Parshas Vayechi 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Jan 1
- 1 min read
R’ Chaim Yosef Kofman zt”l (Machsheves Halev) would say:
“Chayei Sarah and Vayechi, both names of parshiyos, describe the deaths of Sarah and Yaakov, even though the words - "חיי" (שרה) "ויחי" - denote life. The first word "ויהיו" in Chayei Sarah is the gematria 37, noting that the only truly happy years of Sarah’s life were the 37 years after she gave birth to Yitzchok and raised him together with Avraham Avinu. Yaakov Avinu had 34 happy years; the first seventeen years after Yosef’s birth when he raised him and taught him Torah, and the last seventeen years after he was reunited with Yosef in Goshen. The gematria of "ויחי" is exactly 34. Hence, the Torah describes the truly happy years of Yaakov were only when he was with his son Yosef for 34 years.”
A Wise Man would say: “It is better to seek light than to give into the darkness.”