Jan 06/07 — Parashat Vayechi

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

The present Parashah has a particularity. It has—according to the Rabbis—the form of “Parashah Setuma”, a “Closed Parashah”. This means that the space that usually separates one Parashah from the other (generally the space of nine Hebrew letters) doesn’t appear. In our case, we have only one letter of separation between Parashot. This is termed “Parashah Setuma”. The opposite is called “Parashah Petucha” (open).

Rashi, in his comment on the initial verse, “Vayechi Yaakov …,” explains the reason for this unusual way to separate Parashot: “Starting from the instant of the death of Yaakov, our patriarch, the eyes and the hearts of Israel were closed, because of the suffering of the slaves in Egypt”. This would help us understand the reasons “to close” the space between Parashah and Parashah.

But in another place (Exodus 6:16), the same Rashi comments: slavery in Egypt began concretely after the death of Levi, the last son of Yaakov, because “during the time that at least one of those “tribes” (in reference to those who descended to Egypt) was alive, the Jews were not enslaved.”

Now, if you read both explanations carefully, you would appreciate an apparent contradiction. So, did Rashi make a mistake? Which one of the two explanations is right? Let’s appeal once again to the wisdom of our Rabbis. Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, the author of the “Sefat Emet” taught: “There are two types of “Slavery—Diaspora” (Avdut—Galut), both with a deep negative sense, and they are: “Galut ha-Guf”, “The Physical Exile” and “Galut ha-Nefesh”, “The Exile of the Soul”.

The Physical Exile represents the itinerant character of the Jewish town, the conflicts and the persecutions, as well as the expropriations, and finally its own alienation; while the Exile of the Soul would indicate the foreign cultures, the secular education, ways and norms of life unfamiliar to the Jewish people, spiritual and cultural assimilation.

Based on that explanation we can deduce that “Physical Slavery” (Galut ha-Guf) didn’t begin until “Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation” (Ex. 1:6); it came into existence when “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph …” (Ex. 1:8)

But the first Diaspora, “Galut ha-Nefesh”—which is a type of slavery while living in freedom—had begun in the same instant that Yaakov died; in that precise moment of the physical disappearance of the symbol of the past, the ancient traditions and the values of Abraham and Isaac. It was in that moment that “the eyes and the hearts of Israel were closed.”

Eyes and heart are both the reason for many transgressions if they are not properly “educated and controlled”. And those impulses dragged the Israelites after the Egyptians’ customs and values, “Darke ha-mitzrim”, incorporating, slowly, strange paths to the spirit of Israel.

Today, “Galut ha-Guf”, thanks to Medinat Israel, has an almost immediate solution. But for “Galut ha-Nefesh”, for assimilation, who will help?

The first book of the Torah ends with this challenge for us. And in a few weeks we will be reading the revelation of the Torah, source of light and antidote for assimilation. So it’s up to us to open our eyes and hearts to be ready to continue with the tradition of Abraham, Isaac and Yaakov in our lives.

Shabbat Shalom.