Last week’s portion of the Torah reading Vayigash, we read how Yosef, his brothers and his entire family so beautifully united. We read about Yaakov Avinu finally seeing Yosef after all those years, and the great joy of seeing that Yosef hadn’t changed his ways to be like the Egyptians, rather was still a G-d-fearing Jew despite the long absence from his father. We saw how the family of Israel grew multiplied and prospered in every area possible. This great happiness and wealth continues unto this week’s portion of the Torah Vayechi. Jacob calls all his sons together and tells them that he wants to reveal to them what will be in the days to come. He blesses each one of his son and their offspring and wants to proceed in revealing to them the future. At this point the Torah tells us that G-d did not let him reveal these future events to his children.
There are many commentaries that explain the reasons for not letting Yaakov reveal the future to his children. I, myself have a few questions regarding this time period. It is written that anything that our ancestors went through is a message and a direction for their children in generations to come, even till our very day. The first question that comes to mind is after the great reunion of Yaakov with Yosef and the entire family that joined, why didn’t they all return home once the famine ended? Yet we see how the entire tribe settles in the land of Goshen, and prospers and grows bigger and bigger. Once there was food and the famine ended, they should have returned home. Once again a lot is written regarding the reasons of why the Jewish people and the sons of Yaakov had to stay in Egypt all those years. However, we still need to learn from each episode in the Torah and bring it down to our days now. Throughout Jewish history anytime the Jews became too comfortable wherever they were, Hashem sent them some kind of challenge to remind them that they are not home and the ultimate place for the Jewish people is only the land of Israel, the Holy Temple at its center. And sure enough the more comfortable the Jews became in Egypt the sooner the exile came and reminded them so literally had they wish they could have returned to the land of Israel sooner.
The fact that Yaakov was not allowed to reveal to his sons what will be in the future has a great connection to why they did not return back home once they settled in Goshen and were living a good life. We see through our history that when the Jews become comfortable, wherever they are and especially outside of the land of Israel they do not want to go back to Israel and struggle or fight for their existence. There was a time in the past, that the great visionary of Lublin once said, that in his times life was so beautiful they forgot to even pray for the coming of Mashiach, so to speak.
If we were out on a quest, on a mission with some important matter that needed to be done and we might have been told at the onset, that the mission will take so long that we will not complete the mission in our lifetime, I don’t know how many of us would have the strength to even begin the mission. However, when we set out to do or accomplish something we are certain that it will be short-term and that we will definitely achieve what we set out to do.
Our brave soldiers that are fighting so strong and so committed to saving the people of Israel from these horrible terrorists are certain that they will finish the mission with great success in a short amount of time. Everyone believes that our brave soldiers are going to come back soon and defeat the enemy for good. And yet they still fight every day with no definite end in sight. All this war is to ensure our safety in the land of Israel. This power that our soldiers possess, is the power that Yaakov passed on to his children when he did not reveal the future. It seems like a shame to not know what will be in the future but on the other hand what lays in the power of not knowing is greater than the knowledge of the future.
The Jewish people have been through so many wars, Holocaust and destruction since the time that Yaakov gathered his sons around him so many years ago. In every generation we truly believe that we will be redeemed the full redemption, and that we won’t be exiled anymore. Therefore the Jewish people are constantly going from redemption to exile to redemption since we are true believers. Yaakov did reveal to us the future. He revealed the strength that we would need to always believe and to never give up. The strength and patience of the believe that the redemption will come every day, is stronger and more powerful than any fortune telling Yaakov could have shared with his children. May we merit seeing the full redemption in our days with great mercy. Amen.
