Vayechi

The first words of our parsha inform us how long Yaakov lived in Mitzraim, ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים שבע עשרה שנה , Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. Now this Parsha unlike all the others, is סתומה , closed, which means the Torah leaves no space between the end of Vayigash & the beginning of Vayechi, whereas the Torah normally leaves a space between Parshios. 

 

Rashi presents us with two reasons for this uniqueness. First, once Yaakov passed away, the eyes & heart of the Jewish people were closed because of their suffering, for the Egyptians began to enslave them. Second, because Yaakov wanted to reveal the ultimate end of all the exiles to his sons, but it was closed off from him. 

Rav Tzudok Hakohen questions the first reason: how could it be that the Parsha is closed because the enslavement of the Jewish people when we know that the enslavement didn't start until after all of the brothers died, too, over seventy-five years later?

He answers that, after Yaakov died, the Jewish people began getting caught up ‎in the culture of Egypt. 

The eyes refer to the wisdom & the heart to the understanding. They lost their spiritual intellect & started getting caught up in the Egyptian culture. 

Now if the spiritual descent started then & seems to worsen with each generation, how can we ever expect to get out of this exile?

The Malbim, in his explanation on sefer Daniel, ‎expounds on when the end of the exile should be. Based on hints from the pesukim at the end of Daniel, he even pinpoints a specific time when he thought the Moshiach would come. 

When his explanations became public, he received flak from other rabbis of the generation saying how could he try to reveal the end of time when chazal say that anyone who reveals the end, will be the victim of very bad things. Why, then, was he giving dates for the end?

The Malbim answered with a parable. A Jewish merchant took his small son with him and went from Polin to Liftzig on a wagon which, in those days, was a very long trip. It took weeks to get there. They got into the wagon & headed out. After an hour or so, the son asks, “Dad are we almost there yet?” The father doesn't even answer; he just gives him a look & the son knew that he asked a foolish question. So, for the remainder of the journey he didn't ask again. Then, after weeks of traveling from town to town, city to city, from one hotel to another, they are still traveling when the father asks the wagon driver, “Are we far from Liftzig?” The boy, hearing that, looks at his father & asks, “why, when I asked that question, you looked at me like I was crazy. Now, you’re asking the same question? The father explained, “my son, you’re right. We both asked the same question; however, when you asked it, it was at the beginning of the trip, so it was a foolish question. I'm asking it at the end of the journey, so it makes sense to ask.” 

The Malbim explains that the same rationale applies to our question. When we went into exile, Chazal saw that the road was very long, full of trials & tribulations, with many pitfalls on a journey lasting thousands of years. Therefore, had they revealed the end of time, the people, knowing that the end was so far away, would give up hope of ever getting out, so they said terrible things would happen to whoever would reveal the end & cause the people to give up hope. However, now when all the signs say that the end is near & we are coming to the end of the journey, it's ok to figure out how far we are from Moshiach.

‎‏How, then, do we not lose hope because of our spiritual decay; what do we have that shows us the we can still get out? Says the Otzer Hatorah, if one looks at all the spiritual treasures we were granted in exile, the Torah itself in the desert, the gemara in Bavel, Rashi in France, the Rif in North Africa, etc., one sees that the greatest Torah revelations were given in exile. ‎ 

As Reb Simcha Bunim of P'shis'cha said, even though the spiritual dimension of the soul lessens with each generation, the truth in the hearts of the Jewish people become purer & more refined as time goes on. Perhaps, because we have more challenges & manage to keep the Jewish people alive through even greater obstacles, it gives us the strength to carry on, knowing that any day, we will arrive in Luftzik!