Serving Hashem in Tranquility: Yaakov's Path of Fear

1“And Yaakov settled in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.”¹ The commentators, the Peirush HaRiva, the Kli Yakar and the Ohr HaChaim, ask why the verse adds the words “in the land of his father's sojournings.” Do we not already know that his father Yitzchak lived in the land of Canaan?

2Rashi comments: “Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility, and the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him. Tzaddikim seek to dwell in tranquility. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Is what awaits them in the World to Come not enough for the tzaddikim, that they also seek to dwell in tranquility in this world?”² But what is wrong with tzaddikim wishing to live in tranquility? All they want is to serve Hashem, as Chazal said of Moshe Rabbeinu's longing to enter Eretz Yisrael: “Did he then need to eat of its fruit? …”³ Why, then, is their wish for tranquility considered improper?

3The Midrash says: “Because Yaakov Avinu sought to dwell in tranquility in this world, the satan, the adversary, of Yosef came upon him.”⁴ What do Chazal mean by “the satan of Yosef”?

4We will explain this with the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “A ladder set upon the earth, and its top reaching to heaven.”⁵ He noted that, as is well known, the word sulam, “ladder,” has the same numerical value as mamon, “money.”⁶ From this he explained that even when a person is busy with money and physical matters, he must have the honor of Heaven in mind as well. For we know that money too can be used in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. So although the ladder, money, is “set upon the earth,” still “its top reaches to heaven”: through money a person can attain great and wondrous things. Chazal meant the same when they said, “One who prays must direct his eyes downward and his heart upward.”⁷ Even when his eyes are on his physical affairs, “downward,” he can reach lofty levels through them, so that “his heart is upward.” Those are his holy words.

5To explain this further, we may say the following. Chazal's well-known teaching is that Yaakov and Esav divided this world and the World to Come between them: Yaakov took the World to Come, and Esav took this world.⁸ Yet Yaakov Avinu sought to dwell in tranquility in this world as well. He reasoned that the World to Come is indeed the main thing, and a Jew has no need at all for this world and its physical pleasures. Still, he wanted to serve Hashem through the things of this world too, since every one of them can be dedicated to His service. This is the familiar idea of “Know Him in all your ways.”⁹ If, while busy with physical matters, a person has in mind to do the Creator's will through them, then, as is known, even the physical becomes like the spiritual. In that case the things of this world are no longer part of the “this world” that belongs to Esav. They are like a part of the World to Come, which Yaakov Avinu took as his portion.

6That is what Chazal meant by “Yaakov Avinu sought to dwell in tranquility.” Certainly Yaakov did not want to enjoy the tranquility of this world, for the holy Torah testifies about him, “And Yaakov was a wholesome man, dwelling in tents.”¹⁰ He kept apart from the pleasures of this world and had no connection to them at all. Chazal mean, rather, that he sought to serve the Creator not only through spiritual things, which belong to “the World to Come,” but also through physical things, which belong to “this world,” and to do so in tranquility.

7We do find this in Yaakov Avinu's own words: “And of all that You give me, I will surely give a tenth to You.”¹¹ He meant: everything, even physical things, I will dedicate to Your service. What is more, the Torah testifies about him, “And Yaakov came whole,” and Chazal explain, “whole in his wealth.”¹² The Torah is telling us that he reached the highest perfection in avodas Hashem, even in physical matters and money.

8But Heaven showed him that this is not the way, and that it is better to serve Hashem through spiritual things alone, because serving through physical things in this world makes it very easy to stumble and come, Heaven forbid, to sin. This is what Chazal meant: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Is it not enough for the tzaddikim … that they also seek to dwell in tranquility in this world?” The tzaddikim seek to serve Hashem through physical things, the matters of this world, as well, as Yaakov wished to, and through this a person can, Heaven forbid, stumble. That is why Hashem asked, “Is what awaits them in the World to Come not enough for the tzaddikim?” He meant that it is better for them to serve Hashem only through spiritual things, which belong to the World to Come. [As for Chazal's saying that this came about through the trouble of Yosef: Yosef's story took place several years after Yaakov arrived in Shechem “whole in his wealth.” Even so, Heaven held Yaakov back from this path (for every branch that comes out later in time is already present in its root). Heaven showed him that involvement in worldly things could bring some blemish and a great trial upon his sons, as we find happened to Yosef, and as will be explained below.]

9This is what the verse means by “And Yaakov settled in the land of his father's sojournings (megurei aviv).” Yaakov Avinu took his father's middah, the character trait called “the Fear of Yitzchak,” upon himself and rooted it within him.¹³ Yitzchak was always afraid of sin, and Yaakov took it upon himself not to occupy himself with physical things. This is the meaning of megurei aviv: the fear and awe that marked his father Yitzchak.¹⁴ [On this reading, “Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility” means that he only sought to do so, at the time when he was “whole in his wealth.” In practice he did not, but dwelt in the land like a sojourner, one who deals with his wealth only as much as he needs to live; the Ramban explains that megurei comes from ger, a sojourner. This was the way of Yitzchak: though he had great wealth, he did not benefit from it (he was blind, and a blind man is like the dead),¹⁵ and he did not occupy himself with the things of this world.]

10This is what Chazal said about Yosef HaTzaddik: “The image of his father's face appeared to him.”¹⁶ The holy sefer Divrei Yechezkel of Shinova explains it along these lines.¹⁷ Yosef's way was to curl his hair, attending to his looks,¹⁸ which means that he occupied himself with physical things and meant to serve the Creator through them too. But after the episode with Potiphar's wife, he saw and understood that this trial had come because he had been occupied with physical things. Then “the image of his father's face appeared to him.” The words “appeared to him” are used as in “I see the words of Admon,” where “see” means that a view seems right in one's eyes.¹⁹ In other words, Yosef accepted and agreed with his father's way: one must serve Hashem only through spiritual things and not occupy oneself with the physical, unlike what he himself had done at first, when he curled his hair.

11We can read this idea into Chazal's words, “Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility, and the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him.” As we explained, Heaven answered Yaakov Avinu that involvement in physical things makes it easy to stumble. That is the meaning of “the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him”: we find this very thing with Yosef, whom it brought to a trial. The Midrash's wording, “the satan of Yosef,” is precise as well. Through the tranquility in this world that Yaakov sought, the satan can come, and the satan is the yetzer hara. When a person is busy with physical things, the yetzer hara brings him to a trial, and he can easily stumble, as we find with Yosef.

12The point is this. For himself, Yaakov Avinu was certainly on a level where he could serve Hashem even through physical things without stumbling; he was, as we saw, “whole in his wealth.” But the holy Avos, as is well known, served Hashem not only for their own perfection and their own time. They meant to prepare the path for the generations, to show it to them and make it straight, in the sense of “the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children” and of “Go out and pave the way before your children.”²⁰ Not every mind can bear this path through the physical, though, and it does not suit the generations to come. So Yaakov Avinu did not want to walk this narrow, delicate path. He served Hashem with simple wholeheartedness, without occupying himself with physical things.

13We too, then, must continue in the ways of our fathers and serve Hashem with simple wholeheartedness, without any changes. We need only keep up the customs we received from our fathers. In this way we will bring near the time of the redemption, which we need so greatly in our days. As the verse says, “And he will return the heart of the fathers to the children.”²¹ The heart of the fathers will once again be found in the children, so that the children follow their fathers' ways, and through this the redemption will come. So it was in the exile of Egypt. As the Midrash teaches, Israel was redeemed from Egypt in the merit of not changing its names, its language or its dress.²² This is hinted in the verse “And Yaakov came whole”: shalem, “whole” (של״ם), is formed from the first letters of shem, name, lashon, language, and malbush, dress, as the Chasam Sofer notes.²³ Through this may we be privileged to see the redemption very soon. Amen, may it be His will.