DG's Divrei Torah

Have you ever felt stuffed up? No, not the “grab a Kleenex” kind of stuffed up. Let me clarify; in this week’s parsha, we read about the loss of our forefather, Yaakov. Rashi says, when Yaakov died, the eyes and hearts of Klal Yisrael became closed, due to Egyptian oppression. In short, Klal Yisrael experienced the feeling of being “stuffed up.” Subsequently, Klal Yisrael traveled into golus, which we know all too well, is a very “stuffed up” situation. From this information that we now have, how appropriate is it that this week’s parsha starts “stuffed up” in the middle of a paragraph?

Everything has a seder meyuchad (an order that was made especially for it). Really, the whole world is one big seder formed directly from the words of the Torah. Which means, if you look into the seder of the Torah, it’s as if you are looking through a window, viewing how the world was made. Hashem included in this seder, golus.

Why was it necessary to make golus part of the seder of events? If one of the points of life is to get as close to Hashem as possible, then why bring upon golus? Doesn’t that distance us from Hashem? No, not at all, in fact, Hashem is closest during golus. Golus is like a thick veil; therefore, in order for Hashem to be apparent, He shines even greater than before.

Even in the darkest hours of Auschwitz, Hashem was apparent. There was a veil covering Him, but still, Hashem could be seen through the thick of it. An elderly man who experienced Auschwitz first hand once said, “I saw Hashem every day in the camp. The Nazis were too evil, it didn’t make sense, and it wasn’t natural. It had to be that what was happening to us, was purely divine.”

Another example is when the Babylonians destroyed the Bais Hamikdash, the kruvim (baby faced angels) on the aron (ark), turned toward each other and embraced. This is strange; you would think they would face away from each other. Whenever Hashem was unhappy with Klal Yisrael, they would turn away from each other. This shows us, that even though Hashem was destroying His palace, and sending His children into exile, He was doing it out of the love He has for His children. They needed golus in order to become cleansed.

Finally, when a father forces bad tasting medicine down his sick child’s throat, is he doing it because he’s angry? Or is he doing it because he loves him? He knows that right now the child will suffer, but in the long run, the medicine, or in our case, golus, will ultimately lead to a full recovery.

To recap, golus is like being stuck in the middle of a paragraph. In this week’s parsha, Klal Yisrael is headed into golus. Therefore, it’s appropriate that the parsha starts in the middle of a paragraph. However, we must remember! Just like there was an eventual geula when we left Egypt. So too, Maysa Avos, Simun Libanim; take a lesson from out forefathers, it’s not simply a storybook. We too will leave our present golus into geula, bimheira viyameinu amein! Good Shabbos.