Parshat Va’Yeshev – And He Dwelled
CARLSBAD, California — This week we read the portion titled Va’Yeshev, which means ‘And He Dwelled’. The portion continues telling us about the life of Yaakov / Jacob, the third Patriarch of the Jewish people. Yaakov did not live what one could describe as a tranquil life. He had numerous trials and tribulations. He had an evil twin, Esav, who sought to murder him. He had an evil uncle, Lavan, who sought to defraud him and destroy his spirituality. He had his beloved daughter, Dina, raped and taken captive.
Finally, in our portion, Jacob is able to settle down in the Promised Land. Finally some peace and quiet. Or so he thinks…
No sooner had Yaakov started this phase of his life than a simmering sibling rivalry boiled over plunging Yaakov into a long and bitter state of mourning. The sibling rivalry came about because Yosef, who Yaakov saw as having the greatest spiritual potential and ability to counteract the evil Esav, was favored. He was the second youngest brother (just Benjamin was younger), but was still not shy about instructing his older, more mature, brothers. He regularly reported on their perceived deficiencies to their venerated father, embittering Yosef to his brothers.
When Yosef had prophetic dreams about his primacy over his brothers their sibling rivalry evolved into a hatred, which led to the brothers selling Yosef as a slave, ultimately leading to his arrival in Egypt. The brothers hid their heinous act, which they undertook for the best of reasons (trying to secure their father’s faith in them following in his spiritual footsteps). Yaakov thought Yosef was dead, as the brothers showed their father his special garment torn as though by wild animals and dipped in blood. When Yaakov thought Yosef dead this led him into a profound state of mourning, from which he wouldn’t recover until he was reunited with Yosef more than two decades hence.
The portion began by telling us that Yaakov was (finally) settling in to the Promised Land. By the end of the portion he is suffering in a way that only a parent who has lost a child can fully grasp. What lesson is there for us in this turn of events?
The answer offered by our Sages is that this world is, with certain prominent and notable exceptions, NOT the place to rest. We are here to work, particularly a man of Yaakov’s immense stature. He had an arduous task to complete – the building of the Jewish Nation – the eternal “Light unto the Nations.”
The transformation of this lowly, mundane, and physical world to a place of revealed G-dliness will not happen by itself. That job was entrusted to us. Yaakov surely deserved some peace and quiet in his old age, but it was not to be. He had abilities to accomplish something that no one else could fulfill, and therefore he was summoned out of ‘retirement’ by the Almighty Himself so that he could complete his life’s mission.
Our place in this world is to be proactive workers. I often marvel at the industriousness of our people – taking our job of refining the world seriously. It is only through such hard work that we will come to experience the ultimate blessing – the immediate arrival of our righteous Moshiach!
Wishing everyone a happy and HEALTHY Shabbos and Happy Chanukah!
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Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort is Director of Coastal Chabads and Chabad at La Costa. Rabbi Eilfort welcomes readers’ comments and questions and may be reached at RabbiE@ChabadatLaCosta.com.