Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of Vayechi.
"And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt... and the days of Jacob were... and the days of Israel drew close to his death" (47:28-29).
We find that the Torah calls our patriarch Jacob sometimes by his original name of Jacob and sometimes by his new name of Israel. This is in contrast to our patriarch Abraham whose name God changed from Abram to Abraham and "whoever calls him Abram - has transgressed a commandment" (Brachot 13a). When discussing Jacob's death, the Torah says "and the days of Israel drew close to his death." It mentions “days of Israel” instead of “days of Jacob” despite calling him Jacob twice in the previous verse.
To understand why, we must first understand an important principle about the Jewish people’s spiritual essence, which every Jew should be aware of. God took 600,000 souls and divided them among the Jews, conferring one soul on each Jew. Every Jew has been reincarnated several times in This World to rectify the reason why he was sent down. If a person didn’t succeed in rectifying himself in one reincarnation he will be sent down in a second reincarnation, and if he did not succeed in that reincarnation, he will come down in a third reincarnation. A person should try to figure out what his weaknesses are and exert himself to correct them, because those are the very things he was sent down to rectify. If he doesn't, he will have to come back again in another reincarnation to rectify the reason he was sent down to this world.
Sometimes a person who strengthens himself in a certain mitzvah has the soul of a righteous person who was careful about that same mitzvah transmigrated into him. For example, a person who is careful to give charity may have the soul of a charitable righteous person transmigrated into him. A person who continuously studies the book of a righteous man, may have that righteous man transmigrated into him. A righteous person connected to a specific mitzvah may be transmigrated into the soul of a living person despite that person having his own soul.
The same is true concerning evil. A person who sins and does evil things, the soul of an evil person may transmigrate into him.
Many times you see good people who were well regarded, loved and charming. Suddenly, they changed their ways and turned into completely different people and no one can understand why. How is it possible that people can one day be righteous and moral, and the next day wicked and depraved? The reason is because the soul of a bad person transmigrated into them and they become completely different people.
King David says about this, "All men are deceitful." (Psalms 116:11) A bad soul can surreptitiously enter a person and make him devious and evil. A person has to guard himself and be careful that no evil soul enters him. Even if a person has the good fortune of having a righteous man’s soul transmigrated in him, he should know that if he becomes angry, a good soul will leave him.
We can derive from this an important understanding. As soon as our holy patriarch Jacob was born, God gave him one soul - his own. After he had overcome Esau's ministering angel, he had elevated himself to not only be victorious over people, but even over angels. His soul became exalted and sublime. God gave Jacob something that no one else had - two basic root souls that were both his and both inside his body, instead of one soul that had been transmigrated with another soul. These are our patriarch’s Jacob-soul and Israel-soul.
When his righteous son Joseph vanished and Jacob did not know what happened to him, he assumed that "an evil animal ate him" and "a predator had devoured Joseph." His sorrow was immense. These sorrows and torments had an impact like death causing the Jacob-soul to leave him with only the Israel-soul remaining. That's why the Divine Presence departed from him for 22 years.
Similarly, when Joseph saw the image of his father appearing to him in the window, our rabbis explain that this means that the Jacob-soul that had left Jacob had gone to be with Joseph and help him overcome all the trials he was undergoing.
When the tribes told Jacob that Joseph was alive, he was the viceroy in the land of Egypt and Jacob saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to him, immediately "the spirit of Jacob their father came alive" (Genesis 27).
At that moment, our patriarch Jacob merited the resurrection of the dead, and his Jacob-soul returned to his body and he once again had his two souls - the Jacob-soul and the Israel-soul.
A person who dies and is resurrected, cannot die and be resurrected a second time. Therefore when it is written in the weekly Torah section that Jacob passed away, our rabbis explain that Jacob our father did not die. The Gemara (Ta'anit 5b) and the Zohar (Teruma, 174a) say, "Just as his progeny is alive, he is also alive." If so, what had died was his Israel-soul. That's why the Torah says "and the days of Israel drew close to his death." His Jacob-soul remained intact and alive, like his progeny - just as his sons did not die, neither did Jacob die. The Jacob-soul could not die again, because it had already died and was resurrected and it is impossible to die and be resurrected twice. This is why our patriarch Jacob is still alive and existing and death does not apply to him.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel