By Rabbi Dovid Markel
This week’s parsha begins with the words (Bereishis, 47:28), “And Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years.”
The Medrash (Bereishis Rabba, 96:1) explains that these years were the calmest years of Yaakov’s life. Indeed, the commentators (Bal HaTurim, ibid) explain that the best years of Yaakov’s life were these years in Egypt.
When the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem of Lubavitch was a child, he studied this verse and was bothered by it.
How can it be that the best years of Yaakov’s life were in the land of Egypt and not in Israel?
Upon asking his grandfather, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the founder of the Chabad movement concerning this, he explained that the family of Israel spent their time in Egypt studying Torah.
When we study Torah, we come close to the Almighty to the point that those years can be the best years.
This is indeed the purpose of exile. Instead of being adversely affected by the negativity of our surroundings, we are to instead use it as a catalyst to come closer to G-d.
When we study Torah and connect with G-d in our darkest times, we transform our worst times into the best years of our lives.
