Yaakov Lives On Within Every Jew

1The Gemara relates (Taanis 5b): “Rav Nachman and R' Yitzchak were sitting at a meal. Rav Nachman said, ‘Let the master say something.’ R' Yitzchak replied, ‘R' Yochanan said: One does not talk during a meal, lest the windpipe open before the esophagus,’ and food go down the wrong way. After they had eaten, he said, ‘Yaakov Avinu did not die.’ Rav Nachman asked, ‘Was it for nothing that they eulogized him and embalmed him?’ He answered, ‘I am expounding a verse: “Behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity” [Yirmiyahu 30:10]. Just as his seed is alive, so he too is alive.’” We need to understand the connection. What does “lest the windpipe open before the esophagus” have to do with this? Rashi explains “so he too is alive” in the sense of “and Israel saw” [Bereishis 48:8], Yisrael Saba, the elder¹; see there.

2aThe explanation is that the level of Yaakov Avinu did not die. That is why the Torah does not speak of his death, only that “he expired and was gathered to his people” [Bereishis 49:33]. He was gathered to his people, Israel, because the power of Yaakov's soul entered the inner core of Israel. He is “the middle bar that runs from end to end” [Shemos 26:28] (Zohar II:28)². So the portion of Yaakov is in every kind of Jew. That is the meaning of “even though he has sinned, he is still Israel” (Sanhedrin 44a). The level of “Israel” still remains within him, with sparks of the fire of Jewishness. This is the source of the pure soul and of holy vitality. And this is what Chazal mean by “just as his seed is alive”: with the vitality that comes from the portion of Yaakov. With this portion, “I will save them.” As the Midrash explains (Vayishlach), on “May Hashem answer you on the day of trouble” [Tehillim 20:2]: I will save you in the merit of Yaakov. Yet this was said to Yaakov himself! It means: in the merit of the Yaakov within you. This level is never lost from any Jew. (See Berachos 64.)³

2bThe holy R' Baruch of Mezhibuzh is quoted on “Yet a little while (me'at), and the wicked one is no more” [Tehillim 37:10]. There is a “little” in every Jew that has no wickedness at all. That was David HaMelech's prayer: “You will look carefully at his place, and he is not there.” Look at this place, and the wicked one is not there. You will see that there is no sin there at all. We can sweeten this further. “You will look carefully” (vehisbonanta) comes from binah, understanding, which, as is known, is the source of teshuvah. There still remains within a Jew a place that has not been defiled, the Godly portion, the source of all holy vitality. As long as this thread of life is still within him, it can sprout and bring him back fully to life and make his end good. That is “Behold, I will save you from afar.” The one who is “far” is the ba'al teshuvah (Berachos 34b), and “from afar” is Binah, as the holy Zohar says in several places. Teshuvah is called “far” because by human reckoning it makes no sense that teshuvah should help. As the Yerushalmi says⁴, “They asked Wisdom, ‘What is the sinner's punishment?’ It answered, ‘The soul that sins, it shall die’ [Yechezkel 18:4]. Hashem answered, ‘Let him do teshuvah.’”

2cSo “Behold, I will save you from afar” means through teshuvah. As Chazal say (Sanhedrin 97b), “Israel will be redeemed only through teshuvah.” This fits what the holy books write: although the generations have become smaller than those before them, their inner point becomes purer each time, until Moshiach comes. That is “just as his seed is alive”: Yaakov's descendants endure only through the life within them, the portion of Yaakov in their hearts. It is the vitality of the soul, the power of Yaakov, and in its merit they are redeemed. “So he too is alive”: it must be that he is alive, since everything comes from the power of the elder, Yaakov Avinu. This is the proof that Yaakov Avinu did not die, for all the vitality of his descendants comes only through his portion of life, as we said. And this is the connection to “lest the windpipe open before the esophagus.” As Chazal say, “Prepare yourself in the entrance hall so that you may enter the banquet hall” (Avos 4:16). For tzaddikim, the beginning is suffering and the end is tranquility [cf. Bereishis Rabbah 66:6]. Through the entrance hall a person is refined so that he can enter the banquet hall.

2dThis is the hint in “lest the windpipe open before the esophagus.” By the nature of creation, food first enters the esophagus. The waste stays in the intestines and afterwards leaves the body, while the refined part then reaches the heart and is distributed to the limbs by the heart, the king of the body. In the same way, Esav is called the esophagus (veshet). As the holy books point out, Onkelos translates “Esav spurned” [Bereishis 25:34] as veshat Esav. Yaakov is the windpipe: “The voice is the voice of Yaakov” [Bereishis 27:22]. The windpipe corresponds to the letter vav, which stands for six, the six rings of Binah. That is why for tzaddikim the beginning is suffering and the end is tranquility, just as the esophagus, which sorts out the waste, comes before the windpipe. So too Esav was born before Yaakov, as the Midrash says [cf. Bereishis Rabbah 63:8], to draw out the filth. That is the esophagus that comes before the windpipe. Esav's rule in this world comes before Yaakov's, as the esophagus comes before the windpipe. And that is “Yaakov Avinu did not die.” He is the windpipe, which must remain, since the life of the body comes from it.