“Joseph harnessed his Chariot and
went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen, He appeared to him, he fell on his
neck and he wept on his neck more”. Vayigash 45, 26
Finally
after 22 years that Yaakov didn’t see his son he heard that he was alive and
decided to come down to Egypt to see him. Yehuda went ahead and told Yosef his
father is about to arrive. Yosef took his horses and started riding towards his
father, the moment Yosef saw Yaakov he wept on his neck and what did Yaakov
do?, You’d expect him to jump on him, Hug him, cry, but instead the Midrash
tells us he said Kriat Shma: “Shma Israel, Hashem Elokenu, Hashem Echad”.
The commentators
ask how could it be?, We saw way less dramatic moments in peoples lives where
they got very emotional and Yaakov?!, 22 years and all he does is reading the
Shma Israel?! But here lays a great lesson for our lives.
“Hodu
leHashem ki tov”, the first place we see in the Torah the words “Ki Tov” was
when Hashem created the light, “Vayare elokim et haOhr ki tov”, the opposite of
light is Darkness. Ever since Yaakov was told that his son died his life became
dark, he used to mourn his son from day to night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year, for twenty-two years. Chazal teach us that when a person passes away
eventually we move on However, if the person is still alive but we think
they’re dead the feeling of sadness wont go away. That is exactly what happened
to Yaakov, on one hand his son is “dead” but on the other he can’t stop
mourning him and so his life were Dark.
At the
moment Yaakov saw Yosef was still alive, everything made sense, all those years,
Hashem sent Yosef to Egypt for that time of hunger. If not for the selling of
Yosef, Yaakov and his sons wouldn’t have survived the hunger that took place
and when Yaakov saw those 22 years of Darkness turned into light, finally understanding
the big picture then, “Hodu leHashem ki Tov” and that’s why the first thing
Yaakov does is saying the Shma Israel.
Thanks to
Yaakov Avinu we see that at the greatest moments of our life we can’t forget
that we must give the credit to Hashem. Sometimes we are in such big simcha
that we forget where it all comes from but Yaakov teaches us that no matter
when, always have Hashem first in our mind. When we show appreciation to what
we have especially in the best times it makes Hashem do more and more chessed
with us.
