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Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman "
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Our father is presented to by his son and asked by the regent for his age. He does not answer in the manner of a guest in a foreign land: short and to the point. Rather he gives an expansive response supplying not only the quantity of his years but observations on their quality as well. Over the years, this response always puzzled me. Had not coached his brothers what to say during their initial interview with ?Isn't that a sign that caution was advised? Does not the entire episode have the feel of an ofcial audience with ushered into 's presence and then immediately conducted out? Was it prudent for to volunteer information for which he had not been asked? What was the patriarch's intent? Perhaps an implicit appeal for sympathy and gentle treatment? I am certainly not the rst to ask. The " "questioned 's behavior about seven centuries ago: .
I cannot fathom the reason of our elderly father: what message is there in complaining to the king?

Yaakov Avinu and the Tragic Sense of Life

The "further poses a question that hadn't occurred to me: ? " "
What does he mean by saying "[my days] haven't reach the days of my fathers' lifespans" for he might still reach and then surpass them?

"then answers his questions: . . .

It seems to me that Yaakov Avinu must have been completely gray and appeared quite elderly. Pharoah was astonished by his advanced age for most men of his time did not live so long. He therefore asked him, "how many days have you lived for I have not seen someone as elderly as you?" in his entire kingdom.

Following the '"s approach, the rest of the patriarch's response now makes sense: .
Yaakov answered then that his days were 130 years and he should not be astonished by them since that are not very much compared to the years of his ancestors who lived longer. Because they were aficted with toil and melancholy he was completely gray and appeared very old.

The exchange between and , then, is occasioned by the patriarch's aged appearance, something the Egyptian leader did not routinely encounter.

informs him that not only does he look older than he actually is due to the turmoil of his life but his years are not remarkable compared to those of his own ancestors. Later ,including ,' "the author of the writing in his , challenge the '"s exposition for one simple reason. In the words of the : , , . .
These things, however, are not at all reasonable, for where do we see that Pharoah was amazed and Yaakov realized it? These interpretations are arbitrary without any foundation or source. And furthermore when one is standing before a king, one shouldn't consider or speak about what was left unspoken.

'"s exposition has the advantage of accounting for all the details of 's response; it has the disadvantage of presuming a question in 's mind that is not even indirectly implied in the text. This is what the nds difcult in the '"s interpretation and what takes him in another direction. 's question might have been phrased more economically. Instead of asking simply "? ," he added another word that appears to be superuous: The and others locate a reference to the quality of 's life in the wording of 's question: , ) ( , . , , .
And so, if Pharoah had asked him "how many are the days of your years" (and not "the years of your life" he would certainly have answered him only what he asked, i.e., the number alone and no more. However, when he asked him "how many are the days of the years of your life," he in fact wants to know also the quality of his life and the character of the years.

The has provided what he argued the "lacked: an indication in the text itself that was interested in more than just 's numerical age. By asking about his life and not only his days, signaled an interest in knowing about the nature of his life. There is not only a superuous word, ,on which to base his interpretation. The also nds a in the Talmud for his interpretation of the word as "the good life." Toward the end of the seventh of ,the notes the same superuous word in : For they [the commandments] will add you length of days and years of life and peace. The text could have easily omitted the word and merely promised for observance of the : ?
Now are there years of life and years that are not of life?

. :
R. Elazar said: this [years of life] means a man's years that are turned from bad to good.

When speaks of "years of life," then, it means the good life, the years brimming with vitality and promise. sensed this meaning in the words of the . The nds in his answer to the 's question a precendent for his own interpretation of the exchange between and . Asked about the quality of his life, our father responded candidly and with sadness. What makes these words particularly poignant for me is that they violate the natural order of things. We always want more for our children than we ourselves enjoyed. It is a parental instinct that children do not understand until they themselves become parents. The life of was more tumultuous and lled with a greater measure of bitterness than the lives of his father and grandfather .This can evoke feelings of regret in any parent. Many feel that the decade ending in a few days on the secular calendar, the 2000's ,has been one that was turned for us from good to evil. Islamicism and its associated terror movements have had much to do with the perception in many quarters that our children's lives will not be as good as ours have been. A scourge was loosed upon the world, one that Jews already knew well. A tragedy of the past decade is the sense that humanity has slipped a notch or three and that life will never be as good or as safe as it once was. With the collapse of the nancial system and now the burdening of the American taxpayer by a return of the welfare state, some see nancial clouds on the horizon that will darken the skies over our children and grandchildren for decades to come. The future may not only bring a dimunition of our sense of collective security; it may also usher in an age of diminished prosperity. For me, it is hard to ignore the impending sense of limited opportunity I perceive at this juncture, given my experience in the nancial world and my travels in Europe. And yet I remember that previous generations before me also agonized over the future and what awaited their progeny. 's words are the response of an elder who perforce sees a world of narrowing possibility. My own choices become fewer as I myself age. When I was a young man, everything seemed possible. Such is the way of life. At the very end of his life, gathered his children to recount what would ultimately happen in the end of days:
And Yaakov summoned his children, saying: Gather together and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days.

And so I draw strength from the fact that I, too, am a direct descendant of ; if my descendants live through times of bitter disappointment and even tragedy, they are nonetheless destined for redemption.
These sichos are published by students of Rav Ozer Glickman shlit"a. We can be reached at ravglickmanshiur@gmail.com Rav Glickman can be reached directly at ozer.glickman@yu.edu

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