Parshas Vayigash: 5786

“…And they arrived in Mitzrayim, Yaakov and all his children with him.” (Bereishis 46:6)

We’re all familiar with the ten nisyonos of Avraham Avinu. Yet Yaakov Avinu had at least as many nisyonos. Eisav, Lavan, Dinah, Yosef, Shimon, Eisav’s angel, the hunger, and now going down to Mitzrayim. Why don’t we count and mention the nisyonos of Yaakov? (Rabbi Yisrael Reisman)

ITwas an ordinary morning, until it was not. My friend’s daughter Chaya* was traveling to work with three other women. Suddenly a car from the opposite lane tried to pass another car and smashed head-on into their car. The collision was appalling, and their car was crushed. All four women were injured, but Chaya, sitting behind the driver, got the brunt of the injuries.

It took the police time to extricate the women. A helicopter was summoned, but as a paramedic carefully positioned Chaya on a stretcher, he wondered to himself, Why are we bothering? This woman is beyond help.

The Chasam Sofer at the end of parshas Vayeira tells us an extraordinary lesson that is applicable to each and every one of us. When is something a nisayon and when is it part of the mazal of life? When is something a particular challenge and when is it part of the “normal” challenges of life? Says the Chasam Sofer, a nisayon comes with a feeling of distance from Hashem — and absence of ruchniyus. When Avraham went to the Akeidah (22:4) it says that he saw HaMakom (Hashem) as if He were distant. Part of his nisayon was this feeling of distance from Hashem.

Yaakov Avinu had difficulties in life, but wherever he went, Hashem spoke to him. When he ran away from Eisav, Hashem said (28:15), “I am with you wherever you will go.” When Yaakov went down to Mitzrayim, Hashem says (46:3), “Don’t fear going down to Mitzrayim.”

Upon arrival at the hospital, the staff ran multiple tests. There are eight major parameters for brain death, and Chaya failed seven of them. Until suddenly, her eyelids fluttered; there was life! The medical team sprang into action.

There was severe damage to most of her internal organs as well as her back and brain. One of the first procedures done was an angioplasty to save her kidney, which had stopped functioning. While an invasive procedure, it was still better than a full surgery, and they hoped to recover up to ten percent of her kidney’s function. My friend gave the doctor a brachah that he should come out with good news.