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Why does Rashi (רש"י) say the slavery began when Yaakov died, yet elsewhere say it began when Levi died—85 years later? The shiur explains that Vayechi is a "stumah" (unsealed parsha) because nothing changed visibly. When the Jews accepted Egyptian citizenship after Yaakov's death, they became legally owned by Pharaoh—the Egyptian model of citizenship. This ownership itself was the tzarah, transforming free men into property and ending their obligation in mitzvos like bris milah.
Rabbi Zweig addresses an apparent contradiction in Rashi (רש"י) regarding when the Egyptian slavery began. Rashi on Parshas Vayechi states that when Yaakov died, "their eyes and hearts were sealed" (nisht'tmu eineihem v'libam) from the tzarah of the enslavement (tzoras hashibud) which began at that time. However, in Parshas Vayeira (perek 6, pasuk 7), Rashi explains that the Torah (תורה) records Levi's years specifically to teach us that there was no slavery as long as any of the original brothers were alive. Since Levi was 52 when Yaakov died and lived to 137, this means the slavery didn't begin until 85 years after Yaakov's death. The resolution lies in understanding what Rashi means by calling Vayechi a "Parshas Stumah." This term doesn't refer to the technical halachic category of stumah (a nine-letter separation), but rather Rashi's own description of how this parsha appears in the Torah text—it runs directly into the previous pasuk with no separation whatsoever. This is unique among all the parshiyos in the Torah. The visual presentation teaches a fundamental lesson: there was no visible change in how the Egyptians treated the Jews when Yaakov died.
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Why does the Midrash connect Pharaoh's expulsion of the Jews to the mitzvah of shiluach hakan? The shiur develops a chiddush that Pharaoh's sin wasn't only drowning the children, but the insensitivity of expelling the parents afterward. The deeper analysis reveals that Pharaoh may have valued the Jews greatly and wanted to control them—making his expulsion an act of tremendous cruelty, not liberation.
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Parshas Vayechi; Rashi on Bereishis 47:28 and Shemos 6:7
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