Vayechi: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful insight for the weekly parsha 'Vayechi': an explanation from the Rav of Jerusalem Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld z"l, why is Parshas Vayechi 'closed' [stumah]? Delivered at…

00:02 Speaker 1 “Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt.” Rashi notes: “This parsha is closed.” What does a closed parsha mean? In the Torah scroll, there’s no gap here. Right? There are open parshiyos and closed parshiyos, different ways of writing them. When there’s no gap, it’s a closed parsha. Rashi explains why this parsha is closed. He gives several explanations: the eyes of the Jewish people were closed because of the bondage; Yaakov wanted to reveal when the end would come, but it was concealed from him. In other words, the way the parsha is written hints at these things. There’s a very nice explanation from the rabbi of Jerusalem about why it’s closed here. Since there’s no gap, you read it all in one breath. How does Parshas Vayigash end? It says, “They were fruitful and multiplied greatly,” and immediately begins, “Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt.” So, he says, that’s the meaning: because “they were fruitful and multiplied greatly,” “Yaakov lived.” Yaakov really lived—every day he had a bris, every day a bar mitzvah, every day a wedding. And in Jerusalem, when there’s a simchah, you wear a shtreimel. So all week long he never took the shtreimel off his head, because every day he had a simchah. That’s why it’s a closed parsha, he says: you read it all together—“They were fruitful and multiplied greatly. Yaakov lived.” Yaakov had, as they say, a simchah every day.

01:28 Speaker 2 Yes.