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Why does the Torah (תורה) say "Vayeitzei Yaakov miBeersheva" when he left from Hebron? Rashi (רש"י) explains a tzaddik leaving makes an impression—hod, ziv, and hadar—but this seems untrue; gedolim die without public notice. The shiur develops that Yaakov, unlike Shem and Ever, actively engaged in kiruv, creating relationships that gave meaning to his departure. The Jewish mission is not just Noahide law observance, but fostering the world's relationship with God.
The shiur opens with Rashi (רש"י)'s famous comment on "Vayeitzei Yaakov miBeersheva vayeilech Haranah"—that when a tzaddik leaves a place, it makes an impression (roshem) of hod, ziv, and hadar. Rabbi Zweig raises three fundamental difficulties with this Rashi. First, why does the Torah (תורה) need to state both "Vayeitzei" (he left) and the destination? Second, this Rashi appears in two other places (Rus), making it repetitive. Third, and most fundamentally, the statement doesn't seem empirically true—when Rav Moshe Feinstein died in New York, despite being one of the greatest gedolim, it made no impression on the non-Jewish population of the city. Why should Yaakov's departure be different? The shiur proceeds to analyze the apparent location issue. If Yitzchok lived in Hebron, the verse should say "Vayeitzei Yaakov meChevron." The answer must be that "Vayeitzei Yaakov miBeersheva" refers to his leaving after fourteen years in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever, which was located in Beersheva. This was the world's only center of Noahide law study—the "Oxford and Cambridge" of its time, where anyone with questions about the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach had to travel.
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Bereishis 28:10 (Parshas Vayeitzei)
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