Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chasidism, taught that "a Jew has to live with the times" - the "Jewish times" being the eternal Torah in its weekly Torah portion readings.
This week's Torah portion begins with the words: "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years." According to our Sages, these were Jacob's best years.
It is related that when the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Chabad Rebbe, learned this Torah portion as a boy, he asked his grandfather, Rabbi Shneur Zalman: "How could our father Jacob have lived his best years in a place like Egypt?" (Egypt was known for its crass materialism and depravity - utterly foreign to the spirit of our Patriarch.)
Rabbi Shneur Zalman replied: "In the preceding portion we are told that Jacob had sent his son Judah ahead of him to Goshen (in Egypt) to establish a Torah center for the twelve tribes and their children and grandchildren. Thus, wherever the Torah and mitzvot are studied and observed, a Jew can live his best years, even in Egypt."
We must continue to learn from our Patriarch Jacob, and continue to establish centers of Torah study for young and old and to provide them with support according each one according to our means and abilities. I personally thank Hashem for the opportunity granted to me in the past to have assisted many such institutions around the world, and keenly look forward to continuing to be able to do so in the future, especially for those in Eretz Yisroel who now need our help more than ever.
