Days Drawn Close: A Life without a Missing Day

1“Yaakov lived … The days of Yisrael drew near to die.”¹ Notice the wording: why does the verse say “the days of”? It would have been enough to say, “Yisrael drew near to die.” The holy Ohr HaChaim, in his commentary on the Torah, asks a further question: why is he called “Yaakov” at the beginning of the verse and “Yisrael” at its end?

2We may explain it as follows. First, though, a related question. In many places the holy Torah uses the word “today,” as in “And you who cleave to Hashem your God are all alive today” and “See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse,”² and in many more. Why do these verses say “today,” when the Torah is eternal, for ever and ever?

3It seems we can explain this through what the holy sefarim, the Shelah of R' Yeshayah Horowitz and the Toldos Yaakov Yosef of R' Yaakov Yosef of Polonne, write about the verse “Avraham was old, coming into days, and Hashem blessed Avraham with everything.”³ They explain that tzaddikim fill all their days with Torah and prayer, and that this is the meaning of “coming into days”: Avraham Avinu came to the end of his life with all his days, and not even one day of his life was missing. We may say that the same idea explains “and Hashem blessed Avraham with everything.” His blessing and distinction was that he was complete, “with everything”: all the days of his life formed a single whole of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, and nothing was missing from them.

4Perhaps this is also the meaning of our verse, “The days of Yisrael drew near to die.” Yaakov Avinu filled every day of his life with avodas Hashem, so before his death all his days stood close to one another, with no break or gap between them. All of them were equally good and full of avodas Hashem, and not even one day was missing. That is what the Torah is telling us with the words “the days of Yisrael drew near.” It also explains why he is called “Yisrael” here. As we know, “Yisrael” is a higher level than “Yaakov,”⁴ and here the Torah is describing the great height that Yaakov Avinu reached.

5In the same way we can explain the word “today.” Wherever the holy Torah writes “today,” it points to this same completeness of days. Take the verse “And you who cleave to Hashem your God are all alive today.” It means: if your soul longs to reach deveikus, cleaving to Hashem, and completeness in avodas Hashem, you must work to see that each and every day is filled with that day's service, for the honor of Hashem, blessed be He. That is what the word “today” is saying. In several other places, too, where the Torah speaks of avodas Hashem, the word “today” appears, to teach us that through complete days we reach complete avodas Hashem.

6May Hashem, blessed be He, help us and all who are attached to us to live by what “today” teaches, and so bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.