For the Greater Good | Rabbi Shmuel Silber

Chumash Bereishis ends off in a relatively straightforward way. Yosef HaTzaddik dies at the age of 110 years. They embalmed him and they placed him in a casket in Egypt. And the great Tzaddik, the Lubavitcher Rebbe זצוק”ל, asks a simple question. He says: Yosef, why did you not command to be buried in Eretz Yisroel, in Eretz Canaan, like Yaakov did? Now, while it's true that Yosef said that when you leave this land, take my remains with you, the Rebbe asks: Why didn't Yosef say to his children, to his grandchildren, When I die, take my remains and bury me in Eretz Yisroel. Take me to מערת המכפלה, or to Shechem, or wherever they were going to bury Yosef. Yosef doesn't make a request like that. Why not? And the Rebbe says something so incredibly beautiful. He explains that in fact, Yosef wanted to be buried in Eretz Yisroel, in Eretz Canaan immediately upon his death, but Yaakov convinced him not to. Yaakov said: Yosef, I need you to remain here in Egypt. I need you to remain here with your children, with your grandchildren. There is a dark night ahead of us. A night of slavery, a night of servitude, a night of difficulties. And I need you to be here because your presence here, your presence in Egypt, will give Chizuk to your children. See, what the Lubavitcher was saying is that Yaakov told Yosef: Yosef, I need you to give up something that is important to you for the benefit of the Klal. Sometimes what it means to be a member of Am Yisroel, is that there’s something I want, there’s something I desire, but I have to give that up because the act of giving it up for the greater good of the Klal, is the greatest accomplishment, the pinnacle of accomplishment that one could ever reach. And if this is true when it comes to something noble and beautiful like being buried in Eretz Yisroel, then all the more so how true it is when we give up something that may indulge one of our senses but fundamentally erodes our spiritual progress. You know, when there's something I want to look at, something I desire to look at, a sense, an urge I want to indulge, and I say: You know what? I'm giving this up because I recognize that if I make this sacrifice, if I give up on this desire, if I pass on this desire, then that'll be a zechus, that'll be a credit for my people, then imagine how profound it is. Yosef was asked to give up on the dream of burial in Eretz Yisroel immediately after his death, for the benefit of the Klal. We are also called upon to make sacrifices in our daily lives, to give up certain wants, certain desires, to give up indulging certain things for the benefit of our people, as well. And when we find the strength to give up the things that we want, we benefit ourselves and we benefit all of Klal Yisroel.