“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel” is an expression we use when, while we may be going through difficult times at this moment, we can see good times ahead. There is light at the end.
This seems to be a positive lifter-upper.
However, this adage should be given a second look. Although this saying sounds positive, it is actually a pretty pessimistic outlook on life. Just think of how we are referring to the here and now: We are saying that what we are going through is actually bad, yet we should keep in mind that in the end it will all be good. Deal with the reality, because it will get better.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, teaches us to look at life a little differently.
The portion starts off with the words “Vayechi Yaakov” meaning “and Jacob lived.” But Jacob only lives the last seventeen years of his life in Egypt, so “lived” is an over-representation of his life as a whole. Even though the words make sense within this verse, to call the whole Torah portion, Vayechi, after his seventeen years doesn’t fit well—especially when we keep in mind that the majority of the portion talks about after Jacob’s death, not his life.
So then why is the portion called “and Jacob lived?”
The Torah is teaching us a profound lesson here.
Although Jacob only had seventeen good years of his life – the period when his whole family lived in peace and harmony together in Egypt – this time represented his whole life. It was not that “in the end it all worked out.” All along he experienced light even in the darkest moments of his life, and that is why he was always alive and why his final years were full of life—he brought the light of all his years to a crescendo in his last seventeen years.
This is also why the Torah doesn’t mention Jacob’s death, to teach us that just as his children continued living on with his message, so, too, is he still alive. His ideas and attitudes continue even after his passing.
Jacob saw the light in the dark tunnel of his life, not only at the end of it.
We, too, should be constantly looking for the good in life, even when it seems dark and bleak.