Torah, Shema and the Day of Death in Exile

1“He sent Yehudah ahead of him to Yosef, to prepare the way before him to Goshen” [Bereishis 46:28]. The Midrash records two views (Bereishis Rabbah 95:3). One says it was to prepare a home for him to live in. The other says it was to prepare a house of study where he would teach Torah. Then “he wept on his neck a long while (od)” [Bereishis 46:29], an expression of much weeping, as Rashi explains. But Yaakov did not fall on Yosef's neck, because he was reciting the Shema.

2To understand this, we begin with the Gemara (Berachos 5a): “A person should always stir up his good inclination against his evil inclination. If he defeats it, good. If not, let him learn Torah. If he defeats it, good. If not, let him recite the Shema. If he defeats it, good. If not, let him remind himself of the day of death.” My father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, explained this as follows. The main remedy is Torah, as Chazal say: “I created the yetzer hara, and I created the Torah as its antidote” (Kiddushin 30b). This means learning Torah, as the holy Zohar explains (Zohar I:202a). But when a person has become coarse and physical, he cannot learn Torah and purify himself through it. Then the remedy is the Shema: mesiras nefesh, giving up his life for Hashem's unity, in intention, which counts as if done in deed. This is like what the Sifri says on “For Your sake we are killed all day long” [Tehillim 44:23]. Through this all his sins are forgiven, and then he can come to learn Torah. He may not be able even to say “Shema Yisrael”: he may be so coarse, so foul and so loathsome that he cannot bring his heart to say it with mesiras nefesh. Then he should remind himself of the day of death. The terror of death will weaken his coarse physicality, Heaven help us. Through that he will be able to say the Shema with mesiras nefesh, and through the Shema he will be able to learn Torah. This also answers the commentators' question: why not remind oneself of the day of death right away? According to what we have said, the answer is clear. Understand this.

3aNow we can explain the verses before us. The holy books teach that everything that happened to the forefathers and their families is a sign for their children. When Yaakov Avinu went down to Egypt, he paved the way for his children until the coming of Moshiach, soon in our days. He made it possible for us to hold firm and keep our faith, and not to be lost through our sins, Heaven forbid. That is why he first sent Yehudah “to prepare before him,” to set up a place of Torah study. He was paving the way for us to stir up the good inclination through learning Torah. But as he came close to Egypt, he sensed that we would fall to a low state. There would be times, Heaven forbid, when “the leaven in the dough” [Berachos 17a], the yetzer hara, and other obstacles would make us coarse and unable to learn Torah properly. Then we would need the Shema. So he opened this doorway for us, and recited the Shema.

3bYosef, “the tzaddik, foundation of the world” [Mishlei 10:25], had also already labored hard over this, to prepare a path for us in all these matters for the time of exile. When he saw his father reciting the Shema, he understood what he intended. And since Yosef had already lived in Egypt, “the nakedness of the land” [cf. Bereishis 42:9], he saw and felt the full force of the exile more keenly. He saw that we would come, Heaven forbid, to a state where we could not say the Shema with a willing heart and soul, with true mesiras nefesh. Then we would be forced, Heaven forbid, to the third level: “let him remind himself of the day of death.” That is why “he wept on his neck od,” “still more”: we would sink still deeper, Heaven forbid, into the bitter exile. He did not want to say this aloud, so as not to “open his mouth to the Satan” [Berachos 19a], Heaven forbid.

3cYaakov Avinu understood him. So he opened his mouth and said, “Now I can die, after seeing your face, for you are still (od) alive” [Bereishis 46:30]. “Now I can die” meant: even at this level, by remembering death, they will have the strength to come to the Shema. And through the Shema they will come to learn Torah properly, until Hashem “looks down and sees” [Eichah 3:50] and has mercy on our remnant, soon in our days, amen. Perhaps this is also hinted in the word od. Here Rashi cites the verse “For He does not lay upon a man more (od) [than is right]” (Iyov 34:23). Coarse physicality can make a person so brazen that he thinks, Heaven forbid, that Hashem is treating him unjustly, beyond what his sins deserve, and he does not see Hashem's kindness to him at every moment. And the tzaddik, the foundation of the world, by his power and holiness lifted up the souls sunk in such impurity and coarseness, so that they can return to their Father in Heaven. (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)