PLAN B
Our parasha this week begins with the words, Veyeishev Yaakov Be’eretz Megurei Aviv, “Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as a stranger” (Bereishit 37:1)
The word Vayeishev “he settled” has the connotation of wanting to create a permanent home. As Rashi explains, Jacob thought he could now live in peace. He had resolved the conflict with his brother, Esau. He had raised 12 sons. Unlike his father who ‘lived as a stranger’ in the land, which implies a lack of rootedness, Jacob thought he was entitled to live as a proper resident.
But why? On what basis should Jacob feel that it was his right to enjoy ‘settling in the land?”
The late Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik (d. 1993) explains that 2 generations earlier, Abraham had received a prophecy that his “descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs. They would serve them and be afflicted by them for 400 years…The 4th generation will return here.”
The prophecy was unclear. On the one hand it referred to an exile of 400 years. On the other hand, it referred to an exile of just 4 generations, which is much less than 400 years. Rabbi Soloveitchik explains that the prophecy was giving a lower and an upper limit to the exile. A plan A and a plan B. If Abraham’s descendants were worthy, their exile could be completed in just 4 generations. If they were not worthy, their subjugation could last for as much as 400 years. (As it transpired, the exile in Egypt lasted 210 years, and not 400.)
Jacob had been forced to run away to a foreign land, Charan. He had been made to work for Laban, who deceived him on countless occasions. His children were the 4th generation from Abraham. Maybe the terms of prophecy of the exile were being fulfilled with his family’s return to the land of Israel, where they could now live permanently? The possibility of an Egyptian exile, which was at the edge of his prophetic imagination, would be completely unnecessary?
Indeed, says Rabbi Soloveitchik, this was the original script! Jacob’s return with his family could have marked the beginning of the permanent settling of the land of Israel for the Children of Israel. However, it was thwarted when Jacob’s sons started quarrelling. The discord and jealousy meant that Plan B had to be adopted, and more than 250 years were to pass before the nation of Israel would enter their Promised Land.
The power of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s insight is that it applies in our time as well. The final redemption has potentially been possible in every generation since the destruction of the Temple. Now, even more than ever. If it has not yet happened, we have to ask ourselves: what more can each of us be doing to better ourselves and better our world? Together, action by action, we can effect that change.
Dayan Ivan Binstock