Vayechi 

The sicha of parshas Vayechi is from the year 5751 from the farbrengen of the 16^th of Teves.

On the word Vayechi, the Rebbe makes the following observation:

This is the last parsha of the book of Bereishis, which is called Sefer Hayashar. It is the book of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, who are called yasharim, the straight and righteous and concerning the events in the life of the Avos, the Patriarchs, we are told that maasei Avos siman l’bonim, that what they experienced were all prototypes for the experiences that we are going to have throughout our history, so that the souls of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, who are the yasharim, are the prototypes for all souls for all future generations.

And that’s why the conclusion of this book, the book of Yasharim, of Patriarchs, ends with the parsha Vayechi. As the name emphasizes, vayechi is life itself, which is the essence of a person. We have the expression, laben mit der Zeit, to live with the times, to live with the weekly parsha, that our lives should be guided, informed and inspired by what we read in the parsha. But when the name of the parsha is itself vayechi, to live, what then does it mean to live with the times when the parsha is itself about life. To live with life, what does that mean?

By nature a person does not feel his life. Life is not a detail or a function in the body; it is a general state of being alive, which is not experienced by the person, unless there is a problem with the life. For example, functions like seeing, hearing, walking, each of them is felt by the body, because it is a specific tangible experience that the body goes through. But life itself, that which makes us alive, that which is equal in adults and children-a child is not any more alive than an adult and an adult is not any less alive than a child - it is all the same and that general condition of life we don’t feel nor experience.

We find this in halacha in the bracha shehechiyanu where we acknowledge and thank G-d for bringing us to this specific time. We say in the morning, Modeh ani lifanecha…I acknowledge before G-d, I thank G-d for returning my soul to me. This is gratitude for life itself. We thank G-d every day not only for the details of life, as we say in the morning brachas, which are said on experiencing the various events of the day – when we open our eyes, we say pokeach ivim, give sight to the blind, we get dressed we say, malbish aruvim, cloth the naked, but we thank G-d also for life itself in the Modeh ani. And not only do we thank G-d for life itself, but we are thanking G-d for the neshama that is the source of life, as we say “ Elokai shenesatabi, modeh ani lifanecha.”, My G-d, the soul which You have given me is pure…I thank You.

This acknowledgement and gratitude is not something a person comes to through contemplation – it is not that we stop and think about the neshama leaving the body during sleep as it does at death, and then we realize that sleep is a little part of death and then when we wake up from sleep and thank G-d. Rather this acknowledgement comes from the neshama itself, in gratitude for life itself. And not only as we said before, for the effects of life, for the fact that the body is alive, but for the essence of the neshama itself as we describe it “ tahara he” the part of the neshama that is pure, meaning the essence of the neshama.

Now we need to understand this because again, by nature, a person does not feel life, does not feel the neshama, so how can we be grateful, and how can we experience the neshama to such a degree that we are obligated to actually respond with a statement of gratitude?

The Rebbe explains:

According to nature, including also the nature of the neshama, life is a general condition that is not experienced. But through G-d’s miraculous connection, the neshama comes into the body and the two are merged so that the life of the neshama doesn’t only exist inside the body but it becomes the life of the body. There is a thorough merging of life and body, of soul and body, so that the body actually feels and experiences the neshama. In actual behavior this means that the essence of the neshama is faith, faith that doesn’t come from contemplation nor understanding but pure faith that comes from the neshama itself that is the condition of the neshama. We need to experience that faith in our mind and in our heart. It has to influence our thinking and our feeling and our everyday functions even though faith by its very nature transcends all of them and is an essential ingredient in the neshama, not in the functions of the body.

That is why we say “modeh ani…  emunasecha” emunasecha can refer to two parties; the emunah, the trustworthiness that we have, the emunah of the person in G-d, and then there is the emunah that G-d has, that G-d is trustworthy, in that we take G-d’s trust, His emunah, a G-dly faith and bring it down into the body. So when we thank G-d in the modeh ani, we are thanking G-d for life itself, because through His miraculous connection of body and soul, the qualities of the soul permeate into the body.

In the text of the prayer, neshama she nasatabi tahara he, the soul which You have given me is pure, You created it, You formed it, You preserve it within me… modeh ani lifanacha, thank You, we need to understand  the order of the words. Neshama tahara he, first it describes the neshama as it is pure and holy in its essence, and when we refer to the neshama in its essence, we might think that after that, the effects of the neshama are automatic and natural. The lower levels of created, formed and preserved, these are all levels that result from the essence of the neshama. So we need to be told that the fact that the neshama which is pure in its essence, comes down into the level of creation, is through a specific act of G-d - You created - G-d had to make that happen because by nature the neshama does not come into creation. And then, You formed it, G-d had to cause the further bringing down of the neshama into the world of Yetzirah, the world of formation, and into the world of Asiyah, the world of action. In each case, You formed it, You invested it – it was a special effort on G-d’s part to make the neshama come down into the body. As we said before, by nature life does not fit into the details of the body. Therefore when we realize that G-d did this, that G-d had placed the neshama into the body, then we are moved to say “modeh ani lifanecha.”

This then could be the meaning of the title of the parsha. Vayechi means life itself. Not only the effect life has on the limbs of the body, but life itself m’chaye chaim. And that is the connection of the parshas Vayechi with parshas Shmos, the beginning of the next book of the Torah, which we are going to read in the afternoon of this Shabbos. The idea is that we have to bring life itself, the essence of life into Shmos, into the names, which refers to the neshama as it comes down into this world. The neshama in heaven doesn’t have a name, it doesn’t need one because names refer to the external function of the neshama as it is in this world. This brings together “ vayechi Yakov m’eretz Mitzraim, sh’va esray shana,” Yakov lived in Egypt seventeen years. Yakov is the neshama. Mitzraim is the neshama as it comes down into this world, not in a negative sense, but in a positive one - the neshama affecting the body which is Mitzraim. Eretz Mitzraim – eretz means the desire. Why is it called eretz? Because it wants to fulfill G-d’s wish.

So this desire, the service of G-d that the neshama feels, comes down into Mitzraim, and there it has seventeen years. Seventeen is the gematria of tov, good. Therefore this desire that the neshama has that expresses itself even in the limitations of the body, even in Mitzraim, is revealed good, we see it as good, and that is why the Torah doesn’t give the gematria of tov, but actually spells it out – sh’va esray shana.

The moral of this is that the essence of the neshama, which is really emunah, its essential connection to G-d has to express itself inwardly, internally, in all the details of our life. The whole idea of bringing G-dliness down into the world, is that the essence of a Jew, the fact that he is a Jew, that he is connected to G-d, should express itself in every mitzvah, in every act, in every detail of life. Everything that a Jew does should not only be a detail, but should be an expression of his entire being as a Jew, which means the essential connection to G-d Himself. So that emunah means, not only that you believe in  G-d, but  that  the connection  that you  have to
G-d expresses itself in every mitzvah, that in the fulfillment of any mitzvah, you feel the essential connection to G-d that is expressed in that mitzvah, and even in those actions that are not mitzvahs, even in worldly activities, “in all ways know Him.”

The Torah is described as chaiainu v’arech yameinu, the Torah is our life, and by its very nature, being that it is life itself, it is not felt internally, except when it is broken down into details. When you are studying a particular subject in the Torah, and particularly a subject that is time-oriented, it is relevant to the time, including also the weekly portion, we live with the times, then we feel and experience the life that Torah gives in that particular detail.

But the uniqueness of Parshas Vayechi and from this parsha it spreads throughout the entire Torah, is that here we are given the ability to live with the times when the times is life itself, to live with life. Not only do we experience the details of the mitzvah, of Torah, but we experience the life of Torah. There is a certain energy that comes from Torah in general, which is described as chaiainu v’arech yameinu, as being the source of our life and that that needs to be revealed in the parsha, in the detail, in the time in which we live. Since G-d looks into Torah to create the world, the Torah is the blueprint of the world that becomes true not only of Torah but also of the world. Through the mitzvahs, through the service of G-d that we fulfill, we reveal the true life that is the world’s life. In everything that exists, Rambam says, we reveal that the physical world itself exists as a part of G-d, and not as a separate entity, as it will be revealed at that time in the days of Moshiach, when the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d like the water fills the ocean, which is the statement with which the Rambam concludes his Mishneh Torah, similar to the conclusion of the sefer Bereishis.

And therefore the conclusion of the book of Bereishis, of Sefer Hayashar, the book of the righteous, is with parshas Vayechi. In the book of Bereishis, there are not so many mitzvahs - most of the mitzvahs are found in the later books of the Torah, and that is because it is sefer Hayashar. Mitzvahs are divided into two categories, right and left, positive mitzvahs and prohibitions.  But sefer Hayashar means the middle, the kava emtza, that which is above, that which precedes the breakdown of right and left, the details of Torah.

And therefore the 248 positive mitzvahs that come from chesed, which is the right side, and the 365 negative mitzvahs that come from gevurah, which is the left side, is preceded by the book of Bereishis which is above the details and a source for the details. And so it is also in avodah. In our performance of Torah and mitzvahs, the stories about the Patriarchs, the details of their life and what happened to them, how G-d spoke to them, this is all on the level of Atzilus, this is all a very high G-dly level. From there, we start to come down into the world. To bring from that level of holiness, which is heavenly, to bring that down into the Torah and mitzvahs that are given necessarily in the physical, as is described in the later books of the Torah.

That is the book of Bereishis ends with Vayechi. Vayechi means to take the essence of life, the essence of our identity, of who we are, the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, take that yechi, that life, take that energy and use it to inspire, and to illuminate all the details that are going to follow in the book of Shmos, in order to bring G-dliness down from its source into the world, in a way that the life itself is felt in the mitzvahs.

This is also the connection between the three parshios Vayigash, Vayechi and Shmos. Vayigash represents the connection and oneness between the tribes. Yehudah approaching Yosef, Yosef revealing himself and then they are reunited. By Yosef revealing himself to his brothers, we are celebrating the oneness and connectedness of all Jews. That’s why in the Haftorah it says, I will take the branch of Yosef and I will bring it together with the branch of Yehuda and they shall become one. Then there is Vayechi, the effect that Yosef has on bringing Yakov, the life of Yakov, vayechi Yakov, into all Jewish children, even in the time of golus. Yosef connects Yakov to his children, Menashe and Ephraim, representing all Jews, when he brings them to Yakov for a blessing so that the life of Yakov is transmitted to the children of Yosef, through Yosef, who makes the connection, and that is the Vayechi. Then there is Shmos, the names of the tribes, each one on their own particular level, as they exist in Mitzraim - every Jew in his specific role during the time of this lengthy golus.

Until such time when the golus is ended, and we have the aliyah of the geulah hamiti v’hashlema, and that is by bringing the essence of G-d, the aleph alephei shel olam, into the status of gola, into the state of Shmos where the Jews now find themselves in Mitzraim, in the gola, we are able to bring the Vayechi, the aleph, the life of Yakov, into the Shmos, into the external parts of Jewish life so even the external parts, “ in all your ways know Him”, we find the aleph, we find the essence of
G-d.

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