Shmuz Views

Parshas Vayichi

 Gadolim Had It Easy

The Parsha opens up with the statement “Vayichi Yaakov b’eretz Mitzrayim shevah esreh shanah.” “And Yaakov lived in Mitzraim for seventeen years.” The Bal HaTurim explains that the Gematriah of Vayichi (lived) is seventeen. The Torah is telling us that Vaychi — the life of Yaakov was seventeen years. Up until that point, he had suffered so much that his years couldn’t rightfully be called a life. The sum total of the years that he spent without torment was the seventeen years that he lived in Mitzraim. That was his life.

With this, the Bal Haturim gives a very different perspective on the life of Yaakov — he had a rough existence. For the first sixty-three years of his life, he suffered at the hands of his twin brother Aysav. From the time that they were in the womb together, they were fighting about this world and the Next. That period ended when he ran for his life because his dear brother was plotting his murder. He then spent the next fourteen years hiding out as a fugitive in the Yeshiva of Shem VaEver. 

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