This week's parsha
relates the story of how Yosef was kidnapped and separated from his father
Ya'akov for 22 years. The Midrash says
that after his struggles with Lavan, Eisav, and Shechem, Ya'akov Avinu wanted
to live a life of peace and calm. This
was not to be. Specifically because of this
desire, the distress of Yosef was brought upon him.[1] We usually understand this Midrash as
referring to the physical struggles that Ya'akov endured throughout his life. However, the Sfas Emes explains that this
Midrash is actually referring to Ya'akov Avinu's spiritual struggles
culminating in his final spiritual struggle represented by Yosef.
The difficulty for
Ya'akov in his journey to and travails with Lavan, Eisav, and Shechem was that these
troubles took him away from a life of holiness in a place which was conducive
for connecting with God, sheltered from the ugliness of the outside world. Metaphorically, Ya'akov's departure from the
house of his father Yitzchak, all that happened to him
during his exile, and his subsequent return, parallel the
relationship between Shabbos and the days of the week. Intuitively, it is easy to understand that Shabbos
is a time conducive to connecting with God and holiness since we are not
distracted by our weekday activities. It
is also spiritually a higher level day on which the entire world is truly
closer to God than during the days of the week. More than a holy day, Shabbos is a concept
representing a certain level of closeness to God.
Before Ya'akov went
to Lavan, he was on a level of Shabbos in his relationship with God. Just as Shabbos is separate from the days of
the week so to Ya’akov was completely separate from anything worldly.
His efforts with Lavan, Eisav, and Shechem represented a
descent into the physical world, a descent from a level of complete separation
from the distractions of the world around him, a level of Shabbos, into a level
of the days of the week. Ya'akov needed
to work hard, paralleling the work of the days of the week, to maintain his
connection to God even as he lived in Lavan's house with its accent on the
physical world. The beginning of this
week's parsha suggests Ya'akov's return to a level of Shabbos, "וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב .../Ya'akov dwelt ..." (Breishis 37:1) The first word of the parsha, וַיֵּשֶׁב/He dwelt, comes from the same root as the word Shabbos.
The difficulties that
Ya'akov experienced with Lavan, Eisav and Dina were an attempt to separate him from
God. Living a life of serenity, of
Godliness, even in the physical world is the ultimate desire of the righteous. It means spreading an awareness of God in the
physical world, a place were He is normally hidden. It means bringing the level of Shabbos into
the physical world. This concept is
symbolized by Yosef. This is
the deeper meaning of the distress of Yosef mentioned in the Midrash. How so? The word Yosef means to add. The strength of Yosef was the ability to
spread an awareness of God in the physical world. If Ya'akov Avinu was on a Shabbos level of
attachment to God, then Yosef, the Sfas Emes explains, was תּוֹסְפוֹת שַׁבָּת/an addition to Shabbos. Rashi cites the Midrash that Ya'akov Avinu waited
for Yosef to be born before he was prepared to meet Eisav. With Yosef he was able to overcome the
this-worldliness that Eisav represented.
Shabbos is made for
connecting to God. We learn from Ya'akov
that we can live a life in which we reveal God during our daily activities as
well. We do this by cultivating a desire
that the result of our activities be a greater awareness of God. Accepting Shabbos early symbolizes this work
because when we accept Shabbos early we are actually bringing the holiness of
the Shabbos into what would otherwise be a part of the week. Working to raise our weekday experiences to a
Shabbos level, essentially yearning for Shabbos during the week, makes it
easier for us to accept and experience Shabbos early. May we merit it!
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