parsha stuma

Parshas Va'Yechi is a parsha stuma, a closed parsha, meaning there is no space break between the end of last week's parsha and the beginning of this week's parsha.  Rashi explains (there are many parshiyot stumot in the Torah -- see Mizrachi as to why Rashi comments on it here) that the Torah is hinting to us that the hearts of Bnei Yisrael became closed, as the descent of Yaakov and his sons to Egypt marked the beginning of exile.  As we've discussed before, it's not that the Torah is reflecting the reality of Bnei Yisrael's now experiencing exile -- aderaba, the Torah is what creates reality.  The exile began and the hearts of Bnei Yisrael closed because the parsha of Torah here is sealed and closed. 

Rashi at the beginning of Vayikra tells us that the parsha breaks gave Moshe Rabeinu an opportunity for "revach l'hisbonein bein parsha l'parsha," a chance to pause and contemplate and reflect on what he had just been taught.  Galus is a parsha stuma with no break; galus does not give us any opportunity to pause and reflect.  (See Meslias Yesharim on midas ha'zehirus.)

The Maharasham, Rav Shalom Schwadron, in his Techeiles Mordechai, quotes the kabbalistc teaching that every Jew corresponds to a letter in Torah.  Yisrae"l is an acronym = Yesh Shishim Ribo Osiyos La'torah. (See Pnei Yehoshua Kid 30 and this post.)  What about those Jews who are unaffiliated, disinterested, and who have no connection?  What is their letter?  Maharasham explains that their cheilek is the blank spaces.  (The gemara in Shabbos writes that even the blank spaces of klaf in a sefer Torah have kedusha.)

We are in galus so that we can learn to reconnect with Hashem.  The parsha of galus is a parsha stuma because the goal is to bring us ultimately to the ideal state where we are all connected, where each one of us is a letter -- no blank spaces.

The Midrash offers another explanation of the stimas ha'parsha that is almost the opposite of the one quoted by Rashi.  According to the Midrash the closed parsha teaches us that the tzaros that had plagued Yaakov for so many years were now closed off and he and the shevatim were able to live in tranquility.  These final years were the good years which Yaakov had pined for for so long.

Shem m'Shmuel quotes Ramban (in his hakdamah) that the entire Torah is the name of Hashem.  Chazal darshen the requirement to say birchas haTorah from the pasuk "Ki shem Hashem ekra..."  When you read pesukim of Torah, you are reading Hashem's name.  We can't absorb a giluy of Elokus in such a direct, intense way, so the name is broken up into a code of words, pesukim, parshiyos that have a different, superficial meaning that we can digest.    

The gemara writes according to one view that the last 8 pesukim of the Torah describing his own death were written by Moshe "b'dema."  Some interpret that to mean he wrote it in tears.  Shem m'Shmuel suggests (I believe the GR"A says this as well) that the word "dema" here is from the same root as dmai -- a mixture.  When Torah was taught to Moshe it was given in chunks -- pesukim, parshiyos, etc. -- with breaks in between to digest and contemplate. Even Moshe could not absorb a straight giluy of shem Hashem and he had to have it coded into parshiyos and pesukim.  However, in the moments before his death Moshe reached a level where he was able to absorb Torah revealed as shem Hashem.  He received those last 8 pesukim as a jumble of letters with no breaks in between -- an unbroken stream of revelation.  This was Torah as shem Hashem.

Here too, our parsha is stuma with no breaks.  Yaakov's final years were on a pinnacle of ruchniyus where he could absorb Torah with no breaks needed to reflect -- he absorbed everything as an unbroken stream of direct revelation, Torah as shem Hashem in its most intense and direct form.