Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chasidism, whose yahrtzeit we will be commemorating on Friday, 24 Teves, 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 Schneur 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 Schneur 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.”
Today we stand at a point in history where, because of the Rebbe’s declaration that “The time of the Redemption has come” and “Moshiach is on his way,” we prepare each day for the Messianic Era. And yet, we must live with the times. We must continue to learn from our Patriarch Jacob, and continue to establish centers of Torah study for young and old. In addition, the Rebbe has enjoined us to learn about the Redemption and Moshiach, so that even those places of study established long ago should “live with the times” and enhance their learning with the study of these subjects.
As the Rebbe expressed, “This is the way to hasten the Geula.” May it happen immediately.
