Shnayim Yomi - Vayigash - Shishi - #6 - Rabbi Mordechai Schiffman - How We Remember the Past

For the sixth aliyah of paras, I would like to share with you an insight that I wrote in my book psyched for Torah. When we think about the past, there are facts about what happened, but there's also interpretation. Psychology distinguishes between past negative and past positive time perspectives. A past negative perspective focuses on trauma, loss, failure. It is associated with rumination, with depression. A past positive perspective does not deny difficulty but emphasizes survival, protection and meaning. This orientation supports engagement in the present and planning for the future. Yakov's life included several significant traumas. He had threats from Asov, exploitations by love, family conflict, Rachel's death, and the presumed loss of Yoseph. When Parro asks his age, Yakov responds that his life has been short and bad. This is an explicitly past negative framing. A medish quoted by Dasan critiques Yakov's response. Yakov should have shifted his perspective. He was saved from Asov and Lavan. Dino was returned. Yoseph was alive. The measure states that for each word Yakov spoke, a year was taken from his life. Rabbi Dr. Abraham Jorski asks that this seems to be in contradiction to a different major. Another majorizes Yakov for saying during Yoseph's disappearance that Hashem turned away from him. Yet that statement carries no punishment. Why is Jacob accountable here but not there? Rabbi Tski explains that there's a difference between experiencing a perspective during suffering and a perspective after suffering. During suffering the acute pain, people may not be able to be held to the same standard. But after resolution, after safety, a shift in perspective is expected. Yakov is held accountable not for suffering, but for how he evaluated the past once the suffering has passed. We cannot judge our forefathers, nor should we judge how people respond to trauma. But the badish presents a clear lesson. To the extent that we can shift from a past negative to a past positive perspective, we function better in the present and plan more effectively for the future. As we saw earlier in the para, this is precisely the capacity that Yoseph demonstrates.