Parshas Vayeitzei starts off with Yaakov
leaving home in order to escape Esav. The first pasuk says, “וַיֵּצֵא יַעֲקֹב
מִבְּאֵר שָׁבַע וַיֵּלֶךְ חָרָנָה” “And Yaakov departed
from Beer-Sheba and went to Haran” (Bereishis 28:10). Rashi asks why does
the pasuk have to say that Yaakov left Beer-Sheba as well as telling us that he
went to Haran? Why can’t it just say where he was going, we already know where
he left from? It must be that his actual departure is also important. He
explains that when a tzaddik resides in a city, the city has an extra
magnificence and grandeur. When he leaves, that special atmosphere leaves as
well. Therefore, the pasuk makes special mention of his leaving to show the effect
it had on Beer-Sheba.
The Kli Yakar asks that Avraham and
Yitzchak were also very righteous individuals who had also left many towns in
their lifetimes, but nowhere in the Torah does it say anything about the effect
their departures had on the cities they left. Shouldn’t their departures have
had as big an impact as Yaakov’s? He answers that there are two ways of looking
at this idea. One way to look at it is that in their times, Avraham and
Yitzchak were the only tzaddikim around and therefore, their departure surely
had a huge impact on those cities. The idea is so obvious that the pasuk does
not feel the need to mention this. However, when Yaakov was leaving Beer-Sheba,
he was leaving Yitzchak behind in the city, so perhaps the effect of his
leaving was not as big a deal. Therefore, the pasuk has to come and tell me
specifically that it did.
The second way of looking at it is the
opposite of the first. Really only Yaakov’s departure made an impact while
Avraham and Yitzchak’s did nothing. As we said earlier, when Avraham and
Yitzchak left a town, they did not leave any tzaddikim behind. The wicked
people who remained probably did not mind them leaving, in fact, they were
probably only too happy to see them go! So in that sense, their departures did
not make a big impact on the city. However, when Yaakov left, the tzaddikim he
left behind, his parents, were very sad to see him go as the city had now lost
the merit and protection of another tzaddik. (Besides for the fact that he was
their son and they were sad to see him leave.) The difference between having
even just one more tzaddik in a city is immeasurable in terms of the extra merit
and splendor which the city receives.
For the sake of diversity, let’s include
the explanation of the Ohr HaChaim. He says that Yaakov’s leaving from Beer-Sheba
was even more important than his going to Haran! He explains that even though
Yitzchak had told him to go to Haran, the real purpose of his leaving Beer-Sheba
in the first place was to escape Esav’s wrath after he had stolen the brachos
from him. Therefore, once he left, his mission had been accomplished and therefore,
the pasuk mentions his departure since that was really the main part of his
journey.
Shabbat Shalom!
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