Jacob Never Died!
The definition of truth is not simply the opposite of a lie. The “true” meaning of truth is that it is consistent. If something ceases at a certain point then it is not pure and unadulterated truth.
Paradox
This week’s Torah portion, entitled “Vayechi Ya’akov-And Jacob lived,” actually describes the events that led up to Jacob’s passing.
This anomaly is resolved by referring to the comment made by our Talmudic sages, cited by Rashi, concerning Jacob’s passing: “Jacob did not die.”
The Talmud raises the obvious question: “if so, why did they embalm him, bury him and eulogize him?”
The Talmud’s cryptic answer yields three possibilities. According to Rashi and others, Jacob did not really physically die. The fact that he was buried etc. is because the “Egyptians imagined that he had died.”
In other words, Jacob’s death was real only from the limited perception of the Egyptian people. In truth, however, even Jacob’s physical body transcended the phenomenon of death.
Living though his Children, Reincarnation
Other classical commentators as the Meharsha (sixteenth century Talmudic sage) explain Jacob’s not dying as a reference to his soul living on forever through his children who carry on his tradition.
A third mystical interpretation asserts that Jacob’s soul lives on in this physical world, by virtue of it being reincarnated into the bodies of subsequent Jewish leaders.
What is it, we may ask, about Jacob that places him above the constraints of time? Why doesn’t the Torah say the same about Abraham and Isaac, or, other great Jewish people?
True Truth
Jacob, our Talmudic and mystical sages tell us, epitomized the attribute of emes, truth.
The definition of truth is not simply the opposite of a lie. The “true” meaning of truth is that it is consistent. If something ceases at a certain point then it is not pure and unadulterated truth. Jacob, thus, who personified this attribute, could not possibly have lost some of his existence.
Eternal Life in the Future
The thirteenth principle of faith, formulated by Maimonides, is the belief in the Resurrection of the Dead. This means that in the era of Moshiach, all the dead will come back to life and will live on forever.
Hence, the phenomenon that was reserved for one person - Jacob - will extend itself to all of us.
This will occur because in the Messianic age, the Divine attribute of emes, truth will be revealed in its full glory, so that everyone will be permeated with this Divine power – to live, in the fullest sense of the word.
All this is alluded to in the name of this week’s Torah portion - Vayechi. May we all merit seeing and appreciating true life imminently with the full revelation of Moshiach and the ultimate complete and true Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayechi by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
