“Jacob replied, ‘the years of my life have been few and hard...’”
Question: If Jacob’s goal is to see that everything is for the best, why did he say to Pharaoh “the years of my life have been few and hard...?”
Answer: This is a good question, which we thought about when we gave the lesson this evening. All the Patriarchs rectify something from the sin of the first man, Adam, during their lives, but the one who is closest to Adam and who rectified his essence is Jacob (about whom it is said that “the face of Jacob resembles Adam’s face”). Adam lived 130 years after the sin separately from his wife, afraid to bring children after he sinned and after his first son killed his second son. This itself was a terrible sin. During these years, Adam violated the covenant, and all the demons and harmful spirits in the world were born from Adam in these 130 years.
Jacob had to toil to rectify these years and turn them into good (since everything is for the best). In his first 130 years, he rectified those 130 years and since in those years he had to toil to rectify the years of the first man, it is said about them that they were “few and hard.” Afterwards, he reached the good years, the final 17 years of his life, which were spent in Egypt. 17 is the value of “good” (בֹטו).
Going back to Adam, after 130 years of being separated from Eve, he repented and returned to her and Seth was born, from whom humanity was established, and therefore for Jacob our father these were the 17 good years.
(from a class given on the 4th of Kislev, 5777)
