Parshas Vayeishev
1. On the verse "ויקנאו בו אחיו ואביו שמר את הדבר" ("His brothers were envious of him, but his father kept the matter")1, Rashi pauses on the words "שמר את הדבר" ("kept the matter") and explains: "הי׳ ממתין ומצפה מתי יבא" ("He was waiting and looking forward to when it would come")2; "וכן שומר אמונים" ("and likewise, 'who waits for faithfulness'")3; "וכן לא תשמור על חטאתי" ("and likewise, 'You will not wait over my sin'")4, "לא תמתין" ("You will not wait").
We need to understand:
a) Seemingly, Rashi here sets out to explain only the word "שמר" ("kept") [that its meaning is not "guarded" (as the term shemirah means in most places), but "waited"]. Why, then, does he also copy the words "את הדבר" ("the matter")?
b) If Rashi only wants to bring a proof that shemirah (also) means "waiting", it would be enough to bring just one verse where the term shemirah means waiting. Why does he need to bring two verses?
c) Had Rashi brought (in his second proof) the verse "You will not wait over my sin" without explaining it, we would already understand on our own that the meaning of "לא תשמור" is "לא תמתין" ("You will not wait"). Why, then, does Rashi need to explain it explicitly?
The question is even stronger: when he brings the first proof, the verse "Who waits for faithfulness", he does not in fact explain it as "waits, etc." So why, in the second proof, on the verse "You will not wait…", must he explain it and say "You will not wait"?
2. The explanation of the second question (why Rashi is not satisfied with the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" and also brings "You will not wait over my sin") is as follows:
When a person waits for a certain thing (and all the more so when he hopes and looks forward, when he wants it and watches for it5), he stands in a posture of "closeness" and connection to the thing he is waiting for.
Therefore, when the verse speaks of the Jewish people, who wait "לאמונתו של הקב״ה" ("for the faithfulness of the Holy One, blessed be He")6, that G‑d will keep His word to redeem them, it does not say "שומר את אמונים" (or the like), but "שומר אמונים". The word emunim stands joined to and close beside the word shomer, because their waiting for emunim, "for the faithfulness of the Holy One, blessed be He", is such that they are close to it.
For this reason, the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" is not sufficient proof that shamar in our verse also means "waited". Since here it says "שמר את הדבר", it is not so easy to learn that these words mean that he waited for the "matter", for when one waits and hopes ("waiting and looking forward") for a certain thing, one is close to it.
Rashi therefore adds "and likewise, 'You will not wait over my sin'", where the word "על" ("over") separates tishmor from chatasi, and nevertheless the meaning of the word tishmor there is "wait". That being so, we can also learn in our case that "שמר את הדבר" means "he was waiting and looking forward, etc."
This also explains why Rashi copies, before his explanation, the words "(שמר) את הדבר", even though he explains only the word shamar. He does so to emphasize that although the word es separates shamar from hadavar, it nevertheless means "he was waiting, etc.", just as with "You will not wait over my sin", which means "You will not wait".
3. But it is still not understood:
Since, according to the above, the verse "You will not wait…" is more similar to our verse than the verse "Who waits for faithfulness", why does Rashi also bring the verse "Who waits for faithfulness"7, and even more, why does he bring it before the verse "You will not wait…"?
This will be understood from the fact that when Rashi explains our verse, "שמר את הדבר", he uses the wording "he was waiting and looking forward, etc." Whereas (at the end of his comment), when he explains the verse "You will not wait…", he says (only) "You will not wait", and not "ותצפה" ("and look forward").
The reason for this difference is simply understood. The term "ממתין" ("waiting") fits even where one wants the awaited thing not to happen (but it does not depend on him). "מצפה" ("looking forward"), however, means that one hopes for the thing and watches for it: when will it already come? In Rashi's words, "looking forward to when it would come".
Therefore, in our verse, where we must learn that Yaakov truly hoped and watched for Yosef's dream to be fulfilled8, Rashi uses the wording "he was waiting and looking forward, etc." But regarding "You will not wait over my sin", where Iyov's complaint was that G‑d does not wait with punishing him, the idea of "looking forward" does not fit8*.
[Besides, it cannot be said at all that G‑d would hope, Heaven forbid, to punish a person. On the contrary: G‑d wants and makes every effort that the person should do teshuvah and thereby avert the punishment9.] Therefore Rashi says only "You will not wait"10.
4. According to this, it is understood why Rashi is not satisfied with bringing the verse "You will not wait…" and also brings the verse "Who waits for faithfulness". It is specifically in the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" that the meaning of shomer is "waiting and looking forward" (for the Jewish people hope and watch for the Redemption), just as in our verse.
This is why Rashi brings the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" before "You will not wait…". [Besides its standing in an earlier book11,] his proof from "Who waits for faithfulness" goes to the essential meaning of the word shamar, that it means "waiting and looking forward". His proof from "You will not wait over my sin", however, shows only that the term (shemirah in the sense of) waiting also fits where a word stands between the shemirah and the thing awaited, as above, section 2.
This is also why Rashi, when he brings the verse "You will not wait…", explicitly explains it as "You will not wait": to make clear that in bringing this verse he only means to prove a side point (to forestall a question), and not his essential explanation that shamar means "waiting and looking forward", since the meaning of "לא תשמור" there is only "You will not wait".
5. From among the matters of the "יינה של תורה" ("wine of the Torah") in this comment of Rashi:
It has been discussed many times12 that although "גלינו מארצנו" ("we were exiled from our land") came about "מפני חטאינו" ("because of our sins"), the inner intent of the exile is that through it we should reach a higher level than before the exile: the state the Jewish people will be in at the future Redemption, when there will be an elevation higher even than when the Beis HaMikdash stood13.
It follows that although in actuality the Redemption comes after the exile [to the point that even the beginning of the Redemption, "נולד מושיען של ישראל" ("the redeemer of Israel was born"), also came (a moment) after the Destruction14], nevertheless, since the purpose of exile is for the sake of the Redemption (although in actuality the exile came "because of our sins"), in intent the Redemption precedes the exile.
Rashi hints at this by bringing, in his comment on "שמר את הדבר", first the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" and only afterward "You will not wait over my sin":
The fulfillment of Yosef's dream, of which our verse speaks, was in order to bring about "כי גר יהי׳ זרעך בארץ לא להם" ("your seed shall be strangers in a land not theirs")15, the Egyptian exile16, which is the root17 of all the exiles.
On this Rashi says that although the exiles (which evolved from the Egyptian exile) came as a pera'on (repayment) for "our sins", the idea of "You will not wait over my sin"18, nevertheless19 the first (and principal) cause of the exile is the future Redemption, "Who waits for faithfulness":
Repayment for sin is only the way the exile came about in actuality. The chief purpose of the exile [which "in intent" preceded even "because of our sins"] is that through it we should ultimately reach "ישובו הנה" ("they shall return here")20, in the manner of "קהל גדול ישובו הנה" ("a great congregation shall return here")21 and of "ירחיב ה״א את גבולך גו׳ ונתן לך את כל הארץ" ("the L‑rd your G‑d will expand your border… and give you the entire land")22, "מנהר מצרים עד הנהר הגדול נהר פרת את הקיני גו׳" ("from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the Keini, etc.")23: the elevation that will be at the future Redemption through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, may he come and redeem us very soon.
(From the sichos of Shabbos Parshas Vayeishev 5727)
Notes
1) Our parsha, 37:11.
2) The resolution of the apparent contradiction between this comment of Rashi and his first explanation on the preceding verse (s.v. "הבוא נבוא") was explained at length at the farbrengen.
3) Yeshayahu 26:2. Rashi on Yeshayahu there writes: "וכן ושמר ה׳ אלקיך לך" ("and likewise, 'the L‑rd your G‑d will keep for you'") (Eikev 7:12), which implies that he explains "ושמר" as a term of waiting. But simply, "ושמר" there is a term of guarding in the plain sense, as Rashi explains on that verse: "ישמור לך הבטחתי" ("He will keep My assurance for you")*. This explains why Rashi here needed to bring proof from Nevi'im and Kesuvim, and did not bring it from "ושמר ה׳ גו׳".
Accordingly, it is understood why he does not bring proof from "שומר הברית והחסד" ("who keeps the covenant and the kindness") (I Melachim 8:23, which precedes Yeshayahu), even though Rashi there says "waits, etc." For "shomer" there simply means guarding in the plain sense, like "ושמר גו׳ הברית ואת החסד" in Parshas Eikev.
Similarly, one can say that this is the reason he does not bring proof from "שומר את פיה" ("watched her mouth") (I Shmuel 1:12) or from "שמרו את עת באנה" ("they watch the time of their coming") (Yirmiyahu 8:7; this verse too precedes Iyov), which according to Rashi there are terms of waiting. For one could explain shemirah there as guarding in the plain sense (see Radak and Metzudos on Shmuel there; Radak on Yirmiyahu there).
*) As for Rashi on Yeshayahu there citing this verse to show that shemirah is a term of waiting: it has already been discussed several times that the plain-meaning approach in Rashi's commentary on Nach is not as plain as in his commentary on the Torah. More can be said on this, but this is not the place to elaborate.
4) Iyov 14:16.
5) See below, section 3.
6) Rashi on Yeshayahu there.
7) One cannot say that since the general proof that the term shemirah (sometimes) means waiting comes also from the verse "Who waits for faithfulness" (only that in our case, because of the interruption of the word es, it is hard to explain it this way and a special proof is needed), Rashi therefore also brings this verse because it is stated in the book of Yeshayahu, which precedes the book of Iyov. For Rashi's way in many places is to bring only the verses that are essential to his explanation.
8) For from the wording of the verse "ויקנאו בו אחיו ואביו שמר גו׳" it is evident that only his father kept the matter and not his brothers. Since his brothers too waited for this (for otherwise they would not have been envious of him), we must conclude that shamar here means "waiting and looking forward, etc.", which was so only with his father.
8*) Accordingly it will also be understood why, in his commentary on "שומר את פיה" (I Shmuel 1:12), he brings two proofs, from "שמר את הדבר" and from "לא תשמור על חטאתי". For his explanation "מצפה מתי תפסיק" ("looking forward to when she would stop") has two extremes: "looking forward" is like "שמר את הדבר"; "when she would stop" is like "לא תשמור על חטאתי".
9) As Rashi states earlier, on Noach (6:14): "הטריחו . . (וטורח רב ביותר) ק״כ שנה . . אולי ישובו" ("He burdened him . . (with very great toil) for 120 years . . perhaps they would repent").
10) Accordingly it will also be understood why Rashi, in his commentary on Iyov there, adds [after bringing proof from "ואביו שמר את הדבר"] a proof from the language of Chazal*: "לא יאמר אדם לחבירו שמור לי בצד ע״ז פלונית" ("A person should not say to his fellow, 'Wait for me beside such-and-such idol'"). For shamar in our parsha (and similarly in Parshas Eikev according to Rashi on Nach; see above, note 3) means "waiting and looking forward", and Rashi therefore needed to prove from "A person should not say… wait for me…" that shmor there means (only) waiting. Accordingly it is also understood why Rashi did not bring this in Yeshayahu there, which precedes the book of Iyov.
*) In Rashi on Iyov there: "ובלשון המשנה" ("and in the language of the Mishnah"). It has already been noted there that this is not in the Mishnah, but in the Gemara, Sanhedrin 63b (cited in Rashi on Mishpatim 23:13).
11) But for this reason alone, not only would Rashi not have put it first, he would not have brought it at all, as above, note 7.
12) See above, p. 61ff. Below, p. 195.
13) See Rashi on Lech (15:19): "ירושה לעתיד" ("an inheritance for the future"). Rambam at the end, end of Hilchos Melachim. And in the sources cited in the previous note.
14) Eichah Rabbah 1:51. One may reconcile this with the saying of our Sages (Megillah 13b) that the Holy One, blessed be He, sends the cure before the blow.
15) Lech 15:13.
16) As is simply understood. See also Rashi in our parsha, 37:14.
*) Although simply, Yaakov's keeping the matter means that he was waiting and looking forward to Yosef's kingship, the intent in all this (in the inner dimension of the matters) was the Egyptian exile (and the Redemption), as our Sages say: "ראוי הי׳ יעקב אבינו לירד למצרים בשלשלאות של ברזל אלא שזכותו גרמה לו" ("Yaakov Avinu was fit to go down to Egypt in chains of iron, but his merit brought about otherwise") (Shabbos 89b). This matter, however, was not clothed in Yaakov's conscious knowledge, in the manner of "וישלחהו מעמק חברון" ("He sent him from the valley of Chevron"), "מעצה עמוקה של אותו צדיק הקבור בחברון כו׳" ("from the deep counsel of that tzaddik buried in Chevron, etc.") (37:14 and Rashi there), even though "He sent him" refers to Yaakov.
17) See Likutei Sichos vol. 9, p. 178, note 28. Accordingly it will be understood why Rashi on Lech (15:12) says "גליות" ("exiles", in the plural; see also Rashi there, 15:17 and 15:19). And it will further clarify what he writes there (15:14): "לרבות ד׳ מלכיות" ("to include the four kingdoms").
18) Although the Egyptian exile itself was not because of a sin (according to the plain meaning*; see Shemos Rabbah 5:22: "העם הזה מה עשו" ("this people, what did they do?")), nevertheless Rashi brings here the verse "לא תשמור על חטאתי" (at least as a second point), because the Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles that come "because of our sins".
This is even better understood in light of Rashi on Shemos 2:14: "שהם ראויים לכך" ("that they are deserving of this"). Note also the saying of our Sages (Bereishis Rabbah, end of ch. 44, 21) that Avraham Avinu chose the subjugation of the exiles over Gehinnom ("subjugation" there includes also the subjugation of Egypt), and Gehinnom is repayment for sin.
*) In Zohar I, 81b: "כיון דנחת אברהם למצרים בלא רשו אשתעבידו בנוי במצרים ארבע מאה שנין" ("since Avraham went down to Egypt without permission, his children were enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years"). But Rashi on Lech 12:10 says: "הקב״ה . . משיאו לצאת ממנה" ("The Holy One, blessed be He . . prompted him to leave it"). See above, p. 63.
19) It can be said that this too is the reason (in the inner dimension of the matters) why, in the matter of repayment for sin, the verse interrupts (with the word "על"): since He does not want the repayment, He is at a distance from it. Similarly with "שמר את הדבר", since it led to "כי גר יהי׳ זרעך", since [OCR unclear]
**) See similarly the maamar beginning "על כן יאמרו המושלים" 5691 (Sefer HaMaamarim, Kuntreisim vol. 1), ch. 2: "דהן אמת דהצמצום הראשון הוא בשביל הגילוי . . גוף ועצם הצמצום הוא היפך הרצון, דרצון העליון הוא שיהי׳ גילוי אור" ("In truth, the first tzimtzum is for the sake of the revelation . . the very body and essence of the tzimtzum is the opposite of the Will, for the Supernal Will is that there be a revelation of light"); see there at length.
20) Lech 15:16.
21) Yirmiyahu 31:7.
22) Shoftim 19:8.
23) Lech 15:18ff.
Key Lesson
Exile came about in practice because of our sins, but in G‑d's intent the Redemption comes first, and exile exists only for its sake. Rashi hints at this by citing "Who waits for faithfulness" before "You will not wait over my sin". So a Jew in exile can live with hope, looking forward to the Redemption as Yaakov looked forward to the fulfillment of Yosef's dream.