erasing failure

The Sefas Emes in Parshas VaYechi writes that the fact that the parsha is stuma is not a symbolic reflection of the fact that Ya’akov’s attempt to foresee the geulah was blocked or that Klal Yisrael was being blocked in by the galus.  The parsha being stuma is the cause of that block.  Torah does not reflect what happens in reality; reality reflects things as they appear in Torah.

The first Rashi in Devarim tells us that Moshe Rabeinu only alluded to Klal Yisrael’s history of rebelliousness instead of openly giving them rebuke because he wanted to preserve their sense of dignity.  “Satam es ha’devarim,” Moshe sealed up his words and did not spell out the people’s shortcomings.  R’ Yechiel Michel Feinstein explains here as well that this is not just a rhetorical or literary device.  Words of Torah create reality.  By not speaking of the people’s failures, the effects to those failures is tempered; they are only b’derech remez part of our history, but otherwise no longer exist.