G-d spoke to Jacob in night visions and He said: “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “I am the G-d – G-d of your father. Do not be afraid of descending to Egypt, for I shall establish you as a nation there. I shall descend with you to Egypt, and I shall also surely bring you up.” –Genesis 46:2-4
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler (1892-1953) in his work Michtav Eliyahu (Strive for Truth) reiterates the obvious question on this exchange between G-d and Jacob. What fear did Jacob have that required G-d’s reassurance. Moments earlier Jacob was thrilled with the news of Joseph still being alive and well, and his having risen to the position of viceroy in Egypt. What changed?
The mystical work Zohar fills in the blanks for us. Jacob was quite fearful of his children’s ultimate doom in Egypt. He feared assimilation both physically as a nation and as a spiritual entity. To that G-d assuaged him that they will become a nation there, so there won’t be physical decimation. Jacob however remained unsatisfied. “But what will be their spiritual destiny?” Jacob asked. G-d then replied that He will descend to Egypt with the Jewish nation.
Jacob didn’t stop there. He prepared for the descent, because he recognized the dangers involved. They were about to move to a terribly immoral and corrupt idolatrous society and they had to be prepared for the worst. Jacob first sent Judah ahead to establish a yeshiva. It was impossible to survive in the exile without the study of Torah. He also ensured that they would live in a separate city. In addition, he fortified his own resources with his recitation of Shema in his moment of immense joy when seeing Joseph for the first time in twenty-two years, in addition to other personal commitments.
Rabbi Dessler outlines the numerous ways of preparation that Joseph as well made to ensure the smooth transition of his Torah-true family to Egypt. The operative word which saved the Jewish people in the exile was “preparation.” Jacob realized that the nascent nation had no future without the proper planning, and even with all of his plans, the Jewish people made it out of Egypt some two hundred and ten years later in quite a spiritually sorry state. Jacob was walking into a new era. He realized that a new focus was in order.
This parsha could not have come at a more opportune, or might I say, a more ominous time. The financial markets are in shambles, and the global economy is in tatters. The unemployment figures are skyrocketing, and the overall atmosphere is one of recession. Almost all of the news articles are reporting the identical negative messages. In all of the darkness of the media, in the most unlikely of places, on the seventh day of Chanukah, a small flame flickered in the night. Ben Stein of the New York Times Business section wrote a piece entitled, “Everybody’s business.” His words speak volumes for themselves:
“AND there are many other myths I could talk about, myths that we believed in and that tricked us and hurt us. But I will tell you about the main myth that’s hurting investors right now. It is well expressed by my hero, Bob Dylan, who warns against being “nothing more than something they invest in” in the immortal song, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).”
We are more than our investments. We are more than the year-to-year or day-by-day changes in our net worth. We are what we do for charity. We are how we treat our family and friends. We are how we treat our dogs and cats. We are what we do for our community and our nation. If you had $100 million or $100,000 a year ago and now you have a lot less, you are still the same person. You are not a balance sheet, at least not one denominated in money, as was explained to me recently.
Losing and making money are not moral issues so long as you are being honest. You may have a lot less money as this year ends than you did two years ago. But you are just as good or bad a person as you were then. It is a myth that money determines who you are, and if you have gotten over that myth by now, then 2008 will have been a very good year. “
Ben Stein got the message. If we don’t work on who we are or want to be, we will also get swept up in the focus of popular society, which has quite literally gone bankrupt. We all went into Egypt once again when our grandparents docked onto these shores. Some of us were more prepared than others. Today that preparation is most apparent. Those who only had their money as the prime goal, have nothing. Those who identified as a wholesome practicing and moral person still have an identity to speak of. The good news is that it is not too late.
Let us take this message home, if not from the Torah, then at least from the New York Times. If they get it, shouldn’t we all.
