A friend once explained to me delivering a good speech is like flying an airplane. Get the passengers from one place to another by starting slowly, gaining speed, taking off and cruising at the right altitude for most of the time, and concluding with a smooth, hopefully inspiring, and memorable, landing. (And aim for no delays!)
This week’s Torah reading marks the conclusion of the Book of Genesis. It is customary for the congregation to rise for the reading of the final verse and then festively declare in unison “Chazak, Chazak, Venischazek! Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!” We do this at the conclusion of all the Torah’s five books respectively, and four of them conclude with inspiring messages of divine revelation, communication, and miracles. But the concluding verse of Genesis seems anticlimactic at best. Genesis contains the stories of our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and their families and concludes with the deaths of Yaakov and his favorite and most impactful son Yosef. Although both passed away in Egypt, their burials were vastly different. Yaakov was buried in Israel in one of the most well-attended royal funerals in history. Yosef’s body, on the other hand, was stolen by the Egyptians, placed in an iron casket, and sunken in the Nile River. He was only discovered right before the exodus and ultimately buried in Israel close to 200 years after his passing. This tragic and frustrating episode is recorded in the concluding verse of Genesis and is the prelude to our festive declaration of “Chazak!” What’s the hidden message here? Although the Israelites experienced peace and prosperity when they first arrived in Egypt, they were no longer in their natural spiritual habitat, the Holy Land, and the 210 years of Egyptian exile started upon their arrival. Yosef’s passing 71 years later marked the beginning of a dark period of unbearable slavery and persecution. Yaakov and Yosef were the first Jewish leaders in exile, and each one respectively foretold of the eventual redemption before their passing. But the two of them went on to serve as two different inspirations for the Jews as they weathered the storms of exile. Yaakov served as a guiding force for his exiled children from the spiritual safety of being buried in the Holy Land. Like an air traffic controller in the control tower guiding the aircraft from the safety of the ground. Yosef remained in exile together with his people, serving as their spiritual anchor in the putrid environment of Egyptian moral depravity and idolatry. Like the pilot navigating the aircraft from the cockpit. The Rebbe explained on several occasions that throughout the long history of Jewish leaders, there were those who merited to be buried in the Holy Land and those who remained in the diaspora. None of the Chabad Rebbes were interred in Israel in order to continue serving as the crucial inspiration we need to safely navigate through this turbulent exile to the final destination of redemption. The final verse of Genesis is the source of the crucial strength we need in exile, until the arrival of Moshiach and the onset of the imminent redemption. Chazak!