the Beis Yosef, that the Beis Yosef once worked tremendously hard and the Maggid came to him—the Beis Yosef had a Maggid who came to him in a dream—and told him, gave him certain insights into Divrei Torah. And then the next morning the Beis Yosef was walking, whether it was in Tzfat or wherever he was, and he sees these cheder kids and they're talking about the same shtikel Torah that he just heard last night after his tremendous yegia ve'amal and המאמץ עצמו בעמלה של תורה ששמע מהמגיד שלו. So he hears it now from these cheder kids talking about. So the vort is that there are yechidim who open up tsinaros, they open up conduits that Divrei Torah should come into the world. And once they, again bederach nistar, open those tsinaros, so then all of us benefit from those tsinaros. And that's what's illustrated in that story. That's another way that a person's impact spreads far and wide. But obviously both of those ways of impacting, of having an influence that goes beyond one's own daled amos are not available to too many people, doesn't relate to most of us. What's the secret for us to be able to live not just in our daled amos but בבחינת ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים? I think we're all aware of problems, of issues. Sometimes it's personal problems. It can be of an older single who needs a shidduch. You can know that in the shul where you daven that the percentage of the people who are seriously kove'a itim isn't exactly 100 percent. We're all aware of different problems. There are either yechidim who Who when they're aware of problems don't just notice the problems and don't just give a krechtz so they feel achrayus. Feel achrayus when they see a problem it's not just oh chaval oh it's too bad oh I feel badly oh it shouldn't be this way they feel achrayus to do something about it. I think most of us most of us in this respect I'm much more selfish much more self-centered and unless the problem is actually in our daled amos the awareness of the problem doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the sense of achrayus for the problem. Some yechidim you see have this have this sense of achrayus. They see a problem meheicha tisei it's their problem that's the way we think and the way they think is meheicha tisei it isn't my problem. Why why shouldn't it be my responsibility? כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה. If a person lives with such a mindset it will translate b'ezras Hashem into a bechina of ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים. It won't just be that the person lived in his own daled amos. Obviously we need to know how to match up our abilities and opportunities with the problems we're aware of lav davka that even if a person lives with this sense of achrayus lav davka that every problem he's aware of he's in a position to do something about it lav davka that he has the abilities lav davka that he has the contacts. So it requires it requires chochma but it begins with that with that mindset. We can all make a list of of individuals who we know who who could use help in a particular issue we can all make list of communal issues and and we need to think about it with a mindset of okay so what what what can we do to make a dent in in any of of these issues. ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים excuse me ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות ויקרא לבנו ליוסף ויאמר לו אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך שים נא ידך תחת ירכי ועשית עמדי חסד ואמת אל נא תקברני במצרים ושכבתי עם אבתי ונשאתני ממצרים וקברתני בקברתם ויאמר אנכי אעשה כדברך.
So it's quite clear Rashi doesn't k'darko doesn't doesn't articulate it but responds to it that there were really two requests that Yaakov Avinu was making from Yosef. Number one is beshum ofen upanim he doesn't want to be buried in Mitzrayim. Number two he wants to be buried in Kever Avos in Ma'aras HaMachpela but otherwise it's bichlal matayim maneh he should've just said I want to be buried in Kever Avos. So obviously for that reason it's clear that Yaakov Avinu was saying something else that above and beyond that request I don't want to be buried in Mitzrayim. Rashi as as you remember Rashi gives three reasons the earth is going to be crawling with kinim during the maka of kinim meisei chutz la'aretz have to go through the tza'ar of gilgul mechilos and שלא יעשוני המצרים עבודה זרה. Yitachen that one can add another reason as well. I think that they quote that al pi Kabbalah there is some ongoing connection between the neshama of the niftar and the makom kevura. Some some some connection remains between between the niftar and the makom hakevura. So in light of that So Yaakov Avinu's request of Yosef that בשום אופן ופנים אל נא תקברני במצרים, if for some reason you can't bury me in Ma'arat Hamachpela, that it be elsewhere in Eretz Yisrael, let it not be in Mitzrayim, is that מלמד שלא ירד יעקב אבינו להשתקע במצרים אלא לגור. Yaakov Avinu went under because of necessity, so he went as a stranger. He went temporarily to Mitzrayim. What do you mean he went temporarily to Mitzrayim? He knows he's going to die in Mitzrayim. ואנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלה מלמד שהבטיחו להיקבר בארץ.
So what do you mean? What do you mean Yaakov Avinu is only lagur? So this is one answer, that he's determined not to be buried there. And both of these reflect that there's a certain mindset, that a person can live in a certain place, in a certain surrounding, and he can even live there for the rest of his life, as was the case with Yaakov Avinu, but in terms of his attitude and in terms of his mindset, he's a stranger. He stands apart. And because, or the same way, that was Yaakov Avinu's mindset, that was his approach in living in Mitzrayim for seventeen years, that's also what was reflected in his determination not to be buried in Mitzrayim. When a person is a stranger, and a person feels that he's a stranger, so he doesn't take anything for granted about what he sees in his surroundings. He assesses everything: whether he should accept it, whether he should reject it, is it something positive, is it something negative? It doesn't just automatically, axiomatically accept it. When a person's at home, so then perhaps not consciously, perhaps more unconsciously, he automatically shares certain assumptions and certain core values and certain basic values. Yaakov Avinu knew that he was going to live out the rest of his days in Mitzrayim, but he was going to do it as a stranger. He's going to do it as a stranger. And that's what's reflected in the אל נא תקברני במצרים. What does Yaakov Avinu, what does he have to be so proactive in this respect? Again, we just mentioned Rashi quotes Chazal in last week's parsha when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says אל תירא מרדה מצרימה, that ואנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלה, so Rashi quotes from Chazal שהבטיחו להיות נקבר בארץ. Yaakov Avinu has a havtacha. So it's in the bag. If there's one thing he doesn't have to worry about, so he doesn't have to worry about where he's going to be buried. שהבטיחו להיות נקבר בארץ. But the truth is you find the same thing earlier in Parshat Vayetze. Rashi again quotes from Chazal when Yaakov says to Lavan that הבה את אשתי כי מלאו ימי ואבואה אליה, so Rashi quotes from Chazal why is Yaakov seemingly speaking in such crude terms? It's that Yaakov Avinu is really saying is that I'm already בן פ"ד שנה and I'm supposed to be מעמיד י"ב שבטים and I'm getting old. I have to אם לא עכשיו אימתי. So again the same question. If he knows b'ruach hakodesh, as he does, that he's עתיד להעמיד י"ב שבטים, so what's he nervous about? It's in the bag. So then this is the Gemara in Berachos with with a different instance asks ke'ein hakasha and maybe what we're saying is is just a little bit of a explication and elaboration of what it says there. But apparently what you see from both of these examples is is a tremendous yesod in life. A person can know, know, not just hope, not just hunch. A person can know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has prepared a certain destiny for him. That there's a destiny that awaits him and yet he can not realize that destiny that Hakadosh Baruch Hu prepared for him. Because itachen what the pshat is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu prepares the destiny and saying you do your your share this is what I will make it translate into. This was what I will I will see to it I Hakadosh Baruch Hu will see to it that these results ensue but providing you do yours. That's an extraordinary thing. Again, a person can, Yaakov Avinu knows, he knows that that he is he is destined to be the bechir ha'avos, mitaso sheleima, to להעמיד שנים עשר שבטים, but he also knows that he can miss out on that destiny if he doesn't if he doesn't do his chelek. Itachen maybe that's the pshat here by the kvura as well. Maybe the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells him your your destiny is to be buried in Eretz Yisrael but that doesn't mean that it's in the bag. It means that it's it's guaranteed if I do if I do what what's up to me to do so that I know it's guaranteed. And in fact Chazal say that Yosef Hatzaddik was עתיד להעמיד שנים עשר שבטים like Yaakov and he doesn't, and ten of them come from Binyamin. So apparently, okay, Hakadosh Baruch Hu מדקדק כחוט השערה עם צדיקים סביביו נשערה מאד. But a person can can miss out on his destiny. A person can have a destiny and a person can can can miss out on that destiny. You see, you you know the famous story with the Netziv. I forget what what the what the siyum was that the Netziv was making on one of his seforim. And so he told those who were gathered for the siyum, he told them a story that when he was a kid so he didn't really apply himself so much in in cheder. But the rebbe's son I don't know what he was doing I don't know what what was he doing I don't know whatever he didn't apparently didn't didn't apply himself so much in in cheder. So one night when he was in bed and and his parents assumed incorrectly that he was sleeping, so his parents are talking and they're talking about, you know, he's obviously אלף נכנסים למקרא אחד יוצא לתלמוד, he's obviously not one of he's not the one in a thousand. So it's time that he should should leave cheder and we should apprentice him, let him become a baal melacha, baal umnus, or however, do something, be osek b'yishuv ha'olam. And the Netziv hears this and he's so devastated he jumps out of bed and comes down to his parents crying and and pleading and pleading with them that they should give him another chance. So they they they go along with it and and and he becomes the Netziv. And then he said, you know, if if I hadn't, so when I died he said I would have come up to shamayim. So then they would have shown me, they would have taken me to a bookcase and they would have shown me the Perush haShe'iltos and they would have shown me the Ha'amek Davar, they would have shown me the what's Netziv's sha'alos u'teshuvos called Meishiv Davar, and and they would have shown me the the the Perush on the Mechilta and the Sifrei and they would have said these are the seforim that you were supposed to write and and you didn't write. The same idea, that a person can have a person can have a destiny, but the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the destiny doesn't guarantee its realization or its fulfillment because it can be contingent upon our our realizing it. The end of the parsha, so the the shevatim say to to Yosef אביך צוה לפני מותו לאמר. The Gemara in Yevamos quotes this as as one of the pesukim to prove that that you can be m'shaneh. that that we see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself was meshane mipnei hashalom because he says to Avraham Avinu למה זה צחקה שרה לאמר האף אמנם אלד ואני זקנתי
and in reality what Sarah had said was veadoni zaken. So you see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself. So what's the pshat? You have another pasuk, you have another makor. The pshat is like this. Rabbeinu Yona says in Pirkei Avot, I think it's in the mishnah at the end of the first perek, על הדין על האמת ועל השלום, that על שלשה דברים העולם קיים על הדין על האמת ועל השלום.
So basically he says that the reason a person has to be absolutely emestik in every everything he says, seemingly some some inaccuracies are inconsequential. דבר שאין בו כך, what's the big deal? What's the big deal? So he says two things. He says first of all he says a person can't compartmentalize. He says if a person isn't medakdek and isn't makpid al ha'emet in one area, so then in more significant and more important areas he won't be medakdek, he won't be makpid al ha'emet. You can't compartmentalize. Right, that was such a major yesod in in the hadraka from Rav Yisrael Salanter. Rav Yisrael Salanter's yud gimmel midot about orderliness and cleanliness vechulu vechulu seemingly all relating to milei de'alma because the psychological metziut of a person is that you can't compartmentalize. Can't compartmentalize. So that's why a person has to be emestik. Has to be emestik even if he quotes the Gemara in Yevamot, he quotes the Gemara in Yevamot, who was it, Rav Chiya or something, that his wife always his wife would always what was it, a shikala achastik? So if he'd ask for milchig, she'd make fleishig. If he'd ask for fleishig, she'd make milchig. So his son realized what was going on. So when when the mother would ask the son go find find out what what Abba wants to eat for supper tonight, so he'd ask his father, he'd say the opposite, and then his father would end up getting what he wanted. So then his father saw that something wasn't right here, he was getting what he wanted, so he said to the son what's going on? So he told him the kuntz. So he told him hachochma zegutta but למדו לשונם דבר שקר. So that's what Rabbeinu Yona says, even there where it seems warranted, but you can't compartmentalize. If a person's not makpid al ha'emet in on every kotzo shel yud, it's gonna it's gonna translate in more important areas as well. But then Rabbeinu Yona says also that the chiyuv to be absolutely emestik in everything, in everything we do and everything we say, there shouldn't be anything, anything, even an insinuation or implication. So Rabbeinu Yona says also it's a chiyuv of vehalachta bidrachav. חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is pure emet. So for a person to stray from emet, takeh even to say that Abba said that he wants lasagna for supper, really he wants meatballs but he said lasagna. חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. Also very good. So the Gemara in Yevamot in order to have an exception of darkei shalom, so that's why the Gemara has a makor that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself is meshane mipnei hashalom. Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself is meshane mipnei hashalom. There's no chesron in the chiyuv of vehalachta bidrachav that a person is meshane mipnei hashalom. It's I think the Rambam paskens, it's a shaila exactly how to reconcile this with the pshuto shel Gemara in Shavuot, but the Rambam paskens that one is לא תשבעו בשמי לשקר whether a person takes a shvuat sheker le'ava or leha'ba. So if a person says achalti hayom and really lo achal. So that's לא תשבעו בשמי לשקר and if he says ochal, ochal, I'm b'tenai, I'm going to eat the, I'm going to dip the apple in the honey and I'm going to make a bracha and that's a shvua and then he doesn't do it, that's the same, that's the same לא תשבעו בשמי לשקר. So emes is both l'sheavar and l'haba. Emes is if I say something about the past it has to be emesdik. If I say what I'm going to do in the future I have to I have to live up to it for it to be emesdik, otherwise either way it's sheker. I know there are many many examples of it where I don't know one has to wonder whether we're sufficiently sensitive to it, just to give one, not necessarily the most important, but kahana v'kahana there are so many more important as well examples. And sometimes when you when you call and you get someone's voicemail, so the voicemail is you know, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can. Do you? Have you? Really? As soon as they hear that message they're going to drop that cup of coffee they're holding and they're going to call me back right away? Oh, Natan's calling me again. So either they're not going to call me back at all and just going to delete the message or maybe maybe tomorrow they'll when they're too exhausted to do anything more productive so then maybe they'll call me back. They're not going to call me back are they? And they're mamash going to call me back as as as soon as possible. Many many years ago I was in this shul from a response card that we got for I think it was for my youngest son's bar mitzvah. So one of his rebbeim so usually when you get an invitation and you don't want to go, so you write I regret that I will be unable to attend. Are you really unable to attend? No really, you make a cheshbon okay you make a cheshbon should I be doing this or should I be doing that? I don't know, so so maybe you can justify the unable based on that לא תוכל לאכל בשעריך maybe. Besides it's it's tremendous chashivus k'she'al atzmo. But if lu yehi that every time we would say something we would ask ourselves Hakadosh Baruch Hu X-rays this, is it going to be purely emesdik? So in addition to the to the mechayvim of emes that Rabbeinu Yona mentions it's it's it's a tremendous segulah in in terms of retaining an awareness of of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu because if every time we say something so we measure it by well Hakadosh Baruch Hu's listening to what I'm saying and and is he is this going to be emes because because he's he's going to know if if it isn't, so it it's a tremendous chizuk and a tremendous boost in in retaining that that awareness of shiviti Hashem.